A Roam With a View...

We usually try to keep the middle Sunday of our holiday as a bit of a quiet day. If we can decide on a walk without taking the car out, then we do so, and it’s nice when we spend the rest of the time pretty much reliant on the car to have a day when she gets a rest - after all, this is her holiday, too! (Well she doesn’t get to go many places of a non-mundane persuasion other than this!). We were definitely in agreement about our choice of walk this time round - Burrival, the small humpy hill next to Eaval - the large scary hill. Ben fancies climbing Eaval, I don’t. Burrival was a fair compromise.

The small humpy hill next to Eaval...

At 141m high, Burrival is not much of a climb for experienced walkers, but I’m not one of those, I’m a slightly reluctant, happy to climb up a bit if there is a view to be seen, and if those I am with don’t whinge about me taking photos of said view when the top is reached, walker. For me, it’s a fair climb, particularly when you take into account that the ground on the walk-in is rough, uneven and covered in heather. Fortunately with so much of the surrounding ground being low lying, you are guaranteed a view at even the modest heights of hills like Rueval (Benbecula, 124m), Beinn Langais (North Uist, 91m) or indeed our humpy little friend of Sunday’s adventures. Anyway, first to get there….you have to navigate what the OS map calls "Stepping Stones" but is actually more like a little mini-causeway -

Beware of high tides...

See - fun eh? Well it was at mid-tide, which was the time we chose to go - it was just on the other side of these however that we found that party of stranded walkers last year - do you remember, the ones we ended up having to call the coastguard for? Needless to say, we learnt from their mistake and remembered to check the tide times carefully when planning our walk today! Anyway, those safely navigated, we walked on, and eventually started climbing… to about a third of the way up, where we stopped for a rest. And some photos.

The first view worth photographing

See those little houses on the right hand side? That’s roughly where we started from. Hardly any height gained and already that view - you just know the top is going to be spectacular! Good enough motivation to carry on. After a bit more climbing, we reached the bit below the summit - good enough reason in itself to stop and have a break, but when this view was spotted…

Looking "over the sea to Skye"

…it was all the better. That is looking across the coast of North Uist, to Skye. The CalMac ferry "Hebrides" was in view when we got there as well, although way too distant to photograph! Now it was around now that we hit a problem. See that lumpy bit at the top of the hill in the first pic? Well that’s pretty rocky, and steep, and tricky to climb. We tried a couple of routes, and had to admit defeat, as they we simply too steep, and with the wind that was blowing making things tricky, too risky to ascend there. Hmmm. We retreated to the high point on the bit below the summit to think, and it was from there that we spotted the path around the back of said lumpy bit….woo! We wouldn’t be beaten after all! Off we went, and after some clambering, and scrambling (OK, those were mostly me, Ben climbed the steep bits like a proper walker-person would) we made the summit (Which was where I posted the pic from on the day itself - see how proud I was?!). And the views were undoubtedly worth it. Phew!

View with helpful added notes of points of interest...

Point 1 is where we started from, and point 2 is the pub - which gives you a pretty clear idea of how far we have to travel in our dedicated search for Good Beer!

Robyn