The Skye Boat Song commemorates the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746 after his defeat at Culloden and the ultimately doomed heroics of his Jacobite rebels. His escape was, indeed, over the sea to Skye, but our holiday destination was a place that featured much earlier in Charlie’s short-lived Scottish adventure, at the southern tip of South Uist, looking across the water to the island of Eriskay.
Our particular bonnie boat, care of Calmac ferries, took us from Uig on Skye to North Uist’s terminal at Lochmaddy, but for the first day of a holiday the weather was anything but bonnie, that murky grey mist of rain that Scotland does so well enveloping the ferry for the crossing. I’ve previously defined the word driech elsewhere in this blog; if you need a reminder here’s a visual representation from half way across the Minch.
That didn’t seem to deter a group of a dozen or so let’s say more mature birdwatchers (I assume that’s what they were) who appeared to spend the entire voyage with binoculars glued to their eyes. They pointed into the grey beyond, making speculative conversation about what they might be looking at on some other, clearer day.
I applaud their commitment; I had binoculars to hand whose sole contribution from where I was sitting was to make the drizzly mist seem a bit closer.
On arrival at Lochmaddy we had a very pleasant but somewhat rainy drive down to our destination in South Uist. The holiday house awaiting us, Beachcombers, was delightful, whatever the weather.
Sunday was not much drier at first so a visit to the highly recommended Kildonan Museum felt like the sensible thing to do.
It really is excellent. It was originally established in a small cottage by Father John Morrison in the 1950s and 60s, who collected together around seven hundred artefacts representative of the culture of South UIst.
It evolved via an old school house and now a purpose built centre which includes a craft shop, a function room and a very good café as well as the museum itself. There are over ten thousand artefacts covering the history of croft life, domestic life, religion and so much more. The Jacobite collection tells some of the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora Macdonald.
Other notable exhibits include the skeleton of ‘Kilpheder Kate’, the Pictish remains of a forty something lady discovered in an unusual burial cairn revealed by coastal erosion and the reconstruction of her square cairn outside the museum building.
One of the stars of the show is the Clanranald Stone, thought to have been carved to commemorate John of Moidart. It was originally part of the fabric of the Clanranald chapel at Howmore, believed to be the oldest church on South Uist. The stone was stolen in 1990, although, strangely, its absence was not noticed for at least three months (not entirely ridiculous given the remoteness of the unsupervised historical site).
In 1995 the stone was discovered in a flat in Euston, London by the parents of one Lawrence Mabon who had died and whose belongings were being sorted by Mum & Dad. As well as the stone itself there was photographic evidence that Lawrence and his unidentified accomplice had indeed pinched the stone from Howmore. Mr Mabon Snr thought the stone appeared significant and consulted the British Museum, which in turn was able to confirm its provenance and return it to South Uist.
Legend has it that the stone carried a curse of early death for anyone who desecrated the ancient grave. Such legends may or may not be taken with a pinch of salt, depending on your viewpoint. Lawrence Mabon was thirty-three years old when he died; I’m just saying.
The museum was fascinating and has been superbly curated (and the goodies in the café are worth the visit alone). For those with an interest in all things historical, Flora Macdonald’s birthplace is also nearby, signposted from the main road.
With the weather turning kinder we headed west to the infinite beach that runs the length of the island’s Atlantic coast and ended our afternoon with a walk down to the south-west corner of the island.
Beachcombers cottage sits at the southern end of the island and overlooks the Sound of Eriskay, best known as the site of the sinking of the SS Politician in 1941 along with its various cargo. After rescuing those passengers and crew that they could, the locals turned their attention to the ship’s cargo, notably a not inconsiderable number of bottles of whisky bound for the other side of the Atlantic (accounts differ but definitely north of a quarter of a million).
The cat and mouse antics around the liberation and secretion of the whisky among the dunes, crofts and numerous hidey holes of the enterprising islanders versus the excise men who attempted to reclaim the cargo for the government has long since passed into folklore; the partly fictionalised story was immortalised in the book and film Whisky Galore.
Beachcombers cottage living room has two walls of glass which offer a panoramic and unrivalled view of the islands of Eriskay, Barra, Fuday and other small isles. It also has a half bottle of the aforementioned ‘Politician’ whisky displayed in a sealed, glass cubby hole. I’m assured the contents would be undrinkable now due to the use of lead based caps back in the day but it’s an interesting artefact from a well-documented piece of recent history. I satisfied myself with just a look while enjoying a glass of something a little more contemporary (albeit at least 12 years old itself, of course!).
All in all it was a most comfortable and satisfactory base for our stay.
Eriskay is joined to South Uist by a causeway, a mile or so long, and there are great views and walks to be had there. A recommended circuit will take you from the Barra ferry terminal in a vaguely circular tour, taking in Coilleag a’Phrionnsa (The Prince’s Beach), the island’s village, a wee bit of a haul up to higher ground to appreciate the views and a wander to the east coast where Skye and the small isles stand proud against the mainland (assuming the weather is kind, which it was for us).
