The Isle of Lewis is reached directly by air from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. Stornoway airport is about 5 miles from Stornoway town centre. Taxis and car hire are available at the airport and there is a bus into Stornoway.
Caledonian MacBrayne ferry services sail daily directly into Stornoway from Ullapool, the journey time is 2 hrs 45mins. There is also a six day a week car ferry to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris from Uig in Skye. Tarbert is approximately one hours drive to either Stornoway or Carloway.
Stornoway has many facilities including two supermarkets (the Co-operative, Tesco), banks/ATM’s, churches, garages, shops, restaurants, pubs etc.
Upper Carloway is one of eight townships in the district of Carloway, on the West coast of the Isle of Lewis, 23 miles from Stornoway, either by the Northern route via Barvas, or the Southern route via Garynahine. It is 18 miles across the one-track Pentland Road. There are regular bus services to and from Stornoway (see the timetables on the council website), although most visitors travel by car.
There are several ways to find Tobar na Màthar from Carloway village. Probably the easiest is to follow the signs to Garenin blackhouse village from the centre of the village where the churches, school and bridge are located. The road from the village to Garenin is approximately 1 mile, and halfway along this road, there is a turnoff to the right, at the small Harris Tweed Hebrides mill (there’s a bus stop on the left opposite the right turn). This right turn takes you along Upper Carloway (if you didn’t turn right, you’d reach the dead-end road at Garenin). Tobar na Màthar is about half a mile along on the left. The house has a flagpole beside the conservatory.
Here is a Google map showing our location:-
Below is an aerial view of Carloway showing the fantastic scenery in this area
