Watch our video of this holiday on YouTube!
As we enjoyed our camping trips so much last year, we decided that this trip in summer should be amazing (weather permitting – assuming no storms or rain deluges!)
So we have booked it for July, during the Scottish school holidays (a time we normally avoid taking holidays).
Having googled photos we are looking forward to more stunning white sand beaches similar to the ones on Harris & Lewis, some nice walks and a totally slow and laid back pace of life with few other people around (obviously except for the campsites which we expect will be at full capacity in July!)
Planning
We wanted to see as many islands as we can without the need to travel too far or take too many ferries. In the end we decided on Barra, Vatersay, Eriskay, South & North Uist and Berneray.
Only Barra to Eriskay requires a ferry crossing, the rest are connected by causeways.
To be honest, as its a camping trip in Scotland, our home country, there was really very little to plan.
Some of the ferry timings were not great (eg. having to check in before 6 or 7am, so therefore packing away the tent & camping gear at around 4 or 5am), so we had to tweak things a bit.
Ideally we wanted to go Oban – Barra, Barra – Eriskay, South Uist – Mallaig. This gave the shortest drives there & back.
However, the thought of departing South Uist for Mallaig at 0620am (therefore checking in at 0550am!) was NOT out idea of a relaxing holiday….
After drawing out several different options to consider, we ended up agreeing the best idea for the trip home was to get the ferry from North Uist to Skye (Uig) and then make the 5 or 6 hour drive home to Glasgow from there (Skye is attached to the mainland by a bridge).
So we have booked Oban – Barra for Saturday 1.30pm departure, almost a 5 hour trip, arriving Barra at 6.15pm.
Then on Tuesday Barra – Eriskay (and drive on to our Uist campsite) in the afternoon, a short 40 minute trip, and it gives us a bit more time on Barra.
Finally on Sunday North Uist – Skye for our long drive home (but at least the ferry ride is fairly short).
Here is a link to the ferry website – CalMac
It was difficult to choose the campsites as they all had very good Trip Advisor reviews.
In the end we decided on 3 nights at Scurrival campsite on Barra (the shorter time there as there is less “ground to cover”, both Barra and Vatersay, which is connect via a causeway, are small islands).
So that left 5 nights on North Uist to cover Eriskay, North & South Uist and Berneray). For North Uist we chose Moorcroft campsite as we thought it was fairly central for touring these islands, and again great reviews on Trip Advisor!
Costs
Well, this is a cheap holiday! The ferries came to apx £162 for all 3 trips with our car and 2 passengers.
The Barra campsite is £15 per night with electric hook-up, and the Uist campsite is £20 per night, again with electric hook-up.
There’s not much in the way of restaurants nearby, so we will likely be mainly self-catering. I doubt we will spend much more than we would staying at home.
Blog
Saturday 6th July –
We started the day by cramming the car full of our camping gear and inflatable canoe, then it was off to Oban to get the ferry to Castlebay on Barra.
We hadn’t been to Oban for several years and were very pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Although we didn’t have lunch there as we had brought sandwiches, there were lots of restaurants that looked great, serving fresh seafood etc, some of them had a lovely location on the waterfront. I think we shall go back sometime just for a one or two night trip. As it was, on this occasion, we had about an hour and a half spare to have a quick look around and buy an ice cream (from the “Pokey Hat” – home made Italian ice cream, we highly recommend it!)
The ferry trip to Barra was good, a 5.5 hour crossing and very scenic, especially as we sailed along the channel with the mainland on one side and Mull on the other. We even saw some Minky whales during the sail, which was fantastic!
We sat on deck for a while enjoying the views, then as it was a bit cold, moved indoors, but still were able to enjoy the views thanks to the big picture windows.
Both of us had fish and chips for dinner on the ferry, the fish they said, was freshly caught in Barra and was very nice.
Arriving at Castlebay, you can see the ruined castle as you sail in to the harbour. Our campsite was Scurrival, which is at the top end of the island, and the setting is just stunning! Looking over the colourful machair to white sand beaches and turquoise sea, so beautiful! And our electric pitch is just perfect, looking to that exact view.
