An Island Parish

29-30Jul13

We took the northern route out from Canna before setting a course for The Island of Barra – we particularly wanted to see this end of the Outer Hebrides since watching the BBC series 'An Island Parish'. Out of the gloom from Rhum the sun began to shine and we saw quite a selection of bird life: a white-tailed eagle soaring at the summit; rare manx shearwaters; storm petrels; and the usual guillemots, puffins, gannets, razorbills and gulls. Under full sail we made excellent progress and were soon on the approach to Castlebay to pick up a mooring buoy; these were not in as good a condition as the previous ones we had used and required a little more work to secure a safe line. With hindsight we may have been better anchoring in the more picturesque Vattersay Bay and coming over the next day to see the capital of the island as a gusty S/SW'ly was due and the overnight ferry with its humming generators.

With brief access to the Internet for a weather update, strong winds forecast, we decided to head back towards the mainland ASAP to prevent getting stuck for the next week. So, to get a quick overview of the rest of the island we took the local bus around Barra's one and only main road. Up the east side where rolling hills and sweeping bends opened up dramatic views as we followed the island's contours. A quick visit to the airport where the beach is used as a landing strip at low water and back down the western Atlantic side with its pristine white sand beaches. Chatting with the bus driver, a local of many years, he had criticism for the many TV programmes made here: although he commented that they were very good he was not so happy with some of the editing as blue sky and sunshine was not really an everyday occurence as was suggested, for our short visit we may have to disagree.