And We In Dreams Behold the Hebrides Part 3: Over the Sea to Skye

My two-part post on the 2007 tour of the Hebrides now becomes three parts 

with this side trip from North Uist to and from the famous Isle of Skye --

one of the homelands of my ancestors. 

 

The Isle of Skye can be reached from more directions than any other island in the Hebrides. For us, this meant taking a side detour from the outer islands via the Calmac ferry from Lochmaddy in North Uist "over the sea to Skye" to Uig on the northernmost peninsula of Skye thus arriving on the island from the west. The voyage lasts 1 hour 45 minutes.

 

This route is served by one ship, sailing from Uig alternately to Lochmaddy and to Tarbert in Harris, at 1 hour 40 minutes sailing time the shortest sea route to travel to or from the Outer Hebrides. During the voyage, you get an early introduction to the rocky coastal scenery of Skye even before you land on the pier. Skye is an island with an unusually mixed geological history, and the wildly diverse scenery reflects that fact.

 

Already there are the typical hallmarks of the landforms in the northernmost peninsula of Skye, which is called Trotternish: steep slopes alternating with vertical cliff faces, and with rock segmented into separated spires and pinnacles on occasion.

As you drive away from the pier on the A87, Skye's "main street," the road circles the bay and climbs the hillside, where a pullout gives a good panoramic view of the village, pier, and ferry. The harbour village of Uig typifies the Hebridean or Highland small community -- the houses well spread out, with ample room from each one to the next, not crammed close together as in more heavily populated regions.

The A87 runs all the way down the island to the eastern end where the Skye Bridge carries the road over to the mainland just west of Kyle of Lochalsh, for its continuing journey east to the Great Glen. There, you can continue via the A82 either north to Inverness or south to Fort William and on through Glencoe and Loch Lomond to Glasgow. Here's an internet photo of the Skye Bridge, taken from Kyleakin in Skye.

 

August Schwerdfeger photo.

 

The bridge connects across the island on the right in the photo, Eilean Ban, to a low viaduct which completes the journey to the mainland. The word "kyle" refers to a very narrow strait between two land masses, connecting two different sections of the ocean. The waterway at Kyle of Lochalsh itself is only 500 metres wide, and was for centuries the site of a ferry crossing. Even when the ferries shuttled back and forth every 15-20 minutes and each held 60 or more vehicles, there could still be immense lineups in summer that took hours to get through.The impetus to construct the bridge might seem obvious -- but it was stoutly resisted by many islanders who feared that the Isle of Skye's traditional way of life would be irreparably disrupted. The exact same arguments were advanced in Canada against the construction of the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to the mainland. Both P.E.I. and Skye seem to have weathered the "disruption" just fine, as far as I could tell after visiting each of them both before and after.

 

However, this bridge was constructed by a private consortium which was given the authority to charge tolls. There was an ongoing controversy over the tolls, with many islanders refusing to pay and being charged and tried in court. During these legal cases, it came out that the ferry crews had in many cases not been collecting tolls for the sea crossing from the local residents. The debate lasted for many years until the authority over roads was transferred from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament. Then, the bridge consortium was bought out by the Scottish Ministers and the tolls were immediately lifted.

 

The third main access point to the island is the popular ferry crossing from Mallaig on the mainland to Armadale. For those not travelling by car, there is rail service to both Kyle of Lochalsh (from Inverness) and Mallaig (from Glasgow), with connecting bus services into Skye. Both are among the most spectacularly scenic rail journeys to be found in the UK.

 

Here's a map of the Isle of Skye to show the main roads and focal points. 

 Base map contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right

 

The complex road network becomes a bit easier when you notice the two main junctions of Broadford and Portree. Sooner or later, every road will feature a sign pointing you towards one of those two key spots!

Although Skye is well-provided with places to stay, they can often be all filled up during the summer, as this island is one of the most popular holiday spots in Scotland. Advance reservations, as in the Outer Hebrides, are essential during peak season! The B&B where we stayed was placed about halfway along the A87 from Uig to Portree, and gave a us a comfortable room, a spectacular breakfast of scrambled eggs and local smoked salmon in generous portions, and a beautiful view out the front over the sea loch which extends inland from Uig, Loch Snizort. Why does that name always give me the urge to shout "Gesundheit!"?

