Britain 09 - Day 22

Introduction

Saturday was our day to circumnavigate Barra and Vatersay before taking the Calmac ferry across to Eriskay on South Uist.

Barra and Vatersay

The day remained overcast but the showers held off - mostly. After a pleasant breakfast overlooking Castlebay we headed west and north around Barra. This is a small island with a long history, and is very rocky and windswept. We drove past the Barra airport built on the sandy beach, then on to stormy rocky beaches before circling back to Castlebay and the local museum. We were most interested in the coffee and cakes at the museum, which was fortunate because the main museum exhibits had already closed for the season. Then it was back to the airport to watch a plane land on the sand, before finding the ferry for the quick trip across to Eriskay and South Uist.

Castlebay from the hotel window	The castle in the bay	The Craigard Hotel in Castlebay
Houses on the outskirts of Castlebay	Rocky hills dominate the island	Looking across the Castle and the bays
Not much to garden with here apart from rocks.	The Gaelic immersion school on Barra	The windswept beach of Tangasdale on the west coast of Barra

Panorama of south Barra with Castlebay on the right

The northern part of Barra

At the northern end of Barra, the coast is dominated on the west by gravel beaches and on the east by fine sandy beaches, due to the influence of the Atlantic.

The road to the north drops into the small lakes and bays	One of the gravel beaches backed by a high storm ridge	The storm beach
Another view of the beach	I wonder what the attraction of the top of the post is?	Hay stooks on a croft
The local church beside the road to the airport	Shell mural on the wall of the church	Following the mural theme

The Island of Vatersay

South of Barra, and joined to it by a short causeway is Vatersay. This small island has a turbulent history of shipwrecks, plane wrecks and land occupation. We drove across to Vatersay to visit the memorial to the crew and passengers on the emmigrant ship "Annie Jane" that was wrecked here on 28 August 1853. On the way we passed the memorial to the crew of the Catalina aircraft that crashed on Vatersay in 1944.

Vatersay, overlooking the crash site of the Catalina aircraft	The Catalina memorial	The remains of the Catalina
The beach on Vatersay where the "Annie Jane" founded	The "Annie Jane" memorial on the top of the hill	The "Annie Jane" memorial
The memorial inscription	The locals who guided us to the memorial	Saying goodbye to them
The inner beach on Vatersay	Local services in the middle of Vatersay	The causeway between Vatersay and Barra

Barra Airport

At the northern end of Barrra lies the airport. It has the usual terminal building and control tower but the runway disappears at high tide. The small planes use the sandy tidal plain so flight times are controlled by the tides. When we arrived in the morning, the windsock was not flying and the airport was deserted. Later in the day a vehicle drove up, hoisted the windsock and the airport was in business. A short while later an aircraft appeared and landed on the sand.

How you know when the airport is open	The runway at high tide....	The Airport.
The terminal building.	Windsock - the airport is open	Cockle gatherers on the runway
In comes the plane....	landing on the sand...	and taxis to the terminal.

The Calmac Ferry to South Uist

The Calmac Ferry sails from a new jerry at Aird Mhor passing various islands on its way to the small island of Eriskay. From there you cross a causeway onto South Uist.

The Lochalainn waiting at Barra	The boat ramp at Barra	Looking back across to Barra
Lots of room for 3 cars...	Looking back to Barra	Colma and Margaret
Paul and Margaret....	Colma and Paul.	A high-tech buoy.
Shags and seagulls	Small islands on the way.	Barra in the distance....
Eriskay ahead	Another house on bare rock.	The boat ramp at Eriskay.
Not much view from the vehicle deck.....	until the ramp is down.	The ferry docked at Eriskay.
Looking down onto the Eriskay port..	looking back to Barra.	Rush-hour traffic on Eriskay - heading to the ferry

South Uist

From Eriskay we crossed the causeway onto South Uist (our fourth Hebridean island), drove the short distance past the fishing harbour on the south coast and around to our hotel at Polochar.

A common sight on the Outer Hebrides	Evidence of strong wind (or poor building)	The causeway from Eriskay to South Uist
On the causeway.	Driving onto the causeway	Opened by the Duke of Wessex
Now we are on South Uist.	Tidal boat harbour	and the directions to our hotel.

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Last updated: 16/06/2017