Sunday 8 August

Overcast and increasingly breezy as the day wore on. As I'm typing this, the rain has commenced. Nonetheless, I took my dad on a walk to the Arnish Lighthouse, 4 miles away on the other side of the bay. Takes an hour and a half, going through the Castle Grounds and down the Arnish road. We had a look round the lighthouse and the keeper's cottage; its occupant (a private person, not associated with the Northern Lighthouse Board), died recently. The internal shutters were all closed. The grass around the lighthouse was not cut. We had a long, leisurely lunch nearby, then went to the gun emplacements just to the south of the lighthouse. These were erected in the Second World War, but are presently slowly rotting away. A visit to Charlie's Monument closed proceedings. We returned to Stornoway in 90 minutes again. Will put up pics later.