Although there are highland and mountain areas all over the Isle of Skye, it is the Cuillin in the centre of the island which gives the most dramatic scenery -- if you can see it. 

Although often referred to in the past by the laconic description "Cuillin Hills," these jagged peaks are true mountains in every sense of the word, soaring straight up from the ocean to the highest peak, Sgurr Alasdair, at 992 metres (3255 feet). Here's an internet photo to give an idea of what they look like when they aren't busy generating their own weather due to the sudden and hefty elevation difference.

Dunvegan Castle photo.

There are actually two different ranges, the Black Cuillin (the more westerly) shown here and in the foggy photo above, and the Red Cuillin to the east. The names accurately reflect the completely different rock types of the two ranges. 

Here's another view, a real close-up, to reveal the jagged nature of the Black Cuillin's peaks. This isn't so much walking country as it is scrambling country (as it's known in Britain) and you have to be a dedicated, skilled, experienced scrambler to tackle any part of the Black Cuillin, especially the traverse along the crest line of the entire range. One or two of the peaks are only accessible with full rock-climbing training and gear.

Adrian Pingstone photo.

Aside from views from the roads to the north and west, the other highway-accessible spot to view the Black Cuillin is the village of Elgol. The drive from Broadford to Elgol is itself one of the most dramatic roads in Skye, with views of the outlying Cuillin peaks Bla Bheinn and Garbh Bheinn along the route -- and then the panorama of the main range of the Black Cuillin across the water from the Elgol pier. I drove that road on my first visit to Skye, back in the 1990s, and while the views of Bla Bheinn and Garbh Bheinn were spectacular, the Black Cuillin range was -- as usual -- hidden in clouds.

 

The Black Cuillin is part of the largest single estate on Skye, the estate of Dunvegan Castle, traditional home of the Chieftain of Clan MacLeod (MacLeod of Harris, that is; MacLeod of Lewis and MacLeod of Raasay have their own Chieftains). Dunvegan is an intriguing combination of medieval fortress and manor house, and is open to the public. On the road there from Portree, you see some intriguing views of the southwest sea coast, replete with grazing sheep scattered across the green slopes. 

 

 You also see a couple of small flat-topped hills, of which there are a fair number in this area.

A mile north of the village of Dunvegan is the Castle. As well as the main building, there are extensive gardens with seasonal flower displays -- if the rain lets up long enough to let you enjoy them (it didn't on this occasion).

With a little help from the internet, here's a photo of the more dramatic water side of the castle, lording it over Loch Dunvegan from its rocky crag. Funny how everyone else except me seems to find sunny days to tour around the Hebrides.

 

Pam Brophy photo.

 

The exhibits in the castle include significant clan artifacts, and especially the legendary Fairy Flag, which is said to have the property to save the clan from disaster three times (a good magical number). As any experienced traveller normally expects, the self-guided walking tour through the castle conveniently ends in the gift shop. I was quite tickled on my first visit here to recognize the cashier in the shop. It was the 29th Chieftain, John MacLeod of MacLeod, in full tartan dress, taking patrons' money and giving change and receipts. At the time, I thought it was a cool marketing idea. Many years later, I learned that lean times and a dwindling financial base may have been a more likely explanation. 

Although I've been the first in my family at many of the places I've visited, Dunvegan wasn't one of them. My parents were here before me. My mother was a clan member, and actually an unusual one since she had a foothold in both main branches -- her mother and father were both named MacLeod (although with different spellings from the official clan titles, and from each other), with her father a MacLeod of Raasay (a subdivision of MacLeod of Lewis) and her mother a MacLeod of Harris. In visiting places from my family history, I have now been 4 times in all to Aberdeen and three times to Fraserburgh, the heart of Stephen land, and twice to Dunvegan. However, I've yet to set foot on Raasay, easily reached by ferry from Sconser, between Portree and Broadford -- a definite piece of unfinished business.

 

My parents' visit to Dunvegan occurred during the later years of the four-decade Chieftainship of Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, the 28th Chieftain, who did so much to raise awareness and build links among descendants of the clan in many different countries. Dame Flora also opened Dunvegan Castle to visitors as a way of raising money to maintain the estate. She was among the earliest landowners in Scotland to take this step, which many others have now followed.

