Van Life Day 6 - Aird Uig

Today we went to Aird Uig where Mr C was stationed from 1962-64 on the radar early warning unit. It is shocking that the MOD never cleared up after it abandoned the site in 1964. The had huge towns like Rheindahlen in Germany and when they left the Germans rightly wanted the land back in the condition in which it was taken. It must have cost a bomb to comply. The domestic site in my blip held only about 150 men and the bottom picture shows the decay. It was the building where Mr C’s billet was. We went inside. There was a lot of rubbish left from squatters. The building in the top photo had been reclaimed and is inhabited by Fiona, who runs the cafe where we had a delicious lunch of homemade beetroot quiche, salad and bread. We bought a brownie to take away. She introduced us to Norman who was 86. He also lives in a reclaimed building. He was interested to hear about the old days. Not many people living there now knew the site as it was. I took photos of various buildings and Mr C was able to tell them which was the library, the NAAFI, the stores etc.

We also met Amanda who has her workshop up at Gallen Head where the technical site, comprising the operational block and the radar heads, was situated. From there you can on a clear day (not today) see the Flannan Isles and St Kilda. She showed us round where she makes her cement replicas of the Uig Chessmen. She only had a grey beserkar for sale there so advised us to go to the community shop which had a black one. It was £10 more but the excess goes to the community so we were happy with our purchase.

The bread van hadn’t arrived when we got to the shop so we carried on to Uig Sands where the ancient walrus ivory chessmen had been found in 1831. I think a couple of pieces might still be on display in Stornoway. A few are in Edinburgh but the most, 82, are in the British Museum in London. It is thought they were made in Norway around 12th century during the 450 year period when Norway ruled the Western Isles. We had a lovely stroll along the huge expanse of pristine white sands. I’m not doing too much walking because of foot. It is responding to the exercises - the ankle is still quite painful but I’m not limping as badly.

We are staying another night at Cnip - I thought of a quick sea dip - when we were at Uig it was sheltered, sunny and warm, but this beach faces north and the wind is so cold Mr C thought his resuscitation skills might not be up to the job.