Tuesday 17 August

As it is a bit brighter today, I wind my way towards the Eye Cemetery at Aignish, 4 miles east of Stornoway, to retake some gravestone pictures and look for new ones. The total harvest is 50, of which 17 are new ones that I did not discover on previous visits. The Eye Cemetery is a large burial ground, and on previous occasions I may have been clockwatching. This time round I had left myself plenty of time (between 2.45 and 4.15) to criss-cross the graveyard. I should also mention that across the way from the Eye (more correctly: Aoidh) Cemetery lies the ancient church of Aoidh, which is now a roofless ruin. It has its own graveyard, which is in rather a sad state of maintenance. I questioned it with a local man, in charge of the Eye Church Trust, but he advised me that strimming the grass could damage the gravestones, and presently securing and restoring the church building has a higher priority than keeping the grass down. It was a bit of a contrast with the Eye Cemetery, where a man with a mower was busy keeping the place in order.


Old Cemetery, Aoidh Church (Aignish)


View from the cemetery east to Knock and Swordale


Left of the gravestone: man with a mower


Aignish


Muirneag and the villages of Broadbay