A side note: many of the historic sites, monuments, ruins, and stately homes and castles in Scotland are owned or at least managed and maintained by The National Trust for Scotland (NTS). Visitors will quickly become accustomed to the distinctive brown road signs with the stylized oval thistle logo giving direction and distance to the properties under NTS stewardship (including Dunvegan Castle). Here's an example from the Corrieshalloch Gorge near Ullapool.

 

Across Loch Dunvegan from the Castle, to the west and southwest, are the two biggest flat-top hills in Skye, Healabhal Mhor and Healabhal Bheag, collectively known as "MacLeod's Tables." Thanks to cloudy, misty weather, I have yet to see them personally (sigh). By the way, don't let the appearance of those Gaelic names fool you. The adjective "bheag" may resemble the English "big" but it actually means "small." "Mhor" means "big". To completely confuse the issue, Healabhal Mhor appears smaller in this photo.

Andy Malcolm photo.

From Dunvegan, you can complete a circle tour and head back to Portree. As the island's centre of local government and its largest centre of population, Portree is considered the "capital" of Skye. Here you can find a good assortment of accommodations -- including self-catering apartments for those wishing to make longer stays -- plus shops and restaurants.

The view across the bay at Portree gives another dramatic Skye landscape.

Like the more famous example at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, Portree also features some colourful painted houses along the waterfront.

The third and final group of scenic highlights in Skye are found by driving north from Portree along the A855 on a circle tour of Trotternish. Since we'd already driven south from Uig on arrival, it was a sensible step to complete the circle on the way back to Uig for the return ferry to Lochmaddy.

 

Driving up the east shore of Trotternish brings you into a different geological environment, up close and personal with the cliffs, slopes, and pinnacles that we observed from the arriving ferry. This strange sequence of landforms is in large part the result of successive landslip events, as sizable portions of the island have, over the eons, sheared away and slid down into the ocean below. This in turn demonstrates that the rock here is much more fragmented and collapsible in nature.

 

One of the main sights is the hill called Storr. Notice how the mist completely swallowed the summit in the few minutes it took me to drive from the site of the first photo to the site of the second.

 

Also completely obscured in the mist was the large and distinctive rock pinnacle called The Old Man of Storr. I'd seen it, or perhaps half-seen it, on my first visit but not this time. But there is no shortage of smaller pinnacles and breakaway portions to be seen in the second photo above.

More of the same can be seen almost anywhere you point a camera along this road.

Two of the most distinctive sights happen in quick succession on the right-hand side -- the ocean side -- of the road. The first is the Falls of Lealt.

Then, a short distance further along, you come to the signs and parking area for Kilt Rock.

 

 

The resemblance of the flutings in the rock face to the pleats of a kilt is unmistakable. Looking the other way from the viewpoint shows a whole sequence of similar formations, although none are quite so cleanly symmetrical.

Continuing north, the road cuts across the northernmost part of the peninsula to the west side, where you pass through the village of Duntulm and then come upon the dramatically situated ruins of Duntulm Castle. This medieval castle was once a stronghold of the MacLeod of Lewis, and later passed to the MacDonalds. 

There's a good but steep walking path from the parking area down the hill and across the stream and then up the even steeper far side to the castle on its rocky crag.

Coming down the west side, a valuable re-creation of life in older times is found at the Skye Museum of Island Life, housed in a small collection of black houses. The name "black house," by the way, doesn't refer to the outside colour but rather to the way that smoke from the peat fires would colour and coat all of the interior.

Just a short distance up the side road here is the grave of Flora MacDonald.

When the road takes a couple of sharp zigzags down a sizable hill, you know that you've arrived at the end of the tour in Uig. A right turn at the end of the A855 brings you in another minute to the ferry terminal. If you're lucky, you can enjoy some placid reflections on the water from out on deck as you wait for the ship to set sail back to the Outer Hebrides.

 

 

Helpful Hints:

[1] Weather:  "If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes." That's the most famous gem of Scottish wisdom on this subject. Here's a less-known but even more pertinent one. "If you look out from the west coast and you can see the Isle of Skye, that means it's going to rain. If you look out from the west coast and you can't see the Isle of Skye, that means it's raining already." I'm sure I am not the only person who would have preferred better weather during my two visits. But what can you do? Dress in weatherproof layers and keep your fingers crossed.

