501 Places

Britain holds 60 million people on its relatively small landmass. For many visitors therefore it comes as something of a surprise that there are so many empty spaces in our country. Even the South East, where the population density is at its greatest, has many great parklands and open spaces.
We may not be home to the spectacular mountains of the Himalayas, or even the Alps, but our gently rolling hills offer much to admire, and the British coastline is a world of contrasts.
I thought I’d share just a few of the images of our green and pleasant land that I’ve taken in the last 12 months on our days out and short breaks. Hopefully, for the non-British readers it will offer a glimpse of the beauty of these little islands that I’m happy to call home, while for the Brits it might give a gentle reminder that we do live in a beautiful part of the world.

The beautiful North Norfolk coastline

Dry Stone Walls in Wharfedale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales

Wendover Hills, Buckinghamshire - under an hour from London

Sheep overlooking the ocean, Barra in Scotland

Sopwell Nunnery, St Albans - less than 30 minutes from London

View from Monsal Head, Peak District, Derbyshire

Deer frequently cross the footpaths at Woburn

Ponies in a Hertfordshire field

20 days of British Airways strikes are about to get under way. Even before this disruption, Eyjafjallajökull has reared its ugly head again and shut down much of UK airspace, along with a fair chunk of the skies of western Europe. Air travel has never been so fraught with uncertainty, even at the height of the terrorist alerts. With the ash cloud set to result in many more no-fly zones in the coming months, many people are wondering about the wisdom of making concrete holiday plans.

I’ve spoken to several people in the last couple of weeks who have decided against booking their summer holiday so far. How can they book two weeks away they say, when they might not be able to get away on their break? Those who run their own businesses are far more concerned about being stuck overseas and not being able to get back to work. The talk soon switches to Cornwall, Scotland and France as possible alternatives, taken in the family car and not susceptible to the whims of a temperamental Icelandic mountain.

British people will continue to take their holidays. Attitude surveys constantly show that people consider their holiday to be a necessity rather than a disposable luxury. The money spent on hotel nights, activities and the vast quantities of food and drink that are consumed on a typical holiday will still be spent. The question is whether it will be spent basking in the Mediterranean sun and beyond, or whether people indulge in their annual break within driving distance of the UK.

This must be a tough time for tour operators and travel agents. The industry has never operated on particularly healthy profit margins and has relied more than most on good cashflow management for its success. With the growing reluctance to plan ahead that is likely to come from this continuing disruption, how many will be able to switch their businesses to provide volcano-proof holidays?

It will be interesting to see how the travel industry copes with this challenge. The next month is likely to bring a budget that will reveal the full extent of the tax rises and spending cuts that the politicians were too afraid to share with us while they were scrapping for our votes. Throw in another ash cloud and an ongoing airline strike, and the travel plans of much of our population could well undergo the most dramatic shift for many years.

Will this finally give a boost to UK regional tourism? There is so much to see in our own country, and perhaps the certainty on offer with a UK break will prove more appealing than ever before. This is certainly the time for the many different UK tourist boards to earn their crust and get the message of what they can offer in front of the millions who are yet to decide on their holiday plans.

All we need now is a decent summer…

Kisimul Castle, Castlebay

I’ve already written about the excitement of flying into Barra. To many people, simply choosing a destination for the sake of the flight there might seem a bit pointless. So what is there to do once you arrive on this tiny Hebridean island? Well, the good news is that Barra and its neighbouring islands hold enough interest to keep a visitor busy for a long time.

Here are just a few of the ways you can enjoy some of the cleanest air in the world.

Kisimul Castle

1. Visit Kisimul Castle. A castle in the sea, Kisimul boasts a truly spectacular location; and that’s saying something in a land of dramatic castles. The seat of the MacNeil clan, Kisimul ran into disrepair and ruin over the centuries and has only recently been renovated, thanks to the funding of a modern day MacNeil clan chief.

A small boat will take you across the water from Castlebay and wait for you while you explore the old building.

