The Outer Hebrides: Where Ocean, Culture and Wilderness Collide

Wild and Wonderful: The Uists and Barra

Linked by a chain of causeways, the Uists — North Uist, Benbecula, and South Uist — are woven together by land and sea. Their landscapes are a tapestry of lochans, sweeping beaches, rocky inlets and machair plains bursting into colour in spring. Expect dazzling displays of wildflowers, the shimmer of mackerel in the shallows, and flocks of bleach-white lambs tottering across quiet single-track roads.

These islands are a paradise for nature lovers. Off the coasts, puffins, gannets and guillemots can often be spotted. Inland estuaries are havens for waders, while golden eagles and hen harriers patrol the moorlands. Listen carefully in the long grasses around the RSPB reserve at Balranald (North Uist) and you might hear the rasping call of the elusive corncrake.

Lochmaddy (North Uist) and Lochboisdale (South Uist) are the islands’ principal ports, with whitewashed houses, local shops and sea-facing hotels. From Lochboisdale, gaze across to Canna and Rum, or spot Calvay Island, where a lighthouse and castle ruins once sheltered Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Benbecula offers hikers a chance to summit Rueval, while beachcombers can visit Poll na Crann – affectionately known as Stinky Bay, depending on the day’s tide and seaweed.

To the south, Barra stands as the most southerly inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides. Settled since the Bronze Age, it was made famous in the classic 1949 film Whisky Galore!. Today, its iconic sights include Kisimul Castle, rising from the sea in Castlebay, and Northbay’s beach runway, where scheduled flights land and take off right on the sand.