[2]  Places to Stay

There are many in all parts of the island, but if you want to stay in just one spot and use it as a hub, the advantages of being in or near Portree are obvious. Note, however, that an accommodation many miles away from Portree may be listed in tourism websites as "by Portree," a term which is about as flexible as a description of distance can get. Use an online map source to double-check exact location before reserving.

[3]  Walking/Hiking

Skye has perhaps the widest range of hiking possibilities in the entire Hebrides, ranging from easy level prepared paths to rugged, rock-strewn scrambles such as the Black Cuillin. It's an excellent idea to consult one of the detailed websites geared to hikers and climbers, and get some feedback from them before venturing out. Be aware, too, that the clear-looking streams you see tumbling down the hills may very well be contaminated with sheep and cattle feces. Bring your own water supply with you -- a good rule for hiking anywhere in the Highlands and Islands, and for the same reason.

 

[4]  Reservations

 

The importance of making advance reservations for accommodations or campsites, and for ferry travel if necessary, cannot be overestimated -- especially in summer. 

[5]  Sundays

Some of the more rural areas of Skye may still face Sunday closures. If you will be driving around on Sunday, be sure to top up with petrol in Portree or Broadford before venturing further afield -- just to be on the safe side. It was a service station in Broadford which saved my bacon when I arrived on a Sunday evening in the 1990s from the Isle of Mull via Mallaig and Armadale, with my hired car running on fumes. There was not one single gas station open on Sunday in Mull -- anywhere. Perhaps today there would be.

 

And We In Dreams Behold the Hebrides Part 2: Harris, the Uists, and Barra

Second of two posts about travel around the Western Isles of Scotland, 

drawn mainly from a trip taken back in July of 2007.

 

 

It's tempting to try to divide Lewis and Harris into the flat part and the hilly part, but since the hills already begin in the south end of Lewis before the boundary line, that won't do. The line is simply the long-defined boundary which originally demarcated the lands of MacLeod of Lewis from those of MacLeod of Harris. 

Without going into the entire complex history of the three Clans of MacLeod, of whom the MacLeod of Harris are the most numerous today, it's worth noting that the lands most associated with them, on the Isle of Skye and its near neighbour, the Isle of Raasay, came into the possession of the MacLeods at a much later date. Also note that the formal titles of the clans do not exclude such variants as "Macleod," "McLeod," and "Mcleod" from membership, since such minor variations in spelling are common in many of the Highland clans -- particularly the largest of all, the Clan Donald.

At any rate, Harris is both hillier and rockier than Lewis, and contains a fair number of peaks rising to more than 1,000 feet (300 metres). It's also far more thinly populated, a natural consequence of the more challenging landscape. 

Since there is only one through road connecting Lewis and Harris, and a limited number of branch roads, the best way to appreciate Harris would be to get out of the car and hike. A bit too rugged for this old fellow, though. It surprises me that none of the pictures I have from Harris feature any sheep, since the sheep, and their meadow muffins, are a regular feature throughout the Hebrides. The wool, of course, can be used to spin and weave the famous Harris Tweed, and indeed it must be -- since the name "Harris Tweed" can be applied, by law, only to pure virgin woollen cloth which is harvested from sheep in Harris, and then spun into yarn, dyed, and hand-woven into cloth in Harris. The tweed industry is still very much a cottage industry, with the work taking place in the weavers' homes, and is one of the main employers in Harris apart from tourism, which remains the single most important economic engine in all of the Outer Hebrides.

 

An important community on the eastern shore of Harris is the ferry port at Tarbert, with daily sailings to and from Uig on the Isle of Skye -- a crossing of 1 hour 45 minutes. 

 

As you near the southern end of the island, you start to see some dramatic examples of rocky coastlines.

 

 

Before we start island-hopping, let's refresh memory with the map of the Outer Hebrides.

 

Base Map Attribution:  https://freevectormaps.com/united-kingdom/scotland/GB-SC-EPS-01-0001?ref=atr

 

And with that, time to be moving on.

