Saturday 13 September 2025
Nido's parked up on Scurrival campsite, right at the top of the island of Barra. Our pitch has great views over the sea and islands and out towards Eriskay to the north. Behind us, just over the hill, is the North Atlantic. It's a quirky site, with showers, toilets, washing machine, a fully fitted kitchen and a sitting room, all within what used to be a bungalow lived in by previous owners. Angus owns the campsite but the day to day running is done by Colin, an extremely helpful and informative man with a great sense of humour, who every March leaves his home in Cheshire in his motorhome and drives up to the site, leaving at the end of the season in October. At £22 per night including EHU, it's probably the cheapest campsite on the island and certainly has magnificent views.
Yesterday morning the winds had abated enough to allow the Eriskay to Ardmhor ferry to resume its timetable after 24 hours of cancellation. It's a small RO-RO ferry with a tiny lounge on one side, plus outdoor seating on the deck above. The journey took 45 minutes and we arrived a bit windswept and salt-laden at Ardmhor ferryport. The campsite was about 15 minutes drive, passing Barra airport on the way. This is one of the most unusual airports in the world, where the small planes can only operate at low tide and actually land and take off from the wet beach.
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| Whale vertebrae at the CL - my welly for size comparison! |
Once pitched up we walked down to the sandy beach as the tide was receding and walked about 2 miles around the bay, before reversing our route. After a couple of days cooped up in the van it was lovely to stretch our legs and enjoy some sunshine, interspersed with a couple of very short, rain showers. Back at the van I followed our normal Friday home routine - made a salad and cooked a pizza in the Ridge Monkey and we watched the exPawers weekly YouTube vlog.
This morning was a bit cloudy and Salty and I were rained on during our first walk. Breakfast was some of the excellent smoked salmon we bought from the Hebridean Smokehouse, with scrambled eggs and toast. The plan for today was to drive around the coast of Barra, so we had to pack up the van and headed off down past the beach airport and towards the main road. The Barra ring road follows the coast and we went anti-clockwise first, passing a couple of beaches and through Castlebay, before looping back to our start point.
I then reversed the route (it's not that long) and we drove back, stopping at Castlebay to find the way to the ferry check-in (when we go on Monday morning it will still be dark when we arrive there) and on to layby parking. A short walk back down the single-track road and over the dunes and we were on a sandy beach, with the North Atlantic waves pounding on to the shore. We had it all to ourselves and by now the sun was out and it was HOT! At the end of the beach was a small secluded cove. Cathy decided to have a swim, but we had no costumes or towels with us so, with nobody about, she just skinny-dipped in the Atlantic! I would of course have joined her, but Salty and I need to stay on the beach and act as shark-watch guards! She was buzzing on the walk back and returning to the van I made her a pot of hot tea (I had an espresso) and we sat on an adjacent bench in the hot sunshine, watching the waves and just chilling; we'd waited a long time to do that! On the way back, as we drove towards the beach airport, we timed it perfectly as a plane took a short run along the wet beach and took off right next to us.
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| Skinny-dipping in the Atlantic! |
