Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Isle of Barra & Eriskay

Woke up to rain. Dammit!! These islands are remote so the only things to really do are outdoorsy. Rain is not going to help us enjoy the outdoors! We got ourselves together and checked out of the hostel. The hostel was a 4 star and offered a private room, that's why it was appealing. I have decided that hostels are not for me, even though this was a 'nice' one. I can't imagine what they look like otherwise. I can't complain, it was pretty clean and that's always my main requirement when staying somewhere. The hostel overlooked Castlebay and Kisimul Castle - the stronghold of the Clan MacNeil since the 11th century. Barra was my main reason for visiting the outer Hebrides. I wanted very much to visit the land where my grandfather's (Mom's side) ancestors came from. It is a very neat feeling to be here knowing hundreds of years ago my ancestors lived and farmed these lands.


Castlebay is an interestingly odd village. It is small and completely surrounds the bay, hence the name. Maybe it was due to the drab day, but it just looked like a drab place, even being on the ocean. Something I became to learn/notice about the Outer Hebrides during our trip is that it consists mainly of rock, heather, and sheep. We dropped into the tourist centre and I bought a few pamphlets about Barra and the MacNeil castle and of course some postcards to send home to my Aunts to show them where they came from. We then went to a little cafe for breakfast. We were the only ones there! We had a Scottish breakfast then we hit the road. We drove through Castlebay and it's surrounding communities, then we drove right around the island.

The island is quite small and took maybe an hour to loop. We still had a ton of time to kill before we caught our ferry to Eriskay which connects to the Isle of South Uist so we stopped at a pub and had lunch and a drink. Since it was raining we couldn't do anything outside. We drove my some beautiful beaches, but it was too wet to check them out. Although the landscape of the Outer Hebrides is dull, there are beautiful beaches of white sand and blue Atlantic Ocean. Such a disappointment that we couldn't enjoy them.

Before we boarded the ferry we took a drive by the Barra Airport. It is so cool - the planes land on the sand! There is no runway - the sand it the runway! Also proves how remote the island is. We boarded the ferry and arrived in Eriskay 45 minutes later. We drove through Eriskay, some of South Uist and arrived in Lochboisdale where we were staying. We checked into our B&B, Brae Lea House around 5:30pm then walked into the main area of the little village. The main area basically consists of the ferry terminal and a hotel! We went to the Lochboisdale Hotel which was wonderful. They had a really nice pub and restaurant and good food. Thank-God because we spent about 3 hours there! A lot of food and drinks later we walked back to the B&B where we relaxed in the lounge reading.

Here are a few other pictures of Barra. I had a laugh at the Otter Crossing sign so I made Keith stop so I could take a picture.


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