A Return to the Outer Hebrides

by Alan Cole · Friday, August 1st, 2025

This post marks the beginning of a series documenting our return to the Outer Hebrides – retracing old steps, making new memories, and walking the full length of the Hebridean Way.

Back in the Day

The Outer Hebrides are one of our favourite places. I’ve been there a number of times to go surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing, and Anna has joined me a couple of times too. We even went there for our honeymoon. It wasn’t the most glamorous of honeymoons, as we were staying in the back of a transit van, but it suited us at the time – and when you’re in the Outer Hebrides, luxury doesn’t really matter as the natural landscapes are all you need.

That was 21 years ago, before I (or pretty much anyone else, for that matter) had started blogging, so there’s no record of it here, and even our photos are a little faded and not great quality. Here are a few from ‘back in the day’. We were quite young then, weren’t we!

Return to the Hebrides

A lot has happened since then, and with so many other places to visit around the world, we hadn’t been back. We’ve recently put that to rights with a lovely trip that allowed us to revisit our favourite places, re-take some photos, and reminisce. We did things a little differently this time and, for the first week, had a bit more luxury – but it was great to be back in the Outer Hebrides. Hopefully, it won’t be quite so long until we return again.

Getting to the Outer Hebrides

For some reason, we chose fairly complicated travel plans. In the past, we’d taken the ferry from Oban so that we had a van to stay in and all of my windsurfing and surfing toys. This time, we wanted to fly into Barra.

We took the train from Borth to Birmingham, spent a night in a budget hotel near the airport (which included a temporary evacuation due to a fire alarm), then hopped on a flight to Glasgow. We had a 6-hour wait at Glasgow Airport for the connecting flight to Barra – which turned out to be an adventure in itself.

The Flight to Barra

Barra Airport is the only one in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach. Yep – the plane actually lands on the sands of Traigh Mhòr, so flight times are determined by the tides. The size of the plane is also somewhat limited, so excitement mounted as we headed to the departure gate along with just 12 other passengers.

Out of the big plane and into the little one

There was a bit of discussion at the gate when they decided the plane was overweight, and someone would need to leave some luggage behind. We each had a 15kg allowance – Anna and I had just under 20kg between us, so we were well under. Thankfully, someone else volunteered to leave their bag behind, and we were good to go.

We were ushered onto a tiny Twin Otter plane, and even had to change seats to help balance the aircraft. It was all a little cramped inside, and there was no door – or even a curtain – between the passengers and the pilot.

Once everyone was on board, the pilot turned around, knelt on the floor (there wasn’t enough headroom to stand), and gave us the usual safety briefing himself – there was no room for cabin crew. Then we were off!

The flight was smooth, gaining altitude slowly and never very high, so we had great views as we lifted out of Glasgow, passed over Loch Lomond, flew by the Isle of Mull and Tobermory, and on past the islands of Eigg, Rum and Canna. The window I was sitting by steamed up a bit, so it wasn’t great for photos, but it cleared up as we approached Barra for a fairly smooth landing on the sands.

Once we stopped, the pilot turned around in his seat, gave a thumbs up, and said with a big grin, “Everyone OK?” – We loved it!

Literally two minutes later, we were off the plane, had walked across the sands to the ‘airport’ (a small building just off the beach), where our bags were handed to us. We were straight out the door into a waiting taxi. If the ground crew know you, they’ll even carry your bags to your car! If only all flights were this much fun.

Castlebay

We’d booked a taxi in advance, so it was waiting outside ready to take us on the short drive to Castlebay at the southern end of Barra. A German guy from the flight shared the ride with us, and before long we were reacquainted with one of our favourite things about the Outer Hebrides: everyone waves at you as you drive along.

Usually, it’s a thank-you wave for giving way at a passing place on the single-track roads, but not always – they wave if you’re walking, if you’re on a two-lane road, or just because they can. It’s all very friendly and very nice.

We were soon checked into a private cabin behind the hostel – not that there was anyone around or any staff to greet us, so we just let ourselves in and got on with it. The hostel had everything we needed, and after settling in, we went for a stroll around Castlebay, picked up some supplies, and started to relax.

Starting the Hebridean Way

We were here to relax – which is very easy to do on these islands. However, relaxing isn’t exactly my forté, so my plan whilst here was to walk the 155 miles of the Hebridean Way.

Anna was only staying for the first week, so she would be my support crew and occasional companion for the first few days. After that, I’d be going it alone, with everything I needed to survive carried on my back.

The Hebridean Way guidebook said that the first day – from Vatersay across Barra – was one of the toughest of the entire trail. I had to complete it in a single day, as we had a ferry booked the following morning to move on to the Uists.

We had therefore planned for a relatively early start the next day, and had already arranged for the same taxi driver to pick us up.

So, after a long day of travel and excitement, we headed to bed early – ready to begin walking the Hebridean Way tomorrow.