Blogs from Isle of Barra, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

We went on a FABBY trip last weekend, by invitation from our pal Morven's parents George & Maureen, to the most beautiful island of Barra, which is one of the islands of the The Outer Hebrides on the West Coast of Scotland. You can get to Barra two ways - ferry from Oban, or flight from Glasgow. We flew. It wasn't that expensive really - about 100 pounds per person including tax and Beth went free of course as she's so teeny. Flight takes 50 mins and if it's a clear day you get the most amazing views imaginable, heading out over Oban, up the Sound of Mull (with top views of Tobermory 'Balamory' harbour with its gorgeously quaint painted buildings facing the sea), over the Atlantic ocean bypassing other beautiful islands such as Muck, Eigg ... read more

We headed into Oban to book our £75 island rover tickets, which would pretty much let us and our bikes on any Caledonian MacBrayne ferry for the next 15 days. The woman there told us that there was a problem with the Castlebay, Barra ferry (it was broken) and that they would book us on it anyway and send us a text to let us know if it was cancelled or not. So we headed to the cafe in Tesco where we overdosed on carbohydrates and both fell asleep in the car. Never got the text but got confirmation that the ferry would set sail for Castlebay at 5.30pm, about two and a half hours late. As it was a five hour sailing this would mean we would arrive in Castlebay at 10.30pm rather than 8pm ... read more