 

Q:  When is a timetable not a timetable? 

A: When sailing across the Sound of Harris.

The Calmac ferry sails back and forth across the Sound of Harris from Leverburgh on Harris to the island of Berneray half a dozen times a day in summer, with half that number on Sundays. However, the channel between the numerous rocky reefs and shoals in the Sound of Harris is both shallow and twisting, and the sailing times must be continually adjusted to avoid the times of low tides. In the Calmac timetable, there is a whole long list of dates for which you need to consult "Service Changes" -- in other words, days when the ferry times will not conform to the published timetable at all. Sometimes, in the Hebrides, you just have to roll with it. Here the ferry, MV Loch Portain, is shown arriving at Leverburgh.

In these pictures you can see some of the obstacles that the ship has to manoeuvre around. In a direct line, the ferry could sail to Berneray in 25 minutes or so, but in practice the crossing takes a full hour with all the necessary detours!

 

Once you're ashore on Berneray, there won't be any more ferry crossings for a while. The next group of islands are all separated by fairly shallow channels, and these are crossed by a series of causeways. The first causeway brings you across from Berneray to North Uist -- an island which is just as rocky and hilly as Harris. It's also just as lightly populated. In all, the six main islands in the Uist group hold a total population of just 4,000 people -- not much more than half the population of Stornoway.

From a tourist viewpoint, the most important settlement on North Uist is Lochmaddy, at the eastern end of the island, the terminal for the Calmac ferry to and from Uig on the Isle of Skye. There are a couple of hotels and B&Bs here, a museum, a store with an ATM, and other useful facilities. The ferry MV Hebrides is shown sailing into Lochmaddy after the 1 hour 45 minute voyage from Uig.

 

Continuing south, you cross another lengthy causeway, spanning several small islands, to reach the island of Benbecula. It surely must be a local joke to refer to Benbecula as "the Mount of the Fords" as the island returns to the flat, peaty landscape similar to Lewis. Similarity ends right there, though, as you are now in the beginnings of Roman Catholic country. Since Benbecula is the link between the Uists, it's fitting that this is also the island where the two religions mix and mingle to some degree.

 

Although it is possible to travel more or less straight through the middle of Benbecula, the road around the west side will bring you past many services in Balivanich, and past the Benbecula Airport which serves the entire Uist archipelago. During World War Two, this airfield was a major centre for anti-submarine flying over the oceans towards the critical Port of Glasgow, and the causeways linking Benbecula to North Uist and South Uist were built to support that activity. After the war, the RAF base housed many support services for the rocket test range on nearby South Uist. Although the RAF base here is now closed, there is still a smaller radar station in operation, and regular air services depart to Glasgow, Inverness, and Stornoway. Balivanich has the widest range of shops and accommodations which you will find anywhere in the islands outside of Stornoway.

 

At the south end of Benbecula, a shorter causeway carries you over to the island of South Uist, and now you are in Roman Catholic territory and no question about it. The proof? Just after the one main road down the island crosses over Loch Bi, look up the hill on the east side and you will see Our Lady of the Isles. The statue was commissioned by the local community led by the parish priest, after the Ministry of Defence proposed expanding the missile range into a massive facility with a military town and a plant for the construction of missiles, a proposal which (if carried out) would certainly have devastated the traditional culture and way of life of the community. The granite statue was dedicated in 1958. This picture was taken during a tearing rainstorm which lasted for most of the day, looking uphill from a parked car and using the zoom lens -- hence the fuzzy quality.

 

 Here's an internet picture taken on a sunny day which does far better justice to Hew Lorimer's artwork.

Howard Teale photo.

 

That rainstorm, by the way, explains why I have so few photos from the two Uists. Getting out of the car without getting soaked to the skin was an impossibility.

 

As you approach the settlement of Daliburgh near the southern end of South Uist, you have two choices. You can follow the A865 southeast to Lochboisdale. This ferry terminal hosts sailings to two mainland terminals: Mallaig once every day, and Oban on a more irregular, limited schedule. As you would expect, there are a number of accommodation facilities around and along this stretch of the A865.

