The Isle of Barra (08-01-19)

Driving lesson #2: No sooner had we gotten the hang of driving on the left side of the road, than we were introduced to single track driving.  On Barra, most of the roads are single track- a one lane road with pull offs about every 50 yards or so.

When a car is headed towards you, whichever one is closest to the"passing place" pulls over, so the other car can pass. On Barra it was reasonably easy- the roads aren't too busy and are well marked.

The biggest issue was the speed at which the locals drive- and I bet they complain about how slow the tourists drive!

We only had two days on the island, but the weather was pretty cooperative, so Paul and I set out to hike "the Heaval".

 This is the tallest hill on the island, with an elevation gain of about 900 feet.



There was no specific trail up the hill- just lots of intersecting paths, so we had to figure it out as we went.

Although the clouds kept coming and going, we were able to get good views of the town of Castlebay.

One of the highlights of Barra were the beaches.  One after another, they were absolutely gorgeous..

 Our meeting  with Colum, the local genealogist, had netted us the information as to where my ancestors had lived on the outer Hebrides islands.  

We were able to drive past the lands where the MacMullin branch of my family lived...

Being such a small island, we didn't need much time to see all the sights, so two days was enough for the highlights.

Our next real destination was the Isle of Skye, but we needed two days to get there. The trip involved two more ferry rides- one from Barra to South Uist, and one from North Uist to Skye, so we spent the night on North Uist to break up the trip.

Along the way we drove past the ruins of the MacDonald Castle, Borve, which is located on the island of Benbecula.  The castle was built in the 1300s, and abandoned by 1715. According to Colum, this was the castle of my MY MacDonalds.











We stopped for lunch at the restaurant The "Am Politician" on the isle of Eriskay. We were happy to eat at this particular restaurant, but the reason WHY, involves the telling of our story about Whisky Galore:



In 1941, the SS Politician, a cargo ship carrying 264,000 bottles of whisky was en route to Jamaica from Liverpool.  On February 5th, it ran aground off the coast of Eriskay.









Before the boat sank, most  of its cargo was recovered happily by nearby island inhabitants.












The story was written as a novel, and then made into a movie in 1949.  The movie was remade in 2016.  Long before we started on this trip, we looked for the 1949 version of the movie and could never find it.
We ended up watching the 2016 version with Mike and Julie months ago.












 While we were on Barra, our hostess thought she found the original on YouTube, and set it up for us to watch- but about 15 minutes into it we realized it was a sequel- Rockets Galore!- which we were happy to watch, but wasn't what we were looking for.

The restaurant Am Politician celebrates the story of the SS Politician ( everyone survived) and they have several pieces from the original ship, including a whisky bottle with some of it's original contents still in it!

 After that huge lunch,  we walked to the local store to pick up cheese and crackers, which served as dinner, on the back deck at our B N B.














The views, and the sunset, were amazing.

Our first day on Barra (07-30-19) by Julie

Croit Na H Aiblne (croft with a river) B N B-
Mary Ann our hostess, is the Gaelic teacher
at the island School and  was pleased to
advise Sue that based on her family history  she is a Hebridean! Mary Ann also "rang up" Culum, the local genealogist who was happy to meet with us in the morning and provide Sue with an abundance of information.

After meeting with Culum we took a driving tour around the island.

It was fun to meet the local oyster farmers....

Saint Barr's Catholic Church is the oldest church on the island 

Barra airport; the only beach in the world where commercial planes land, only at low tide!

After watching a plane land we crossed the road and walked a path  of grassy  dunes to the Traigh Eais beach on the Atlantic.  The guys watched as Sue and I took off our shoes and cooled off our toes.

Hand picked Scallops ! Perfect meal to end our  day wonderful to discover Barra with Sue and Paul.

Island Hopping (07-29-19)

Our next destination was the island of Barra. Barra is a very small island, with a population of about 1000, located in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland.  It holds special meaning to me, because in the early 1800s, my MacMullin/Campbell ancestors left Barra to settle in Nova Scotia.

Getting there required a 5 hour ferry ride from the picturesque town of Oban.

We were lucky enough to have calm seas for our crossing, and were able to enjoy lunch in one of the restaurants aboard the ship, after which, some of us napped and some of us read books.

After about 5 and a half hours, our ferry arrived and we got our first glimpse of the small town of Castlebay, and the ruins of Kisimul Castle, on it's own small harbor island.

After settling in our B & B we set off to find some dinner.  Our hostess offered to call and order us a table at one of the few restaurants in town, but we opted to "wing it".  We quickly found out why she offered, and why it was mistake to turn her down.  On the Islands ( and maybe most of Scotland, I don't know) anyone who wants to be sure to get dinner at a restaurant makes a reservation. We checked with several places, but they couldn't fit us in.

After a drink at the Castlebay Hotel, overlooking the harbor, we stopped at the local grocery store and picked up some fruit, cheese and crackers, and called it dinner.