A New Season
We’re excited to welcome more faces to our Island home with the arrival of the new tourist season, although our family distillery is open all year, apart from when the man in the red suit arrives, the tourist season is a particular highlight of our year.
It is this time of year we see Barra filled with different people from all walks of life move to and from the Island, people call by our shop and we love to share our time with them - hearing about all the unique stories people have to share, what their travel plans are, how are they enjoying their holidays. It is also such a privilege to welcome you into our distillery, to be able to show everyone first-hand how we have built up our family distillery and of course share our plans for the future.
Each year it always amazes our team when we hear of the distance people have travelled to see the wonders of the Outer Hebrides. Travellers all the way from Peru to Australia, to name but a few is truly incredible and heartening to learn of the distances travelled by people for visiting our Island home.
Seeing the islands beaches full with people enjoying themselves (by full, we of course mean more than one person on the beach at one time!), sharing happy occasions with family, loved ones and let’s not forget Barra itself, famed for its beauty boasting beaches, hills and machairs is a very special place to stay or even visit.
With our local airport being one of the most famous airports in the world, boasting scheduled flights which land on the beach, it makes one of the cleanest landing strips as the tide comes in and washes it twice a day. It is also well known for its cockle strand which can be raked up in low tide. Many people once depended on cockles for survival and even to this day you’ll find locals and visitors down the cockle strand earning a living.
Alongside this stunning stretch of golden sand, you’re treated to another beach parallel, hidden behind the airport. Known as the Traigh Eais, it is simply stunning and can be reached by a walk along the machair. It has some amazingly high sand dunes so dune jumping just cannot be helped!
Alongside this stunning stretch of golden sand, you’re treated to another beach parallel, hidden behind the airport. Known as the Traigh Eais, it is simply stunning and can be reached by a walk along the machair. It has some amazingly high sand dunes so dune jumping just cannot be helped!
Another popular beach is that on Vatersay, on a beautiful summers day the beach can be seen to be packed with people enjoying the glorious weather.
Just down the road from this beach lies remains from the wreckage of the Catalina that crashed here in 1944. The plane was used by the RAF in WW2 and was operating from Oban. On the night it took off there were 9 crew on board for a training exercise, they were due to fly over Barra Head but lost their way and ended up crashing into the side of the hill. Three of the crew were killed with the other six surviving.
Just down the road from this beach lies remains from the wreckage of the Catalina that crashed here in 1944. The plane was used by the RAF in WW2 and was operating from Oban. On the night it took off there were 9 crew on board for a training exercise, they were due to fly over Barra Head but lost their way and ended up crashing into the side of the hill. Three of the crew were killed with the other six surviving.
We hope that if you’re lucky enough to be visiting Barra or even the Outer Hebrides this year, you have the most amazing time, make plenty memories and enjoy every moment.
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