2 - Barra and Vatersay - Part 1

Saturday 6th May – Barra and Vatersay - 20.7 km
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I left my campervan in the carpark with screens fixed on all the windows and at around 7:50 I boarded the ferry to Airdmhor – a very scenic crossing to Barra, with diving birds and seals – especially on the rocks approaching Barra.

Arriving at Airdmhor

I walked to the bus stop, and finding no bus and no passengers waiting, I turned around to the back of the terminal building to take a photo of the otter sculpture – a very captivating portrayal of two otters pursuing a fish, glinting in the morning sunlight.

Otter sculture at the Airdmhor ferry terminal

As I turned back, a minibus swept through the carpark at its maximum safe speed, as though negotiating a motorway roundabout, and despite my frantic waving, was gone again in a matter of seconds. That was my planned bus ride to Castlebay that I had missed.  I therefore needed to review my strategy for my traverse of Barra. I could wait for the next bus, which would mean reaching Vatersay in the afternoon and would probably add a day to this excursion. I decided to reverse my plan and walk south over the tops of the hills and then make a choice, whether to return north by bus or walking via the west coast. Once I’d set off, it dawned on me that the morrow would be Sunday with no buses. My new route plan was set: south via the spine of Barra; north via the west coast. However, my time scale was still flexible. 

The first road section along the Airdmhor peninsular is gentle but not remarkable in its sights, but the sounds on this late spring, sunny morning were a delight. Sounds I recognised from my 1975 trip to Barra of snipe display flights – a throbbing, drumming sound, repeated from all sides – so distinctive. Although I’ve seen snipe since – so often flushed out of hiding among boggy tussocks, and darting upwards before coasting down to a new refuge – I hadn’t watched and listened to their display flights and was looking forward to renewing this experience, but not today – they were to be heard but not seen. After the junction and a turn south, cuckoos were calling and the day started to warm a little. I took a photo at Bagh a Tuath (Bagh = bay, Tuath = north, so literally ‘North Bay’); a somewhat silhouetted image of a scatter of islets, seaweed and promontories with glistening reflections of sunlight on a shimmering sea.

Bagh a Tuath

Turning west at the A888, I was transported into a different setting altogether, with woodland, a stream and banks of bluebells and primroses. I then was faced with a decision. To continue along the road to its highest point before turning south over the line of hilltops leading south down the spine of the island would have been easier, but I was keen to get off tarmac onto wild land. So, at the end of the woodland (695033) I took the second gate, crossed the stream and tried to follow an impossible objective of curving around the loch following the contours. I found it difficult and slow going with lots of lumps and hollows. I think it would have been quicker to have continued up the road to the end of the loch and then turned SE on the well-made track(at 688033). Joining this track (694027) south of the loch, I turned SE until I spied a brown post ( 696023) marking a route toward Beinn Bhirisig. Intermittent posts continued to mark out a route on the north side of a gully with a small stream (bearings of 225 then 260 degrees). Once clear of the lower track the posts bore “Hebridean Way” plates – perhaps the lower ones had fallen victim to trophy hunters? Around 690024, the stream turned with a babbling drop, the barbed wire had a convenient break, and I topped up my water and added Aquaclear – 11:05. Looking back, the hills of Rhum and the Cuillins of Skye dominated a blue trace of islands across the indistinct sea horizon.

Looking NW on the ascent towards Beinn Bhirisig

Reaching the col at 11:30, I turned north, left my rucksack on a rocky hump, and went for a quick spree up Beinn Bhirisig. The panorama from east around to north, incorporating smaller isles off Barra, Eriskay and South Uist is somewhat obscured by the closer hills, but well worth the detour.

360 degree panorama from Beinn Bhirisig - from left to right: east - south (Heabhal) - west - north (S. Uist) - east

For some mysterious reason, the Hebridean Way is signposted to ascend one gulley to the col and then descend through the opposite gulley, so that its highest point is one where most of the view is obscured and the ascent and descent appears to be for the sake of the exercise or for the notion of following a historic route followed by Hebrideans in past times – if the latter, then why not just use the road, which lies along the most used historic route? Alternatively, to make the route a pleasurable and satisfying experience, it would be so simple to incorporate a traverse of Beinn Bhirisig (from the col to the high point of the road at its north - 684033) into this route without any addition of distance.

North from Beinn Bhirisig

North from Beinn Bhirisig - Beinn Mhor on S. Uist is the flat-topped highest point left of centre