We have not had internet for 2 days so here is a catch up:
28th May 2018
We discovered yesterday evening, again, that the ferries are getting so full that trying to be spontaneous just doesn’t work. I tried booking ferries to take us back to Harris and then from Lewis to the mainland, only to find that several days we wanted to travel were fully booked. The result is that we are now staying on the Uists for the next two days and as a result we will also be delayed in our final ferry back to the mainland. It doesn’t really matter, we’ve got nothing better to do and the weather is still fantastic.
Today was our day trip to the smallest, and most southerly, of the main Outer Hebridean islands: Barra. We were up fairly early for us and caught the 10.15 ferry. It was only a 40 minute ride, over perfectly calm seas, full of sea birds and seals.
The Barra Ferry
Barra is a tiny island. The road which goes round its circumference is only 14 miles long. We started by travelling to the capital Castelbay. Given that the population of the whole island is only 1200 you can imagine that the capital is little more than a village. There is a vaguely diverting castle in the harbour which used to be the home of the clan chief of the McNeil’s until it was demolised, but it was restored in the 20th century. Other than the castle there is little to detain the visitor.
The capital of Barra
McNeil castle
We then completed the circle of the island by visiting the island’s airport. As strange visitor attraction you might think, but it is the only airport in Britain which has a beach as a runway. Flight times vary according to the tides, but we were lucky enough to see one of the scheduled flights take off.
Barra Airport
Take off at Barra Airport
Barra is a pretty little island, with some mountains, turquoise seas and lovely white sand beaches, but we found that it added little to our overall Hebridean experience and it was not really suited to vehicles as big as Basil. We had great difficulty finding places to park and in the end, in frustration, we headed back the ferry early, where at least we knew parking was available. We went for a walk and found a nice spot overlooking the sea to while away an hour or so before our ferry was ready to return us to South Uist.
For anyone heading for the Outer Hebrides, if Barra is the first island you visit, you will probably love it, especially if the weather is as good as we experienced, but if you’ve already visited the Uists, we personally would not recommend making a special trip.