The campsite owner Angus is so nice, and the campsite has all the facilities in an old Croft house, I can’t think of anything that is missing, they seem to have everything you could need. Again, we would thoroughly recommend!
The drive here was stunning, we can’t wait to explore further over the next few days, and hopefully if it’s not too windy, get out in our canoe. So excited!
As a footnote, we are so glad we decided to bring our small heater and electric blanket, as it is so cold! July in Scotland…..
Sunday 7th July –
What an absolutely stunning island Barra is! Wow! We loved Harris and Lewis, and they had some awesome beaches, but for us Barra is the creme de la creme! Stunning white sand beaches and turquoise sea at almost every turn, very quiet, very remote, tiny little villages and scattering of houses here and there, it is just perfect.
And this is July, peak season, there seems to be hardly any other tourists here. The beautiful beaches, although not quite deserted, are just so quiet, just a scattering of people sitting enjoying the view, having a stroll or walking their dog. And Vatersay, which is adjoined by a small bridge, has 2 beautiful crescent shaped beaches on either side of a thin stretch of machair.
We slept with just the mesh closed over on our front tent door, so if we woke we could watch the sunrise. The sea air made for a good sleep, but I woke a bit before sunrise and for a short while enjoyed the sky beginning to light up before I went back to sleep again (sunrise is about 4.30am, so a bit early for rising!)
One of the unusual highlights of Barra is watching the one (or two) daily flights come in and land on the beach – the timetable for the flights is based on the tides. I believe this is the only airport in the UK where the runway is a beach!
The cafe at the airport does some amazing home made cakes, very generous portions too, one between the 2 of us was ample. Nice creamy cappuccinos also, again we would highly recommend.
After watching the fight land and then take off back to Glasgow, we returned to the campsite and took our canoe out for a wee paddle, it was so nice, and felt very safe as the tide was coming in and we stayed in shallow waters.
For dinner, as it ended up being a lovely sunny afternoon / evening, we decided to have a BBQ, however, either we timed it badly or the flies from miles around smelled the food, we were overrun with hoards of flies, the worst thing was we had also left the tent door open and several dozen ended up inside (just as well we had brought a can of Raid with us), so lesson learned, wait till late and cook inside the tent and / or don’t leave the tent door open when you are eating outdoors…
To end the day we watched what was probably the most spectacular sunset we have ever seen…
Monday 8th July –
I woke early enough to be able to watch a spectacular sunrise around 4/5am, which had me thinking we were set up for another glorious day.
As it happened, although the day started out dry it quickly became very overcast and very cold, by early evening the weather deteriorated into heavy rain. We were very glad that we had done our island “tour” yesterday when the weather was nice.
Today we didn’t do much, we had hoped / planned to go out at some point in the canoe, but it was so cold and windy that in the end we didn’t. Instead we shared a cake at the airport cafe in the afternoon and watched a couple more planes land and then take off.
Earlier we had driven into Castlebay to get an Indian take-away to heat up later for dinner (the campsite has a microwave). The cafe (Kisimul) was highly recommended and the food was great!
We ate dinner inside the tent and listened to the rain battering down, then watched a couple of episodes of a tv show that Paul had downloaded to his iPad.
No spectacular sunsets tonight, and the forecast for tomorrow is pretty dreadful – unlucky timing as we have to pack the camping gear away tomorrow and then put it all back up again when we get to Uist…
Tuesday 9th & Wednesday 10th July –
The weather has continued to deteriorate and we have not had the best couple of days weather-wise. Rain was heavy on Tuesday and we waited until quite late in the day to pack up, then headed to airport cafe for lunch (yummy Thai squash soup!) The flight that was due in was late, so no landings or take-offs to watch this time.
Our ferry was not until 3.45pm, we had obviously hoped for better weather and to have done more with the morning / early afternoon on Barra.
The crossing was fine, and the sea smooth despite the poor weather. We saw many seals on the rocks as we left Barra.
It was a fairly long drive from Eriskay to our campsite (Moorcroft) on North Uist, unfortunately the “Scotch mist” stopped us from seeing the islands at their best as we drove through.
