Bumps can be treated with antihistamine creams which can also be found at the pharmacy.
Ceapabhal and Taransay from Losgantir
There are other things you can do to minimise being bitten.
Stay indoors in the early morning and evening and even then keep the windows closed.
If you are camping and have little choice about being outdoors, choose a location which is not damp or shaded. Try to pitch somewhere that is sunny and subject to a steady breeze, such as on a west-facing coast or on higher ground, as a light wind tends to blow the midges away. They certainly never show during a gale – perhaps they never venture out, or perhaps they do and just get blasted across The Minch to the mainland!
Keep arms and legs covered up with light clothing and get a hat with a midge net to protect the face and neck.
Try the Marmite diet! Eating two pieces of bread or toast with a thick layer of Marmite for two weeks prior to your trip is reputed to make you unattractive to midges, as are additional quantities of Vitamin B1.
If you can, stick close to those who are prone to bites in the hope that the midges will overlook you! Reputed to work – although annoyingly the hapless victims tend to keep running off.
Footwear
Lewis and much of Harris consist of peat bog and even the summit plateaus of the highest mountains can be distinctly ‘quaggy’. The wet conditions underfoot might lead you to consider wearing wellingtons for walking but this would be unwise. While they might be a suitable choice for short, low-level walks, wellingtons do not provide the support needed to move safely on steep ground; neither do they have the type of sole needed for a good grip on wet rock. Today most good quality, ankle-height walking boots are totally waterproof and you will only get a wet foot if you go in up to your calf.
In the days when walkers wore knee length breeches gaiters were ubiquitous, but nowadays they are less often seen on the hills. They will provide protection when moving through wet grass and heather and will certainly help keep your trousers clean, but they cannot be expected to keep your feet completely dry.
Abandoned blackhouses around Ob Leasaid in South East Harris
Walking in the more remote parts of the islands is inevitably going to involve fording streams; carrying a pair of chunky plastic beach shoes and a towel in your pack may be advisable, especially if you do not have overnight access to drying facilities. However, if you cannot see the bottom of a stream or if it is in spate, you should either venture upstream to find a narrower and easier place to cross or turn back.
Access
In Scotland there has long been a general presumption of access to all land unless there is a very good reason for the public to be excluded. The Land Reform Act 2003 confirmed this presumption, and walkers in Scotland now have a statutory right of access to all land, except for areas such as railway land, quarries, harbours, airfields and defence land where the public are excluded by law. Access rights extend to all beaches and foreshores.
Walkers should act responsibly when exercising their right of access, and follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code published by Scottish Natural Heritage and available at www.outdooraccess-scotland.com. For example, you should avoid walking across growing crops or croftland when there is a route round it, and obey advisory signs asking you to avoid certain areas at certain times for land management, safety or conservation reasons. Particular care should be taken during the deer-stalking season, which typically runs from 1 July to 20 October, and the grouse-shooting season which runs from 12 August to 10 December. During these times it is best to check with the local tourist information offices which will be able to give you contact details for any nearby estates.
An Cliseam from Eilean Anabeich (Walk 14)
Access rights extend to wild camping; as long as you have no motorised transport, a small number of people using lightweight tents can stay for up to three or four nights in any one spot. It is therefore possible to wander off into the wilderness of the Park area of south-east Lewis, or indeed any other remote area of Harris or Lewis, and simply lose yourself. Leave no sign of ever having been there by carrying out refuse and removing all traces of your pitch. I will not dwell on the risk of open fires because finding wood on Lewis and Harris is never easy; but if you are lucky enough to find something to burn, such as old woody heather roots, ensure that your fire is sufficiently isolated from surrounding heather so as to preclude a major fire. Uncontrolled fires burn very fiercely and can set fire to the peat in which the heather grows. Not only can these fires be very difficult to quench, but where the peat is burnt heather and other seeds are destroyed, and plant life is lost; erosion may follow and it will take many years for the ground to recover.
Maps
The vignettes from the Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 series that are shown here are included to give readers a feel for the overall course of each walk, but they are no substitute for carrying and frequently referring to a separate map. The OS Landranger series will stand you in good stead for most of the low-level walk, but it is advisable to use the OS Explorer 1:25,000 series for any high-level walk or excursion in the more remote areas where there are few marked footpaths. They show much more detail and will be far more useful in situations when you really need them, such as when finding your way across open moorland in a mist.
The maps needed for each route are listed in the individual route profiles. Collectively they are OS Landranger Series map numbers 8, 13, 14 and 18 and OS Explorer Series map numbers 455 through to 460. You will need to buy these from a bookstore that stocks a comprehensive range of OS maps – and even then they may need to be ordered. Alternatively purchase them from an internet bookstore or directly from the Ordnance Survey online shop.
Bhaltos in West Lewis – just one of the many place names with Norse origin
Place names
The use of Gaelic and naming conventions on OS maps deserves a comment. Gaelic is a beautiful yet complex language. Many words, including first names and place names, are pronounced and written differently according to what word or letter precedes them or how much emphasis is put on the word. For instance, ‘It is cold’ is Tha I fuar. But ‘It is very cold’ becomes Tha I glè fhuar and the pronunciation of the last word changes. Place names are the same: Beinn Mòr and Beinn Mhòr both mean the big or high mountain, yet are pronounced differently. And just to confuse, the Gaelic word beag actually means little or small, and not big as English speakers might assume.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Western Isles Council, has adopted the pragmatic approach of labelling place names in both Gaelic and English – and even when they are not you can generally work it out for yourself. Chàrlobhagh must surely be Carloway and you can be certain that Calanais is Callanish, although it is not always so straightforward. If you have time to spare and intend to return to the north-west of Scotland, the island folk will be delighted if you take the trouble to learn a few basics in Gaelic and can start a conversation with Ciamar a tha sibh? (How are you?), even if you dry up after a few everyday phrases.
Many guidebooks stick firmly with the English version of placenames. To me, this smacks of linguistic