The alternative, going due south, follows the B888 to Ludag where one more causeway crosses the shallow water to the Isle of Eriskay. It's actually a common name -- there are a few Eriskays scattered here and there in Scotland. But this one has two unique distinctions. One is, of course, the beautiful old folk song commonly known as the Eriskay Love Lilt. The other is this island's role as the site of one of the most hilarious true war stories of all time. I'll meet you at Am Politician -- the local pub.

It's a pretty unremarkable looking modern building. But the name, and the artifacts inside, celebrate the ship of that name -- the SS Politician -- which ran aground on a reef off the shore in 1941, with a mixed cargo which included 22,000 cases of Scotch whisky bound for the United States. The islanders from Eriskay, and many other Hebridean islands, "liberated" a good deal of the cargo during the time when the crew had abandoned ship and the salvage workers had yet to arrive. The contraband whisky was widely and commonly referred to as "Polly," and a good deal of it made its way to many other regions of Scotland -- for a price. Many of the islanders were brought to trial on various charges, and a number were convicted and jailed -- but others had to be discharged owing to the startling shortage of clear memory among those called as witnesses. The whisky flowed so freely that some of the local population even began using it to wash their hands and scrub the floors, owing to the wartime shortage of soap. 

 

The entire comic opera of the Politician took place during a period when the islands were suffering a drought of whisky due to wartime restrictions. These events formed the basis of Compton Mackenzie's 1947 comic novel, Whisky Galore, a multi-million copy bestseller which has been adapted twice for films, in 1949 and in 2016. Since the word "whisky" was not allowed by Hollywood's strict moral code of the day, the earlier film was released in North America under the title "Tight Little Island." American humorist James Thurber declared at the time that a much better title for the film would have been "Scotch on the Rocks."

This photo on the wall shows the pub when it was newly opened, with an elderly local man celebrating and toasting the new establishment. I can't remember for sure, but he might have actually gotten aboard the ship as a youngster, and the wreck was undoubtedly the source of the bottle he's sampling!

Nearby hangs a photograph of the notorious and unfortunate vessel herself.

In a glass display case stands a preserved bottle from the wreck, still sealed.

When I told the proprietor about my interest, she brought out from behind the bar an emptied bottle from the ship which they had refilled, and let me hold it for a photo.

And finally, a comical sign posted up above the window.

A short distance further down the road, you come to the made-to-order ferry harbour, opened in 2011, where Calmac crosses the short distance to the Isle of Barra, the last major island of the Outer Hebrides, visible in the distance. Before this five-times-daily link opened, it was necessary to wait in Lochboisdale for one of the rare days when the ferry to Oban departed from South Uist before proceeding to Barra, and then to the mainland. This multi-stop itinerary was a major operational headache for the deck crew who had to supervise the loading and unloading of vehicles on the ship. That limited service was also the reason why I was forced to stay in Stornoway over a Sunday on my first trip to the Outer Hebrides in the 1990s.

The corresponding landing on the north end of Barra is called Ard Mhòr (pronounced "Ard Vor", more or less), which is Gaelic for "Great Head" -- in the sense of "headland." It's near the northeastern corner of the roughly circular main part of the island. The island as a whole is dominated by the peak of Heaval, partly obscured in cloud in the photo above.

Not far down the road, between the Eoligarry peninsula and the ferry landing, is Tràigh Mhòr ("Try Vor", the "Great Beach" in English), a very broad sandy beach, famous not only as a prime source of the Barra cockles, but also for another unique distinction.

M. J. Richardson photo.

The hard, compacted sands of Tràigh Mhòr actually form the three "runways" of Barra Airport, the world's only commercial airline service airport whose runways are underwater twice every day at high tide. Thus, the schedule for the Loganair 19-seater Twin Otter which flies to and from Glasgow has to be published, like the ferry schedule at Leverburgh, with footnotes indicating dates when the tide times will force the published timetable to be altered. Flights to Glasgow normally operate daily, twice daily in peak season. It's easy to see from the photo that the departing aircraft kicks up quite a plume of spray from residual water on the surface. I'm sure the plane has to be washed down back in Glasgow after each trip to avoid salt-induced rusting of the metal fuselage.

Sorry to say I had to resort to an internet photo; the one and only flight to Glasgow for that day had already been and gone by the time we arrived from Eriskay for a one-night-only stay in Barra.