I suffer from occasional back spasms, which often last at least a week, and we were very unlucky that my back had a spasm as we were packing everything away on Barra. At least now I have diazepam and I took a few pills along with my liquid magnesium, which helped enormously and I managed to help (at least a bit) to pack away and get things put back up later on Uist.
The new campsite gave us a choice of pitches, and we chose the quietest one. The downside, especially given the weather, is that it is about the furthest away from the facilities. Well, at least we have out toilet bucket (a godsend for camping!)
Our campsite is nice, helpful owners, good facilities, if a bit lacking in toilets & showers for the number of campers here. As far as the view goes, well it’s fine, but we were spoilt for sure in Barra at Scurrival.
Dinner was late, we made paella in our tent as the rain poured down. But at least we were warm and dry. I still can’t believe how such a thin tent material can keep you dry! We don’t even use the inner except in winter (but we have been using our electric blanket!) Anyway, as you can see from the photos, we did eventually get to sit out one night!
Overnight, our aerobed, which we had been so pleased with, finally let us down. We aren’t really sure what went wrong, it was fine for the last night in Barra, but last night we woke up feeling like we were in a hammock! The bed had started to lose air, sink and deflate. We needed to top it back up every 2-3 hours. And that will be us for the rest of the holiday. Whoops! We shall see when we be home if Amazon or the seller will send us a replacement. We bought it last Feb or March and can’t remember what the warranty is on it.
The next day (Wednesday) started with pretty heavy rain showers. These continued, but at least mostly as lighter showers, throughout most of the day. So it was pretty dreicht, however we still got out and had a drive around both North Uist and Berneray, which we hope to do again if we get better weather later in the week.
We visited many beaches which we know would have been stunning in better weather, but still were lovely. We saw some more seals, took some drone footage, and looked for any places that might be good to take the canoe out if (when!?) the weather picks up again.
Nobody warned us about the flies though! Midges were non-existent, we haven’t seen any yet, but in certain places the flies come after you in their hundreds! Only in Kalbarri in Australia have we ever experienced anything like this before!
Clachan Sands beach would be just perfect for canoeing, but it was by far the worst place for the flies, so probably not going to happen….
Anyway, here are just a few recommendations for places to stop (from our campsite heading east to west) … Clachan Sands beach (but beware of the boards of flies!), West beach on Bernaray, Hosta beach, Balranald RSPB reserve, Baleshare beach (an island reached by a causeway).
Thursday 11th July –
At last we have an improvement in the weather, not exactly summer sun, but dry and the odd sunny spell, so we are happy enough for now.
We asked at our campsite for recommendations for good places to take out our canoe, and opted for Kallin on Grimsay, which has a slipway into the water, so nice easy access. Bit of a rip tide to watch out for, but we were fine. There are lots of small islands to canoe around, and after a wee potter about, we had a lunch of freshly caught fish & chips at Namara seafood cafe at the harbour.
To add to our trip, we took a short drive around Benbecula (its a small island sandwiched between North and South Uist).
Finally we had a chance early evening to sit out in the sun with some Prosecco and nibbles. After our big lunch we are too full to have a “proper” dinner.
It has clouded over again, so we are not sure that there will be much, if any, of a sunset, but we shall see….
Oh, and we found out the problem with the aerobed, a small nick on the base of it, just as well we always take some duct tape with us, let’s see if this works as a temporary repair! Otherwise, it’s back to re-inflating it every couple of hours….
Friday 12th & Saturday 13th July –
Well, Friday was once again pretty dull and very overcast, with quite a lot of what we call “Scotch mist” that rolled in from the sea. Time was running out waiting for good weather to see the islands at their best, so we chose to head to South Uist and Eriskay, and save North Uist and a return to Berneray for Saturday in the hope of getting brighter weather than we got that last time.
The day started out not too bad on Friday, but quickly the mists rolled in. We managed to see quite a lot of Eriskay (where we headed to first) before the weather got really bad. It’s a small but very beautiful island, with some gorgeous white sand beaches and turquoise seas typical of the Outer Herbrides. Unfortunately one of its most famous beaches, the one where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed, was almost completely wiped out with a sea mist, so we had to use our imagination as to what it would be like on a nice day.
