Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Arnol Motors
(
018510-710548;
www.arnolmotors.com
; Arnol, Lewis; Mon-Sat)
Lewis Car Rentals
(
01851-703760;
www.lewis-car-rental.co.uk
;
52 Bayhead St, St-
ornoway; Mon-Sat)
Lewis (Leodhais)
POP 18,600
The northern part of Lewis is dominated by the desolate expanse of the Black Moor, a
vast, undulating peat bog dimpled with glittering lochans, seen clearly from the Storno-
way- Barvas road. But Lewis' finest scenery is on the west coast, from Barvas southwest
to Mealista, where the rugged landscape of hill, loch and sandy strand is reminiscent of
the northwestern Highlands. The Outer Hebrides' most evocative historic sites - Callanish
Standing Stones, Dun Carloway and Arnol Blackhouse Museum - are also to be found
here.
The old blackhouses of this region may have been abandoned, but an increasing num-
ber are being restored as holiday homes. Most crofts still follow a traditional pattern dat-
ing back to medieval times, with narrow strips of land, designed to give all an equal share
of good and bad soil, running from the foreshore (with its valuable seaweed, used as fertil-
iser), across the machair (the grassy sand dunes that provide the best arable land) to the
poorer sheep-grazing land on hill or moor. Today few crofts are economically viable, so
most islanders supplement their income with fishing, tweed-weaving and work on oil rigs
and fish farms.
KEEPING THE SABBATH
Religion still plays a major role in island life, especially on predominantly Protestant Lewis and Harris, where the
Sabbath is still widely observed by members of the 'free churches'.
The Calvinist Free Church of Scotland (known as the 'Wee Frees') and the even more fundamentalist Free
Presbyterian Church of Scotland (the 'Wee Wee Frees'), which split from the established Church of Scotland in
1843 and 1893 respectively, are deeply conservative, permitting no ornaments, organ music or choirs in church.
Their ministers deliver uncompromising sermons (usually in Gaelic) from central pulpits and precentors lead the
congregation in unaccompanied but fervent psalm singing. Visitors are welcome to attend services, but due re-
spect is essential.
The Protestants of the Outer Hebrides have succeeded in maintaining a distinctive fundamentalist approach to
their religion, with Sunday being devoted largely to religious services, prayer and Bible reading. On Lewis and
Harris, the last bastion of Sabbath observance in the UK, almost everything closes down on a Sunday. In fact, St-