The walk directions told us the route passed in front of the Am Politician inn. A minor amendment by our good selves introduced a small diversion through the front door of Am Politician and a round of drinks to refresh ourselves. I can state with some certainty that this modification to the walk has merit.
On what may be the only flat area of ground big enough to accommodate it, lies the island’s football pitch. That may not sound that exciting but if I tell you that FIFA, the world’s governing body for the game of football, includes this pitch in its list of the eight most remarkable places to play football in the world its street-cred ratchets up considerably whether the beautiful game is your thing or not.
The Prince’s Beach is so named because this is where Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot on Scottish soil, having travelled from Italy to rouse his Jacobite rebels into action. It was on Eriskay and South Uist that Charlie won the admiration and heart of Flora Macdonald. She ultimately engineered his escape from the mainland to Skye on his ‘bonnie boat’ after his failed sorties to try and claim back the throne of Scotland.
The beach is wonderfully romantic and soul-healing, albeit just the tiniest bit spoiled now by a geometric glass carbuncle of a house that someone has seen fit to plonk on the hillside above. It could not be less in keeping with the island vibe; why do people do that?
Eriskay is also famous for its wild white ponies, which we encountered outside our South Uist cottage as well as spotting a couple more on Eriskay itself.
We ventured further afield later in the week, our objective to spend a day touring South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist and stopping where the fancy took us along the way.
Highlights included the ‘Our Lady of the Isles’ statue, a white granite joy sculpted by Hew Lorimer and, at thirty feet tall, it is the largest religious statue in Britain. It stands on the hillside, strangely but somehow aptly juxtaposed with the military gubbins on the hilltop above it (South Uist has a visible military presence as they test missiles out towards the ocean and monitor the North Atlantic activity from here). All of human life, or some such thing I suppose.
Amongst the many other views and delights along the way we visited the Salar smokehouse which offers first class smoked salmon options and the St. Kilda viewpoint (the weather again being kind and allowing us a very satisfactory view of said distant islands to point at).
The Hut of the Shadows, is a quirky art installation near Lochmaddy incorporating a camera obscura which looks across the Bay; the path to it includes a decidedly wobbly footbridge.
There is also good walking around the Langass forest plantation , although time was getting the better of us and we couldn’t fully do it justice.
The week progressed and the weather remained good. We swam in the sea – at the Prince’s Beach, where else, as it had become a favourite spot to revisit – wet suits the order of the day. It was May but Billy Connolly himself has said Scotland has two seasons, June and Winter, and to be honest wet suits work equally well in both.
There are many walk options on South Uist. We visited Howmore, a distant west coast settlement with a quaint thatched youth hostel and, more importantly, the ruins of the churchyard and four chapels generally regarded as the most important Christian site in the Outer Hebrides. The Clanranald Stone, now on display at the Kildonan Museum as mentioned previously, was originally in one of the four chapels before its ill-fated disappearance.
There are extensive beach and dune walks on the nearby coastline.
Another favourite walk was to Rubha Aird a’Mhuile, South Uist’s most westerly point. It is an unusual headland extending into the sea but encircling a small fresh water loch that teems with vast numbers of birds: waders and oyster catchers, ducks and skuas and skylarks and many more. A classic geometric trig point marks the western-most point on South Uist.
On yet another day we visited Loch Eynort on the east coast, where there are more walk options around the shore of this beautiful sea loch.
The week ticked on. We visited the Prince’s Beach a couple more times, notably on one early morning jaunt where we took our traditional rise and shine cuppa and biscuits out in a flask and basket for a change and enjoyed them sitting on a rock and watching nature’s show.
Our last full day saw the weather close in once again, giving us the perfect excuse to have a lazy morning and then to head along to the Polochar Inn for a rather good lunch. If you’ve taken the trouble to come this far don’t eschew the opportunity to eat here. If the weather had been kinder a beer or two at the outside tables would have been the icing on the cake but a very acceptable selection of fish and scampi lunches ticked enough boxes to leave us happy.
The next day we travelled home and day to day life grabbed us once more, but the space and peace of the Uists is still remarkably close if I just close my eyes and bring it to mind.
For the record, our planning and subsequent enjoyment was greatly enhanced by Mark Rowe’s excellent Bradt travel guide, Outer Hebrides, first published in 2017, which gives extensive detail about all the islands in the chain from sights and walks to eateries, accommodation, histories and travel tips. Well worth our modest investment and we already know the islands well – invaluable for relative newcomers. Our trusty and well-worn map and Paul and Penny Webster’s 40 walks also added value as always.
Roghadal or bust 
I am catching up with your posts! I’ve been to the Western Isles. Mixture of weather and on South Uist and Eriskay it poured with rain and a continuous hoolie resulting in a rough crossing to Barra! I it was a photography holiday. Loved the machair in. full bloom. Stacks, standing stones great and I saw a corncrake (I am a sucker for wildlife). I guess I have to visit the Isles again and catch up with the. missed bits! But not with black pudding
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