Things to see & do on North Uist?

Off to North Uist for the weekend with work, but will have a few hours free each day – any recommendations of nice places to go for a walk/run/etc? I’ll be flying so can’t take a bike… Also any recommendations of anywhere to eat would be good, from what I’ve seen the choice is a bit limited…

If you take the road to its end on the south side of Loch Euphort, you can head over Boreval and Eaval either as an out and back or as a circuit if you can get dropped at the other end. That’s good for a couple of hours.

Pick a beach and go for a run – just enjoy the scenery.

Lochmaddy Hotel does OK pub grub. Tigh Dearg was taken over and re-named Hamersay House. Haven’t beeen in since. Langass Lodge, if your budget extends to that, is the best place to eat.

Taigh Chearsabhagh[/url] is worth dropping into to see what’s on although its food is more lunch than dinner.

It’s a lovely spot.

Beach near Balranald reserve is stunning (Traigh Iar?) and well worth a visit if you like wildlife.

If you’re on expenses, Langass lodge is great for food. We stayed there on a biking trip of the Hebrides a few years back and it was lovely… they didn’t turn their noses up at a pair of muddy mountain bikers – there is a nice walk down the side of the loch there to some stone circles too.

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Some nice views along the north coast around Sollas. You can walk across to the island of Vallay at low tide to the rather eerie ruins of Vallay House (make sure you don’t get stranded though).

Some photos to whet your appetite:

http://www.hebrideansmokehouse.com/

Absolutely delicious, and they give you taster samples. Om nom nom!

rom what I’ve seen the choice is a bit limited…

Theres almost nothing there – which is a charm when you start to get your head round it. I went twice on work, with time planned both trips for a bit of R&R and found it really difficult to know what to do with myself the first time. It has some odd qualities, as you travel around you get to a dot on the map that should be a village but although there are houses they never seem to coagulate into a place – just a bunch of buildings floating around ignoring each other and the road. Houses don’t look like homes, they’re just scattered around the landscape with no real sense of belonging to them – no boundaries or gardens or possesion- just houses plonked on the turf – the abandoned crofts have more sense ownership to them than the inhabited homes. You can find yourself travelling around and not stopping because you never seem to have arrived anywhere and you’re never quite out of sight of where you’ve just been.

I couldn’t get to grips with the place at all and wasn’t really looking forward to going back.

Second time round I loved it. Just stop anywhere and wander, there seems to be very little elevation but trudge up the slightest hill and this amazing liquid landscape reveals itself

Its like a big doily of black and silver bodies of water, non of which you can see as you travel by road. So if you see a lay-by and a path just follow it.

Its such a barren environment you start to tune in to different stuff on a much smaller scale too, tiny little things grab your attention instead of the whole view.

Cheers folks, I’m planning on putting my running shoes in and will have a hire car so will hopefully nab a few hours here and there to explore a bit. My main worry has been getting some decent grub on an evening!

maccruiskeen
that is such a brilliant description – both of them.

The nature reserve at Balranald actually (or used to have) has a resident Corncrake in a nettle patch adjacent to the carpark; all so twitchers can cream themselves without leaving the comfort of their cars!

We’re off to South Uist on 21 June, I imagine it’s very similar & can’t bloody wait! I’m taking no bike but all my fishing gear, 2 camera’s, spotting scope & walking boots.
Did I say I can’t wait?

PS, I won’t be at work so couldn’t really give a shoite about the weather although I know it’ll be wet & windy.

Can’t wait. (did I say that?)

@essel – I’ll try to think on and report back!

North Uist is a great place, I got married there. We rented a little cottage and when we told the owner we were getting married he mentioned that the local tradition is to put white sheets etc along the route to the church etc. When we went to the local registrars a few days later (Mr Campbell) he had arranged for white sheets and pillowcases to be put up along the route 🙂

Flying into Benny? If were Tuesday i’d have seen you on the puddle-jumper flight!

Went there a couple of years ago and can’t wait to go back this year.

I guess with work it’ll be a whole lot less fun than going with young kids though

DSC_0512 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0689 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0860 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0970 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0018 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0064 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0248 by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

Last time (admittedly quite a long time ago) I flew to Scotland for work I took a bike with me – can’t see why it should be all that difficult.

honeybadgerx – Member
Off to North Uist for the weekend with work..

Read about the Abduction of Jesse of Balranald, then take a look at the area around Balranald House and work out the logistics. 🙂

Scolpaig Tower is worth a look to see some Victorian vandalism – it used to be a substantial broch but the stones were used to build this, and now it is an ancient structure (1837 I think).

The beaches are great. Spent many a happy hour in the sea or rolling down the dunes when I was a kid in Uist.

Remember to visit Stoneybridge

Also remember to play anything by Runrig 🙂