We took lunch at the Politician pub, it’s a lovely place in a lovely setting. The pub is named after the ship “SS Politician” which went down off the coast of Eriskay, along with, among other things, several thousand crates of whiskey – if you have seen the old movie “Whiskey Galore” this is what it was based on!
After crossing the causeway back onto South Uist, we spotted some of the semi-wild ponies, a beautiful sight, just as if they were posing for us to take their picture!
Further into South Uist, we had planned to visit a few of the 20 kilometre worth of beaches along the islands west coast, however after visiting the first couple, we realised there was really nothing to see (yes, the good old “Scotch mist” was still lingering…) We took a small detour towards the east, which is mainly moorland and lochs, and although still very overcast, there was at least something to see.
Back at the campsite we had another night of having to keep reinflating our aerobed every couple of hours, as the duct tape unfortunately didn’t work!
On Saturday, finally the weather picked up! Yippee! We actually had a reasonable amount of sunny spells during our 2nd trip around North Uist and Berneray. Better still, we managed to get out in our canoe. We were both surprised that the water wasn’t actually that cold. However, the air temperature / wind chill was, so we were glad of some warm clothing as we canoed.
A couple of beaches we think are particularly worth a visit are Traigh Ear (walk up to the big sand dune that you can see in the distance for beautiful and far reaching views) and Clachan Sands (coming from the south wait to take the 2nd sign to the sands, the one that goes past the graveyard). Clachan Sands was where we chose to canoe. The only annoying thing there (and in quite a few places) were the flies that keep landing on you (and it felt like some had bitten) and flying into your face. However, during our 8 days we have seen NO MIDGES AT ALL…
On Berneray the West Beach is a must, 3 miles of white sand and dunes. Watch out for the bull in the field that you cross to get there!
We had dinner at the Westford Inn on our way back as we wanted to just chill out for our last night, and also pack away a few things to make it easier in the morning. Their fish and chips were very nice! No room to try a dessert though…
Now we are just sitting in our tent with some wine, partially packed, aerobed now (hopefully) fixed with a bicycle repair kit that Paul found. No WiFi from the tent as we took a quieter out of the way pitch, but I will try to get this posted when we venture up to the facilities block later on.
Tomorrow, we go home the long way, taking the ferry to Uig on Skye and driving home from there. The ferry time was much better doing it this way (11am check in as opposed to something like 6am!) We didn’t fancy trying to pack our camping gear away when it was still dark, so it seemed like the best idea.
Sunday 14th July –
It finally came the time to pack up and get ready to leave North Uist on the ferry from Lochmaddy to Uig on Skye. We were fortunate that we had a nice clam dry day and no wind, so packing up was a fairly easy, albeit lengthy process. The problem with having the bigger tent and electric hook up, is all the extra gear you take to make it more comfortable, and on top of that we had our inflatable canoe.
So once we had managed to squeeze everything into the car, we had about 40 minutes spare on arrival at Lochmaddy for a look around and to enjoy a little bit of sun that had come out. The water was incredibly calm, and a couple of canoeists were out, we thought it would have been a great place to canoe had we had time.
The tiny village has a tiny yacht marina, very cute, with maybe about 6 or 8 yachts in. As we left on the ferry, the clouds rolled in, but this time we were heading towards the sun!
The trip over to Uig was beautiful, the views extended far out to all the surrounding islands, the Cuillins on Skye were clearly visible from miles away and the sea was so flat! We were super excited as we neared Uig (about 20 minutes out) and a pod of around 15-20 porpoises were enjoying themselves in the water right beside the ferry! One of our fellow passengers said they would likely be fishing. It was such a treat to watch them!
Driving through Skye & Glencoe on the way home was a rare treat, with hardly a cloud in sight. We made a few stops for photos and drone footage. As we neared Fort William we also got lovely clear views of Ben Nevis. It was a great end to the trip, to enjoy such a beautiful drive back home.
We hadn’t made dinner plans, so a stop at our local Wetherspoons pub for pizza sorted us out before we finally got home. Half our stuff is still in the car needing to be unloaded tomorrow & sorted for our next trip, wherever that might be….
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