EXPLORING BARRA AND VATERSAY

Castlebay, Barra

After landing at Barra's beach airport, one of the world's ten best approaches, I drove into Castlebay. This is the main village on the island and is well named for out in the middle of the bay is a medieval castle sitting on a rock. Kisimul has guarded Barra since prehistory. Why? It also has a fresh water spring within it. More later.

I'm staying at Castlebay Hotel, built in 1880, that has a commanding view of the bay. This morning, after an enormous Scottish breakfast, I was ready to explore the whole island and the smaller Isle of Vatersay, to the south. The wind blew the marine cloud away at 11am and I wandered happily.

Earsary on the east coast

Eoligarry in the north

I started on the east coast of Barra, considered to be less beautiful than the west, Atlantic side. It has it's own charm, however. I prowled by rocky, narrow inlets, white houses scattered beside these sheltered harbours, and shooed sheep out of my way. Up the winding road to the north, I found Eoligarry with a small harbour and a vast, empty beach, one of many here. This is a trailhead for hikers and serious walkers as the road ends here. The sun made its appearance and brightened steadily.

The only way to follow the west coast road south was to backtrack a bit, drive past the airport that was preparing for the first flight of the day, and then start stopping around every corner. The coast is sand dunes, empty, and wild. Inland the ground rises to small mountains, covered with rocks, heather, and bracken. The Atlantic swells are unimpeded from the west, and surfers love their purity. I didn't see any, but it's out of season.

Allasdale on Barra's west coast

Along this west side of Barra, the beaches are white sand, crescent-shaped, and quite unspoiled. A walk here is a must. I've found my low-cut hiking boots to be the best thing I packed on this trip. The sand is packed hard by the tides, and the smell of the sea filled my nose. Cattle and sheep were the only living creatures I encountered, except for one woman reading her book on a bench.

The dunes at Allasdale

I circled the whole island and returned to my hotel for a snack lunch in the bar with a pint of pale ale from the Orkneys.

Again I stared at the castle in the bay and read that the Vikings used this site and fortified it before the Clan Macneil made it their stronghold. They were known for their lawlessness and piracy in Elizabethan times. By the 18th century the Macneils had abandoned the castle for a more comfortable spot on Barra. It deteriorated and the clan lost it to bankruptcy as well as their ownership of Barra.

Most of the clan emigrated to Canada and in 1915 one of them made a successful claim to recover the chiefdom and Barra. Eventually the castle underwent an excellent restoration from 1956–1970. It is well worth a visit today by taking a boat tour from Castlebay.

*****

Siar Bay faces west and the Atlantic

I set out for Vatersay, the tiny island south of Barra. A short causeway joins the two islands now, built in 1991. Although tiny, this isle has two of the best beaches in the Hebrides. One faces east and directly behind it, separated by dunes, the other faces the Atlantic.

The roads here are strewn with sheep and often have grass growing down the middle. Sometimes they simply peter out and somehow I had to turn the car around with little room. This lane is the width of a Honda Fit, which is the rental car I have here. I wouldn't want anything bigger....

Eighty people are resident year-round on Vatersay and are mainly fishers and farmers. There is a huge demand for herring, lobster, hake and other fish and shellfish from the Hebrides.

After a pleasant hour exploring, walking, and photographing, I had thoroughly covered the whole of Vatersay. There are no cafés, washrooms, or any facilities for visitors here. Nor a gas station, stores, or gift shops. It is totally unspoiled.

Our tour of the Outer Hebrides was customized for me by McKinlay Kidd, award-winning experts in tours of Scotland and Ireland.

IMAGES: © Photos by Pharos 2014. All rights reserved

OBAN TO BARRA

I stayed in Oban for a night after disembarking from Glen Tarsen at the end of the cruise. This gave me a chance to do laundry, replace a broken filter for my Nikon, and have some downtime. The Queen's Hotel on the sea front was one in a line of Edwardian hotels that catered to the gentry at the turn of the 19th century. today it is run by the Best Western chain, which in Europe has very good hotels. The room was clean and comfortable and the resto was excellent.

Awoke early today to start an adventure that has long been on my bucket-list. In order to accomplish it, I had to get to Glasgow airport. I took the train through the Highlands from Oban. It takes three and a half hours, but is worth it. The train meanders past misty lochs, round purple-washed mountains, and along the Clyde, stopping at stations along the route that don't seem to have any villages nearby.

Barra Airport on Cockle Strand

From Glasgow airport, I climbed into a Flybe Twin Otter and flew to Barra, the southernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides. The sun streamed down as we roared into the sky and flew northwest for an hour. It landed at Barra Airport. And it's the airport that is so intriguing. It's a huge white sand beach called Cockle Strand in the north of the island. Yes, we landed on the hard-packed sand at low tide. A thrill of a lifetime for me.

From there, I picked up a rental car and drove the four miles south to Castle Bay to the hotel of the same name. It's been a hotel since 1880 and has a commanding view of the bay. Smack in the middle of the bay on a rock is Kismul Castle, the best preserved medieval castle in the Western Isles. It is the home of the MacNeil clan and was restored recently.

Barra sports palm trees and fuschia hedges in full bloom. I could barely drive for looking at the beaches, sand dunes, inlets, and sheep.

Dinner in the Castlebay Hotel was a delightful surprise. The menu and the food was superb -- all local fish, shellfish, meat, and vegetables. I chose scallops and they were 2 1/2 ins in diameter and over an inch thick.

Tomorrow is exploration day and I can't wait.

Thanks to McKinlay Kidd for arranging this customized tour of the Outer Hebrides for me.

The view from the Castlebay Hotel of
Kismul Castle with palm trees and
fuschias in the foreground


IMAGES: © Photos by Pharos 2014. All rights reserved