Wheelhouse

A beautiful day today, with sunshine and blue skies. We set out on a walk from Sollas in the north of North Uist and the expedition took us most of the day. We crossed long beaches of fine white sand, a joy to walk on. We climbed a grassy headland, reached a trig point, slithered our way down onto another beach and finally walked across acres of machair behind sand dunes.

And of course at one point we found stones. We climbed a grassy hillock to find the remains of ancient settlements. Extensive excavation in the 1960s uncovered evidence for human occupation from Neolithic times until the 17th century. Parts of at least 20 buildings were found, including this Iron Age wheelhouse. The name comes from the floor plan, in which stone piers radiate from a central open area, resembling the spokes of a wheel. It is thought that the resulting cells were used for various domestic activities, as well as for sleeping.

If you can bear more pictures of beautiful empty, white sand beaches, look
here
here
here.

And here’s my contribution to Mono Monday Streetscape! Well it was as busy as it gets round here – there was a huge crowd of four people walking ahead of us!