The Stornoway Way

This past weekend (3/25- 3/27) I took part in the Arcadia Bookclub trip to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Western Scotland. The trip was based on a book by Kevin MacNeil called the Stornoway Way. I don’t want to give the story away, but the purpose of the trip was to see the setting of Stornoway and to make our own interpretations of the area compared to those in the book.

It began Friday afternoon with a train ride to Edinburgh and a lovely lunch at the Beehive Inn on the Grassmarket. We were supposed to discuss the book with the author himself, but due to unfortunate circumstances he could not make it. Instead, the discussion was lead by Dr. Alex Thomson, a professor at Edinburgh University. From there we took a bus to the Edinburgh Airport where our flight was delayed an hour- the perfect opportunity to get to know other students studying through Arcadia within Scotland and Wales.

We arrived Friday evening at the Heb Hostel (which I highly recommend) and we wandered around for some dinner. The group split between Indian and Thai restaurants, which received good reviews all around, and of course, some much need sleep.

Saturday morning began early with meeting our tour guide.I personally thought that the island was beautiful! We were greeted by a rainbow over the Lews Castle and bright sunshine. We spent the day travelling by coach bus to various places all over the island. We saw a thatch village, a Pict house, the Callanish stones (like Stonehenge, but better), and so much more. It was a long, but exciting day. We then returned to the hostel to eat dinner and change for the evening.

Later that evening we went to a local storytelling show. There were two stories told, some improv singing, and two short films created locally. The group agreed that the videos and stories were ok, but the improv singing was not to most people’s taste.

Sunday we had the option of attending a Gaelic church service. To my surprise, more than half of the group went to the service. At the church we were greeted warmly by the pastor and the congregation. They loved that we wanted to hear their language. Afterwards we made lunch (EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays there, except the churches) and went for a walk.

The walk was about 4 miles around the ground of Lews Castle. It went uphill and there were great views of the port and town. It was good to be outside in the nice weather- it did rain a little, but not enough to get us down.

The trip concluded with a flight to Glasgow and a coach to the Glasgow train stations and Edinburgh. I personally separated from the group at the Glasgow airport to catch another flight to Dublin. It was a nerve- racking process for me because I only had an hour to get my bag, get from arrivals to departures, check- in, check my bag, and get to my gate. Fortunately, we arrived in Glasgow 15 minutes early, and I even had time to eat dinner.

A summer home used by the families of farmers.

Keith and I posing in our AU t-shirts 

Lews Castle

Pict House

FYSAE Stirling, Spring 2011 @ Callanish Standing Stones

I am now sitting in my hostel in Dublin and tomorrow morning will begin phase 2 of Spring Break, a 6 day tour of Ireland :)