 

That in itself was something of a mistake. Barra is an island which deserves more of anyone's time. The first stop off the ferry from Eriskay was the final stop of the Whisky Galore pilgrimage: the grave of novelist Compton Mackenzie at Cille Bharra.

Mackenzie was actually living in Barra during the war, and so was very much close to the action during the whole Politician farrago. 

Cille Bharra is Gaelic for "St. Barr," and the name refers to the patron saint and founder of Christianity on this island, the Irish St. Finbarr of Cork. The word "Cille" ("Saint") devolves into modern English as the prefix "Kil-", so common in Scottish and Irish place names. The site encompasses the graveyard, a ruined old drystone church, and a small chapel and museum in a modern interpretation of traditional stone buildings, which houses religious artifacts and several ancient gravestones in the archaic Celtic style.

The "highway" around Barra, the A888, forms a circle of single-track road. Whichever way you go, around the east shore or around the west shore, you're going to end up at the south side in the principal village of Castlebay. Does this community's name really mean anything? Oh, yes!

Unlike such Victorian fripperies as Lews Castle in Stornoway, Kisimul Castle in the middle of Castlebay is the genuine article -- a medieval fortress, built in the 1400s, but on a rocky islet which is reputed to have been fortified for well over ten centuries.

The castle, and the island of Barra as a whole, are the traditional home of the Clan MacNeil of Barra. To preserve the castle into the future, the Chieftain of the Clan leased the castle in 2001 to Historic Scotland for an annual rental of one pound sterling and a bottle of whisky. When the castle is open to visitors, it can be reached only by a local boat. The boat's operator will likely take you on a quick spin right around the castle before returning to the pier at the end of your visit. Sadly, the castle was not open on this particular day in 2007. Sigh.

 

That photo of Kisimul Castle was taken from the terrace in front of the Castlebay Hotel, a classic old Scottish hostelry which provided us with comfortable beds and a delicious dinner in a cozy, friendly restaurant.

 

 

Like all of the Hebrides, Barra's natural environment in the lowland areas mainly consists of grassland, called "machair," which develops on the inland sides and sheltered areas behind coastal sand dunes. Barra, with its near neighbour Vatersay, has a particular reputation as an island of flowers, and the wildflowers of all sorts bloom on the machair through much of the year.

 

Not far southwest of Castlebay, a causeway crosses to the neighbouring isle of Vatersay, the southernmost populated island of the Outer Hebrides. Vatersay has a curious hourglass shape, and the narrow, low-lying sandy isthmus joining the two halves is flanked by a pair of beaches.The west beach, which faces the open Atlantic Ocean, was the site of a horrific shipwreck in September of 1853. The immigrant sailing ship Annie Jane, out of Liverpool and destined for Quebec City, was wrecked in the bay here after suffering disabling damage in a string of vicious storms. Over 350 people died; barely 100 survived. The survivors found little welcome as the islanders were not far short of starvation themselves. The dead were buried in two mass graves somewhere in these sand dunes; the exact locations of those mass graves are still unknown.

A simple monument on top of the dunes overlooking the beach commemorates the Annie Jane disaster.

Internet photo.

The drive back to Castlebay was a solemn one for me. I was thinking about all those impoverished human beings driven to try to seek out a slightly better future in an unknown foreign land, only to lose their lives so close to home in what might well be called an avoidable tragedy. 

 

On the way back, there's panorama of the village of Castlebay from a height of land along the road to the Vatersay causeway. The prominent tower is the church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea.

Barra gave one of the few really good weather days of the entire trip, and I'd have loved to stay longer, but the tyranny of the unchangeable reservations for the ferry overruled that wish. The morning was all about early rising, since the ship was sailing at 7:00 am and it was necessary to check in at the pier one hour in advance. That gave no chance to sample the free breakfast at the hotel, alas.

The ship, shown here in a 5:30 am photo from the hotel, was the MV Lord of the Isles, one of the oldest ships in Calmac's fleet, and by no means the largest or the fastest. The crossing to Oban on the mainland took five and a half hours, making it the longest single route in Calmac's portfolio. 

