Now it is the time of night,
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide.
(A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Yes, it’s as morbid as it sounds. The “Coffin Track” runs in
a north westerly direction from Ardvey in the Bays area of the Isle of Harris to
Losgantitir sands. While we were running along this so-called coffin track I
had no idea about its history but later found out that the difficulty of burying
a coffin in the thin soils of the east of the island meant that coffin bearers
in times gone by had to carry the dead across the moorland from the Bays
district over to the west side of the island for burial in the deeper sands of
the machair. The geological aspect was not the only reason for the existence of
these routes, the other reason was that the dead could only be buried on consecrated
ground of churches and cemeteries. Other parts of the country use names such as
“burial road”, “procession way” or “lynch way” but what they have in common is
that these coffin tracks, also known as "corpse roads", are generally found in remote
areas of the country and reflected the intention of the church to keep their
flock close, even in death. Many of these routes feature “coffin stones” which are large,
flat stones on which the tired pall bearers could take the opportunity to rest the coffin during their sombre march but as I had no
idea I was running on a coffin track I sadly didn’t think to look for such a
landmark.
 |
| Climbing up... |
 |
| over the Bealach Eorabhat |
The reason we were running along this coffin track was that I had spotted
an interesting looking track leading from the front door of our Seilebost
cottage which on further investigation appeared to be marked with wooden posts
indicating the way. In this case the simple coffin track has been way marked
and renamed the "coffin road circuit" to attract hill walkers on the Isle of
Harris.
From Seilebost we climbed a couple of miles up the
peaty track of the Bealach Eorabhat before descending to Bayhead and Ardvey on
the shore of Loch Stockinish. Then we followed the way markings in an easterly direction and were again climbing until we eventually reached the little single track road which
weaves its ways around the inlets and hamlets situated on this side of
Harris. We trotted along this road for a short time until we joined the main
road which runs between Tarbert and Leverburgh and followed it for a
mile or so where the only incident of the day was had – this was me falling off
the side of the tarmac road as I was too busy gawping at the view to look at
where I was going. Next we turned off the road on to another track leading us past the
quarry. The signs warning of explosions from the quarry looked to be quite old and
many were in a state of disrepair or were lying on the ground which I took to
mean that explosives were not being used in the vicinity and hadn’t been
in a wee while. We jogged past the single JCB that was working away and as no men
in high vis jackets came to chase us away we assumed we were ok and not about to be blown up.
 |
| The route is now signposted |
 |
| Approaching Ardvey |
 |
| The Harris landscape |
 |
| You can take the man out of Wales... |
 |
| River |
 |
| Path (or river?) |
This path took us past the little fishing lodge at Loch
Laxdale before reaching the road but
instead of re-joining the track back to the cottage I decided that we should run a little further
on the road until we reached the causeway and could clamber down on to the magnificent
stretch of sands that is Luskentyre beach for the final section of the run back to the
cottage.
 |
| The wide expanse of Luskentyre sands |
 |
| A wee river crossing |
 |
| Towards the cottage at Seilebost |
Needless to say there are legends abound about coffin tracks
which are a countrywide phenomena. Crossroads or path intersections were
believed to be bad luck as were obstacles such as fences on the corpse route as
these got in the way of the corpse’s direct route to the cemetery and could
cause them to return to haunt the living.
Some such legends also involve the sighting of lights or
flames on the route, taken to be an omen of an approaching death and were reputed to be often
sighted the night before a death (well it’s never likely to be a cheery omen is
it?) or the sighting of a “Will o the Wisp”* an evil spirit trying to lead
people astray although the methane gas produced from the ground is just as likely a
source of any light seen on peatland tracks at night. Even so, I don’t think I’ll be
running along this track during the hours of darkness, at night, in the mist, alone…
*and absolutely nothing to do with an evil TV set by
the name of Edna (does anyone know what I am talking about here or am I just
showing my age...?)
