Outer Hebrides trip day 4

[Ken Rennie]

We had always intended this to be a travelling day with an evening ferry booked to take us across to Eriskay and then on up the chain of islands to North Uist. We had noticed this church and its large graveyard just less than a mile from our campsite so decided to visit after we had packed up. As we travelled through the islands the huge graveyards stands out in this sparsely populated region. Depopulation due to lack of jobs for the young and the difficulty making a living off the land in this often inhospitable land added to the late 19thC clearances where people were turned off their traditional lands to make way for sheep means that the population is a fraction of previous ages. Barra is a largely Roman Catholic island, as you go North the islands suddenly become Presbyterian with some tiny hamlets having multiple churches of slightly different varieties of Church of Scotland.
This is St Barr's church on Barra, the Church is the stone building slightly right of centre

This is a Gaelic speaking land, Anna would be Anna MacDonald in English but in Gaelic Women are Nic xxxx and men Mac xxxx. It gets more complicated than this at times.

The "Church" interior, a newer and larger church is a few miles North of here.

Since the weather had changed we decided to try and board an earlier ferry and waited at the nearby ferry terminal where the crew got us on, but only just. In the end we abandoned our booked ferries and just turned up for a ferry when we wanted to travel and managed to get on each one. As you can see it was a tight squeeze

Very calm seas but as we nearewd the shores of Eriskay we were hit by very heavy rain

"Blackhouses" on North Uist, ironically many are painted white. Originally made without mortar, the builders must have been skilled to construct house like this that withstood the often Hurricane force winds.

We had intended to spend a day on North Uist but the campsite was full so on to the ferry to Harris and the campsite in the dunes at Niosaboist.
After a smoked salmon meal with dry white wine (Glamping) a stroll on the beach for some photogrpahs, this time with a camera instead of the earlier phone shots.

 

[AlanLichty]

This has been a really fascinating trip for both the scenery as well as the history. Thanks for bringing us along - your ongoing narrative of the journey has been something to look forward to each day.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ken,

I am with Alan, I am really enjoying you taking us along like this. For many of us, this is a foreign land that we have heard of perhaps but not visited. I know as someone who was an avid reader growing up, I had read many a book that the location was in Ireland and/or Scotland. So for me, I know I really appreciate this, and it's perhaps something more of us should think about documenting our travels like this.

It's interesting how your car just barely fit in. Not too much wiggle room there.

I liked that graveyard, and it's interesting how they spell between men and women. That church is so tiny! And I didn't know there were variations of the Church of Scotland.