[Closed] North or South Uist, or Islay, or somewhere similar?

South Uist is pretty bleak. Barra or Vatersay would be my choice; amazing beaches and not as flat and blasted looking as Uist.

Harris and Lewis are my favourites and there is good biking too. The middle isles are a bit bleak but the people are very friendly

I'd set about a trip from Oban. Get an Island Hopper ticket off Calmac.

Barra is fantastic, camp on the beach at Eoligarry. On South Uist stay at the Gatliff Trust hostel at Howmore. The beaches on S. Uist are amazing.

Benbecula is a bit dreary and dominated by the MoD, there is a good Co-Op on the "main" road though...

North Uist is OK but the jewel in Berneray - again stay at the Gatliff Trust hostel. It's fantastic and right on the beach. We watched otters from the hostel door step.

Harris is great with brilliant walking (Clisham is the highets peak in the Hebrides and reaches Corbett status) and the southern end around Tarbert has some fab beaches.

At this point I'd stick in terms of where to stay. Head to Lewis for the Callanish stones. If you do want to head further north there's a great beach and campsite at An Cnip. However Lewis is the home of the "Wee Frees" and is a bit dour. Stornoway is not a social town.

From Tarbert you can get the ferry back to Uig on Skye and enjoy the delights of the Sligachan Hotel!

I love it up there!

Chris

Thanks for that, only thing is we want a place for a week. I think I really want somewhere on South Uist, I think I need to see it for myself & get it out of my system. I've got a few bookmarked but am still open to suggestions!

H+L seconded, beaches, and rides, (we stayed Tarbert - done it twice) - you can ferry from there

I also did Tiree, well small, but a beach for every condition

treat yourself - land on Barra beach

if you do the Uists (and I plan to) bung up some photos

*edit - if you've not done the N coast of Scotland, give that a look, some stunning beaches (and cliffs)

I had a great stay in South Uist. Take a wee spinning rod and catch some fresh trout and salmon for the open fire. I had a wild brownie of 4lbs and a tired salmon at 8lbs on a £10.99 rod I found in a barn. The rod snapped and the reel handle twisted off while playing the salmon but it was already spent by that point!

A wild brownie of 4lbs is awesome Dan! I'll be taking plenty of fishing gear. Did you do any sea fishing?

I've done all the west coast in one form or another but still need to go back. (been to Cape Wrath lighthouse!)

Everything chris_db said

With an extra+ for the Gatliff hostels.

Traigh Uige is also a cracking spot http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=840290

Go to either of Coll or Tiree. Windy places with the best beaches in the hebrides.

Windy place = nae midgies.

No sea fishing as it wasn't a fishing holiday as such. I wouldn't expect too much from the shores other than flatties and seatrout (depending on time of year, September can be good), but I may be wrong. Yes the wild brownie was a real surprise and tasted amazing. I didn't exactly get it all approved with the gamey though so keep a low profile unless you arrange things formally 🙂

I did nth uist then over to Harris, then to tarbert.

We wild camped on uist on the beach by sollas, the best trip ever by a mile

Spent 2 weeks on Nth Uist this summer, when the weather was great there and terrible everywhere else 🙂

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Fan-bloody-tastic

Swissfamilyrobinsontastic

If the Hebrides were a thousand miles further south they'd be the Costa del Sol, and ruined.

Basing yourself in South Uist will give you easy access to Eriskay/Barra and to Benbecula/N Uist, Bernera, be that by bike or by car.

In the (highly unlikely) event that someone on STW hasn't seen the photos of my WI trip, here you go.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/sets/72157625906663678/

You can also read about it here..[url= http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/p/barra-to-butt.html ]http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/p/barra-to-butt.html[/url]

Flew to Barra for a long weekend with the wife and dog 2 years ago and were lucky to go on the best weekends weather all year.

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Landing on the beach

[img] [/img]The beach behind the hotel

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Archie hated flying but he soon forgot about it when he got to the beach

[img] [/img]Next stop America

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Cooling down on a hot day

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Castlebay

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Seal Hunting

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Heaven

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I don't want to go on that again

Thanks for getting me to look through these shots again, sorry about the upload (no I'm not really)

[url= http://www.isleofmuck.com/ ]remote[/url]

Its a small island, but all you can do is relax

As above, if you go to S Uist, try to get to over to Barra. If you're taking a car, you drive over the causeway to Eriskay (the original Whisky Galore island) then take the ferry to Barra.

And if you really want wilderness, take a boat from Barra to Mingulay.

"but the jewel in Berneray - again stay at the Gatliff Trust hostel. It's fantastic and right on the beach"

I stayed here and it was great, beach is amazing.

Costa del South Uist, 16th August 2012 8)

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Thanks for all that folks. South Uist it's going to be with a trip to Barra & Mingulay!

JohnClimber pic 4 - stunning....

theblackmount - Member

JohnClimber pic 4 - stunning....

Why thank you.....

Looking at these shots again is making me think about a long weekend dry weather, shot notice, later spring beach riding bivi trip to South Uist next year.

Any Fat bikers fancy it as well?

Coll and Tiree for me next year I reckon