| Recommended days | 4 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Medium |
The Golden Road goes from the Isle of Lewis to Harris, in the Outer Hebrides. I’d never been to Harris before but I had seen pictures and it looked, in the right weather, absolutely amazing. Instead of spending time on Lewis as usual for this trip we headed south.
Ullapool
The weather at Ullapool wasn’t looking good and it was actually pretty miserable until we were about in Harris itself. Ullapool is a pleasant little place to visit though, a couple of nice museums and lots of waterfront eating places.
Isle of Harris
The sun actually came out for the afternoon and the whole place was illuminated, the colours of the beaches and water changed dramatically. Some of the views could have been somewhere tropical, quite amazing considering where we are. It was also pretty much deserted. Although it was July we didn’t see a single person on any of the beaches.
The Golden Road
The road south through Harris is apparently called ‘The Golden Road’, I assume this is in the same sense as ‘Golden Shower’. My sat nav took us on this route as revenge for me ignoring her so many times.
It is 20 miles of blind summits, blind bends and hairpins, all on a single track road that usually has the Dead Marshes of Mordor one side and a crevasse the other. No points for relaxing driving here!
Rodel
We finally arrived at the southern tip of Harris, Rodel. There is actually a place on TripAdvisor to visit here – St Clement’s Church. As the church is about 2 hours drive from civilsation along a very interesting road it doesn’t get a huge number of visitors but it was a welcome break after the drive!
The inside is nothing special although there are some strange figures on the exterior. Inside there are some extremely intricate and delicate carvings and several impressive tomb slabs and effigies.
There wasn’t much in the way of life for visitors here so we headed back north and stopped at the Temple Cafe in Northton. This was a real gem, a friendly place with a great menu and well used by cyclists and other more normal visitors.
We continued north for the long drive to Stornoway and home.
The Golden Road is one of those trips where I’m glad I’ve done it but I don’t think I’d do it again. It was a long, hard drive and the weather is just too variable in that area.
Also, to be honest, I’m not enough of an outdoor person to enjoy the scenery despite rain and wind. I’m far happier sat in a little cafe with latte and cake and looking out at the world from my cocoon.
2015
Horrible, ill informed little blog. Sorry that you don’t find the best example of a medieval church in the Scotland ‘anything special’. ‘Pearls before swine’ comes to mind…
The Golden Road does not go from Stornoway to Rodel either, so nil points for research.
Dear, oh, dear.
Thanks for your comment, I’m happy to be corrected and better informed. In the context of the effort required to get to Rodel compared with what was there the actual building was not overly impressive. The carvings inside were but maybe my expectations were too high.