On Tuesday July 22, we had our longest day of hiking (about 12 km) from the beach at Huisinis. Huisinis, pronounced hoosh-ih-noosh (or something like that!) is a word derived from Norse which means “house headland”. An apt description as the community consists of four houses at the end of a single track road.

On the way to Huisinish we stopped at the workshop of Donald John Mackay, a weaver of Harris tweed. In order to be called Harris Tweed, the fabric must be woven on either Harris or Lewis. Donald has been weaving his whole life and learned the craft from his Father. The colours and patterns of the tweed are very much taken from the landscape around the island; the browns, greens and purples seen in the plants and rocks of the hills.

After marveling over the beautiful tweed, we were off to the beach at Huisinis to start our trek. Given my panic-attack-vertigo-freak-out on the hike over the Quiraing, our guide made sure I knew that we were hiking over a mountain with a rocky, steep path and gave me the option of staying behind on the beach. Those of you who know me will know what I chose. After saying I wouldn’t willingly hike over a mountain again … yup, this time I did it willingly! Happy to report that while the trek was physically challenging, with the help of my amazing sister and a walking pole, I made it over the hill. It probably helped that we were headed for a beautiful looking beach so I was able to focus on that as my goal. In the first photo below, you can see the mountain on the right, with the beach off in the distance on the left.

Having achieved the beach, we took a short lunch break and then went around the headland of the beach and climbed up to a loch. Truly a beautiful spot, with the freshwater loch butting up against the salt water of the sea. In addition to lots of sheep, we were lucky enough to spot a red deer.

The trek up the hill from the loch back to the mountain path was definitely the hardest part. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could do it but having no choice I just tried to quiet the voice in my head saying “I can’t believe you did this willingly” and keep on putting one foot in front of the other. It was hot, humid, boggy, muddy and buggy – flies, midges and ticks! Making it to the top was a very proud moment – a hot and sweaty, proud moment!!

After the trek up the boggy hill from the loch, the hike back over the mountain seemed pretty easy! I truly realized how far I’d come (mentally and physically not geographically) when we reached a point in the path where we discovered that the people in the lead had gone off the hiking trail and we were, in fact, about 20 feet below the path following a sheep trail. In order to get back on the trail to get around the headland, we had to scramble straight up the hill. No path, just rocks. No problem!

Back at the van, we enjoyed the cake that our B&B hostess had packed for us and then headed back “home” for the best shower ever!!!!