Friday 25th July

With clear skies and temperatures in the high 20s we were assured that this wasn't typical Hebridean conditions.

Initially we'd thought that we might just take a bus to somewhere out of town to see something more of Lewis. Taking to someone working in the harbour we were easily corrected that we'd see a lot more if we hired a car - including a distillery that we hadn't known about.

So although we were starting late, we found a car available and headed west. We very much made our plans as we were on the way, but decided on first visiting the Iron Age broch Dun Carloway, the blackhouse village at Gearrannan and the standing stones of Callandish - these all being within a few miles of each other and relatively quick to visit.

One strange phenomenon was that although it was mostly a warm and sunny day, we found patches on the west coast which were swathed in a sea fog rolling in. At that point, it became a cold and damp day.

We then headed down the west coast past Uig to find the Red River, or Abhainn Dearg Distillery. This is probably one of Scotland's newest distilleries having only started in 2008. It was great to see a small, entrepreneurial operation after the big corporate visits. Naturally they only have a 3 year old bottling - just old enough to be called Whisky - available. I confess I found it a bit rough at this age.

We then found a large, almost empty sandy beach and attempted a swim. On such a warm day it wasn't too cold - although the beach is so large and shallow that swimming was hard simply because you had to wade out miles to get enough depth.