Weather/Conditions: Beautiful! Sunset across the ocean, and clear skies, good visibility... The colours in the sky were absolutely beautiful and the subsequent sunset at the beach was one of the best I've ever seen.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 2km / 250m / 1h 05m
Accompanying: Steve

After climbing Uisgneabhal Mor in the morning, I went with family for a great meal in Tarbet. But to the finish the beautiful day, dad, Steve and I headed down to South Harris with the promise of sunset. It made it one of those days that will just stay with you for the rest of your life...

To start, I caught my first ever clear view of the Skye Cuillin across the water - Sgurr nan Gillean's teeth were very clear, although the whole thing was a bit smaller than I'd have thought it to be... But then we headed westwards to the great beaches of Harris and as dad stayed at the coast for photographs, Steve and I headed up this wee hill - Maodal - partly for the views and partly because it was the last 'geocache' Steve had to find in Harris.

So we parked the car on the beach and headed up the slopes, the views becoming better all the time. And since it didn't take us even half an hour to get to the top (it's not a big hill), we had plenty of time to enjoy being up there. Again, the Skye Cuillin was on the horizon and St. Kilda was easy to see out to the west. The colours in the sky were astounding.

The summit was also crowned by a memorial to the victims of an air crash that occurred on this hill a couple of decades ago. (see the pictures). Anyhow, we had the summit and Steve got the geocache, so after half an hour on top we belted it down to car, rushing back to the 'Macleod Stone' in the car, where dad was sitting, waiting for photo opportunities. We parked the car just as the sun was going down and raced along the beach to the stone. We shared the moment as the sun dipped below the horizon, colours shifting all around.

And I couldn't believe the day I'd had - wonderful weather, a couple of brilliant mountains and a great meal in the middle. All the family was there too. It was one of those days that you just don't forget, and I'm going to remember it for a long time to come.

Mainland Views

Maodal

On the summit

Horgabost and Macleod Stone sunset

Back to Stornoway

Panoramas

360°, Maodal


Horgabost Twilight