Barra

Overview

Long famed for its beauty - boasting beaches, hills, machair and moor - all in a small island, Barra is a special place to visit - especially if you arrive by plane.

The most southerly of the inhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides, Barra was the stronghold of the Clan MacNeil and last resting place of the author Compton Mackenzie, who wrote Whisky Galore - a romanticised story based on the facts of the 1941 shipwreck of the SS Politician and subsequent salvage of 240,000 bottles of whisky by the islanders of neighbouring Eriskay.

Barra is accessible by ferry, which arrives at the main settlement, Castlebay. The airport is one of the most unusual in the world, with flights landing on the beach at Cockle Strand in between tides. At high tide the runway disappears beneath the waves.