UNIQUE COTTAGES

Barra (Barraigh)

Just four miles wide and eight miles long, Barra has a well-deserved reputation for being the Western Isles in miniature. It has sandy beaches, backed by machair, glacial mountains, prehistoric ruins, Gaelic culture, and a welcoming Catholic population of just over 1300. The only settlement of any size is CASTLEBAY (Bagh a Chaisteil), which curves around the barren rocky hills of a wide bay on the south side of the island. It's difficult to imagine it now, but Castlebay was a herring port of some significance back in the nineteenth century, with up to 400 boats in the harbour and curing and packing factories ashore. Barra's religious allegiance is immediately announced by the large Catholic church, Our Lady, Star of the Sea, which overlooks the bay; to underline the point, there's a Madonna and Child on the slopes of Heaval (1260ft), the largest peak on Barra, and a fairly easy hike from the bay. Castlebay has a castle in its bay, the medieval islet-fortress of Kisimul Castle (April-Sept daily 9.30am-6.30pm; Oct Mon-Wed & Sat 9.30am-4.30pm, Thurs 9.30am-12.30pm, Sun 2-4.30pm; HS; £3), ancestral home of the MacNeil clan. The castle burnt down in the eighteenth century, but when the 45th MacNeil chief - conveniently enough an architect by training - bought the island back in 1937, he set about restoring the castle. You can take a stroll round it by heading down to the slipway at the bottom of Main Street, where you can signal to the HS ferryman to come over and get you (weather permitting; tel 01871/810313).

To learn more about the history of the island, and about the postal system of the Western Isles, it's worth paying a visit to Barra Heritage Centre (Mon-Fri 11am-5pm; £1), housed in an unprepossessing block on the road that leads west out of town. One of Barra's most fascinating sights is its airport, on the north side of the island, where planes land and take off from the crunchy shell sands of Tràigh Mhór, better known as Cockle Strand; the exact timing of the flights depends on the tides, since at high tide the beach (and therefore the runway) is covered in water. As its name suggests, the strand is also famous for its cockles and cockleshells, the latter being used to make harling, the rendering used on most Scottish houses. In 1994, mechanical cockle extraction using tractors was introduced, and quickly began to decimate the cockle stocks and threaten the beach's use as an airport; as a result it has now been banned, in favour of traditional hand-raking.

Barra's tourist office (April to mid-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; also open to greet the ferry; tel 01871/810336) is situated on Main Street in Castlebay just round from the pier. In Castlebay itself, the Castlebay Hotel (tel 01871/810223; £60-70) is the most comfortable place to stay, followed by Tigh-na-Mara (tel 01871/810304; £40-50; April-Oct), a guest house a couple of minutes' walk from the pier by the sea; another good choice is Grianamul (tel 01871/810416, ronnie.macneil@virgin.net; £50-60; April-Oct). There's a GHHT hostel (no phone) in Breibhig (Brevig), a couple of miles east of Castlebay, where you can also camp. Places to eat include the Kisimul Galley  café which specializes in cheap-and-cheerful Scottish fry-ups. For more fancy fare, head to the Castlebay Hotel's cosy bar, which regularly has cockles, crabs and scallops on its menu, and good views out over the bay.

List of cottages in this area:

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