 

This is the same ship in which I crossed from Barra to Oban back in 1990-whatever-it-was. At that time, they still had overnight sailings on occasion, and LOTI (as the ship is fondly described by locals) still offered overnight cabins in those days -- the last Calmac ship to offer that amenity. Those were all booked by the time I made my reservation, and I got to sit up in a lounge all night, ending up with a massive case of jetlag that involved no aircraft and certainly no jet engines.

 

By the way, that "5:30 am" for the time of the photo is not a misprint. Scotland is a long way north, and the daylight hours in summer are far longer than the hours of darkness. Barra is at approximately the same latitude as Fort McMurray in Alberta or Petersburg in Alaska.

Unlike the long open-ocean haul of the Ullapool to Stornoway route, this crossing gives a good dose of scenery, as the ship sails out of the scenic harbour of Castlebay and then crosses the open Minch before passing down the long channel of the Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the mainland, and then across the mouth of Loch Linnhe by the Isle of Lismore to the harbour town of Oban. All of those sights add up to excellent reasons to spend a good part of the voyage out on deck, enjoying the views.

Here's the view of the rugged hills in the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, the westernmost point of the Scottish mainland. Yes, that really is the sun, for at least part of the second day in a row.

Across from Ardnamurchan, and off to the ship's starboard side, is the Isle of Mull, and it's quaint "capital" of Tobermory. The famous string of multi-coloured houses along the seafront can be sighted deep inside the sheltered harbour. At one time, the Calmac ferries to Barra and South Uist sailed from this port, until the ships became too large for Tobermory's limited port facilities. The name "Tobermory" comes from the Gaelic "Tobar Mhoire", which means "the well of the Virgin Mary."

The Isle of Mull is certainly one of the most rugged and wildly beautiful of all the Inner Hebrides.

At the eastern end of the Sound of Mull, the ship passes through a narrow channel between Mull and the smaller island of Lismore to enter Loch Linnhe. Here, you can readily see the fierce tidal currents which arise as the ebbing tide has to force its way past the lighthouse on Lismore to get through this narrow passage and out to the open sea.

Once through and into Loch Linnhe, we passed the newer and much larger MV Clansman which had just sailed from Oban for Castlebay. The interweaving of the two ships' wakes gave an unexpected moment of nearly artistic beauty.

And then we entered the harbour at Oban, the seafront lined with hotels of varying sizes. This busy fishing port and tourist centre is one of the largest towns on the west coast of Scotland. Oban is connected by major roads east and southeast to Glasgow and Edinburgh, south to Campbeltown and the Mull of Kintyre, and north to Fort William and Inverness. There is also a four-times-daily rail connection to Glasgow. Oban is the busiest port on the Calmac system by far, with daily summer sailings on many of the company's largest ships: a dozen daily sailings to Craignure on the Isle of Mull, four sailings to Lismore, daily sailings to Castlebay, Tiree, Colonsay, and Coll, and less frequent services to such other island ports as Lochboisdale (South Uist) and Port Askaig (Islay).

Driving off of the MV Lord of the Isles at Oban marked the final end of this tour of the Outer Hebrides.

Just to recap, here are a few final helpful hints for visiting these unique and magical island communities.

[1]  Reservations! The Outer Hebrides are a dangerous place to try to travel without reservations, especially in the peak summer seasons. The ferries run full to the brim for days and weeks on end, hotels and B&Bs sell out, and even the drivers of camper vans need to reserve campsites. Plan ahead and reserve months ahead. Yes, it kills the kind of spontaneity that some people like to feel when travelling, but there really isn't an alternative.

[2]  Foul Weather Gear!  Whatever form you prefer, bring it. Come prepared for cold, heat, wind, rain, fog, and sun, often all in the same day.

[3]  Good Walking Shoes!  All of the most interesting sights in the Outer Hebrides require some footwork -- sometimes a fair bit of hoofing around. There are any number of hiking trails too, leading to amazing views which drivers will never see. On the often-rugged ground, flip-flops, sandals, and crocs can become an open invitation to severe blisters, or worse injuries. 

[4]  Eyes Open!  When walking in these islands, keeping your eyes wide open is an essential precaution, as the meadow muffins (the "byproducts" of the numerous sheep) are everywhere. The sheep can be too -- and especially on the roads -- so keeping alert to the sheep, and their output, is a key travel skill.