Yorkshire coast

An island odyssey

Lois and Alan go island-hopping around the Outer Hebrides…

WORDS & PHOTOS: Lois Parker

We set off on a cloudy morning in our two-week-old Auto-Sleeper Symbol Plus, named Sybil, to explore the Western Isles, or Outer Hebrides, as they are also known, on a journey that would be over 2,000 miles, and in a brand-new campervan.

Our first stop was at the Cumbria Centre Celebration Rally at Lowther Castle, Penrith, where the Caravan and Motorhome Club (C&MC) Concert Band, of which we are members, were to play. We had a very pleasant weekend there with our friends and moved on three days later to one of our favourite sites, at Englethwaite Hall (C&MC). This was mainly to charge our batteries – our own and Sybil’s!

Next day saw us driving up past Carlisle and Glasgow, over the Clyde and up to Loch Lomond, where we stayed on a beautiful CL, Gartfairn Farm, with views right over the loch. It was very peaceful and we enjoyed just lazing about and enjoying our new campervan. In fact, while we were there, we proudly showed two other couples around Sybil – they were surprised at the comfortable layout and the amazing amount of storage space.

From Loch Lomond we headed straight up to Oban to North Ledaig Caravan Park and were able to pitch right on the front row looking out to sea. We spent a day looking around Oban, an interesting little town, and collecting our Hopscotch tickets for the Caledonian MacBrayne ferries we would be using over the next two weeks.

We were in the ferry queue early the next afternoon for the four-and-a-half-hour journey across to Barra, arriving at the small village of Castlebay in the evening. Our first site was Borve Camping and Caravan Site just a few miles out from Castlebay and we were given a very warm welcome and shown to a pitch just set back from the rocks overlooking the bay. Absolutely beautiful! Next morning, we got on our bikes to explore. We had underestimated the steep hills and our low fitness levels, but we managed to get a fair distance. Castlebay itself is small, with a bank, shop and café, but its claim to fame is Kisimul Castle, which sits just out in the bay. Later, we drove down over a causeway to Vatersay, another small island, where we saw the ruins of a Catalina fl ying boat from 1944, and a memorial to the crew who died in the crash. Barra has a tiny

ABOVE View from Eriskay across the sound

BELOW LEFT TO RIGHT Oban from the harbour wall; Barra's runway is the beach!

Lois & Alan Campervan fans

Alan and Lois have had several different campervans and enjoy touring around UK, Europe and Norway; and band weekends with the Caravan and Motorhome Club Concert Band

ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT Sculpture of otters with a salmon at Barra ferry terminal; Eriskay Harbour BELOW Moorcroft Camping from the beach, North Uist airport where the planes from Glasgow land on the beach.

From Barra we took the ferry to Eriskay and then drove up to South Uist and Kilbride Campsite, which was very well appointed and even had a café. We headed to the community shop the next day – an amazing place, which sold everything from wheelbarrows to cream cakes!

Most of the islands seem to have one big shop like this, so no problems stocking up while you’re away, and it’s great fun, too. We tried to visit the museum at Kildonan but it was closed at the time. The coffee shop there was good, though, and we got some lovely woolly hats at the craft shop to keep out the wind... and the midges in that area – the only place we were really troubled by them.

Our next stop was at Moorcroft Holidays on North Uist, near Carinish. Again, we had a wonderful pitch overlooking the sea, and the site was very well equipped.

We explored Benbecula at one end of North Uist and Berneray at the other end, finding lovely places to eat and enjoying exhilarating walks along the beaches.

From Bernaray, we went by ferry across to Harris, about an hour’s journey, negotiating a route around all the little islands, and landing in Leverburgh. We stayed at Pairc Niseaboist, a campsite run by the West Harris Trust, which is only small but very well run, and near to a small complex of art shops and a café. It was very windy while we were there and we had spectacular surf rolling up the beach in front of us. Tarbert is the only real town on Harris, boasting a supermarket, a gin distillery, a Harris tweed shop, a great café and a shop that sold absolutely everything!

The weather was wet and cloudy on Harris but, despite that, we continued to explore, finding the Golden Road, which runs down the east side of the island. The road was very narrow in places. It ran from the southern end of Harris over the mountainous east side and there was a definite spooky atmosphere created by the swirling fog that enveloped us.

We had a little sunshine the next morning as we drove up through North Harris to Stornaway on Lewis, where we stayed at Laxdale Holiday Park, about a mile out of town.

We walked into town and wandered along the harbour and checked out the shops. We found a most interesting collection of offcuts of Harris Tweed in a former 260-yearold stable block! Lewes Castle in Stornaway has an exceptionally good museum and café, and woodland walks in good weather. The cliffs at the Butt of Lewis are spectacular with a lighthouse close by.

We then caught the ferry to Ullapool and continued on the NC500 route up to the north coast, across the top and back down through the Highlands to Glasgow, Cumbria, and our home in Leicestershire – but that’s another story!

We stayed BORVE CAMPING AND at CARAVAN SITE 104 Borve, Isle of Barra HS9 5XR isleofbarra.com/ borvecampsite.htm

KILBRIDE CAMPSITE 9 West Kilbride, Isle of South Uist HS8 5TT kilbride-campsite.business.site MOORCROFT HOLIDAYS 17 Carinish, Isle of North Uist HS6 5HN moorcroftholidays.com PAIRC NISEABOIST Isle of Harris HS3 3AE westharristrust.org/camping LAXDALE HOLIDAY PARK 6 Laxdale Lane, Laxdale, Isle of Lewis HS2 0DR laxdaleholidaypark.com