A day away in Scalpay

In Gaelic: Sgalpaigh an island that is connected to Harris by a bridge which was what sold me. Plus Danny wanted to spend his birthday away from Tarbert and our friend Gemma was nice enough to share her humble abode with us. Which is greatly appreciated, since I wouldn't even know where to start if I was trying to find accommodations in Scalpay. 

Only a 20 minute bus ride away the driver dropped us off at the door, since they actually can accommodate to the residents there. (I only thought the St.Albert buses at home did this) I wiki'd how many people lived in Scalpay and we got a total of about 350 give or take 30 people. The little island was cut off from the word except by boat for ages then they built a bridge connecting the island to Harris. 

We went for a quick walk out to the park that closes at 9pm before our nice homemade meal. I had a wonderful evening out at Scalpay since it was so peaceful and remote, then again I think you would get island fever if you live to long in a place like this.

In the morning we started off with a coffee like we always do, then we popped over to the only shop on Scalpay. This building has been split to be shared with a cafe with shakes, hot beverages, cakes and sandwiches. I believe this is the only cafe on the island.

Ready for our trek out to the lighthouse (the very first one build on the outer Hebrides) we took a very leisurely walk down the road, well the only road. On our way out we met two lovely dogs that followed us all the way. A white very energetic boxer and a old west highland terrier with a lot of spunk left. Danny and I named them Bruno and Todd, I can't imagine having so much fun with two wandering dogs but they were great company.

Bruno chased all the sheep in sight away and Todd happily toddled along behind us, Danny really took a shine to Todd and even carried him on the uphills since he was panting pretty loud.

In the end we didn't make it all the way to the light house since we didn't know the rabbit path and wasn't going to traps through the very very muddy and questionable bogs to get to it. Plus both our friends has the whitest of fur...well not any longer.

I almost forgot about the abandoned houses along the way, I only went into one of them since Danny was keeping our new found friends company. I don't know when they were abandoned but I found remnants of beds, a large book shelf, a suitcase and even a TV. I did explore a bit watching every step I took since it looked the floor boards were going to collapse to find where they went to the bathroom. I didn't see any signs of a toliet, tub or stove...

Backtracking back into town and dropped off our new found friends at their home, spoke with the owners to find out that their names were Troy and Archie. Now I am even considering dog walking as a part time job I loved walking those two so much. 

Time to celebrate the rest of Danny's birthday back in Tarbert.