Hiking up Heaval before a big dinner

2. Hiking and cycling around Barra. There are a number of waymarked hiking trails on Barra, but you are free to roam on most of the island and explore its bays and its hills. It’s almost impossible to get lost on the island, as an hour’s walk will inevitably have you by the road that circles the periperhery of the island. A good energetic walk is the climb of Heaval, the highest peak on Barra at just under 400 metres. Allow a couple of hours from the time you leave the cafes of Castlebay until your return, armed with the good appetite you’ve just worked up. Even on the road, there is little traffic to bother you, and it’s noticeable that most drivers who pass will greet you with a friendly wave. You can hire cycles from Castlebay, and with a little over 20 miles of roads on Barra it’s easy to cover the whole island in a leisurely day.

One of Vatersay's many beaches

3. Vatersay. The neighbouring island of Vatersay is linked to the mainland by a small causeway, and is home to some of the UK’s best beaches. With a population of seventy people you are never going to find yourself in a crowd, and on our day hiking the length and breadth of Vatersay we barely passed another soul.

Wreckage of the Catalina

Apart from the pristine beaches and the unspoilt beauty of the heathland of Vatersay, there are a couple of sites of historic interest on the island. If you see the monument to the Annie Jane, take the time to hear of the tragic history of this vessel. The Ship was packed with emigrants, leaving Britain and Ireland to seek a new life in North America. It hit a huge storm of the coast of Scotland and tried to find shelter in the bay here, only to run aground and break apart, losing most of the passengers to the stormy waters of the Atlantic.

A little way along the road you’ll also find the ruins of the Catalina, a plane that crashed into the hill behind you in 1944, when the pilot hit bad weather and lost his bearings. Three of the crew died in the crash, and most of the wreckage was dragged down to the shoreline and has been left there since.

Bird life on Mingulay

4. Mingulay. This dramatic island is at the southern end of the chain of islands running south from Barra, known as the Bishop’s Isles. Uninhabited for almost 100 years, it is now an important nature reserve, with some of Britain’s most spectacular bird colonies living on the enormous cliffs on the west of the island. Seals are abundant too, and will greet you as you enter the shallow waters of the east coast of the island, before darting away to safety.

It’s around an hour in a boat from Barra (ask for Donald the boatman anywhere on Barra and he’ll tell you when he’s next going out; it’s very dependent on weather). We spent three hours hiking around Mingulay, although it was a misty day and we didn’t see the island in all its glory. We did however still see many puffins and razorbills, while the highlight for us was the incredible coastal scenery on the west of the island.

Natural arch, west coast of Mingulay

Waiting for the plane; Barra airport

5. Visit the airport. Anywhere else this would appear a weird activity, but with Barra’s unique runway this northern corner of the island is a mainstay on the tourist route. It is the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on the beach, so visitors to the island inevitably gather around the perimeter of the beach around the time of the expected arrival from Glasgow and watch as the little plane glides onto the sand. There is a busy little cafe in the terminal building that gets more business from part-time plane spotters than from the few passengers that pass through. Be aware that flights are dependent on the weather, and when we cycled up to the airport the flight was unable to land due to the low cloud and misty conditions.

Barra is a unique island, and as I’ve heard someone describe it on TV recently, it’s a wonder that it hasn’t become a hot UK tourist destination. But then, it’s the absence of people that creates that special atmosphere. Far from the mainland it doesn’t register in 99.9% of travel itineraries. I get the feeling that the many of the locals, and the visitors that do make it here, would quite like to keep it that way.

Related posts:

A life’s dream fulfilled: Landing on the beach in Barra

A different world: the seductive charms of life on a small island

I can’t believe it’s Britain

Barra Airport

As one of life’s hopeless dreamers there are places, experiences and events that have long been on my wish list. Anyone who has a similar list will know that the list will never be empty. Each year another couple of places may be ticked off the list, while another dozen are added to the end, usually on the back of others’ well told stories, heard while on our travels.

Flying over the coast of western Scotland on our way to Barra

But one thing has been at the top of my list for many years, and it was with great excitement that I was able to move it last week from the ‘to-do’ list and mark it as ‘done’. This was, as the title suggests, landing on the beach at Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Barra is the only place in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach, and being a bit of a plane buff I have long wanted to make this unique flight. A trivial wish maybe, but it was one that meant a lot to me.

The flight between Glasgow and Barra takes one hour and the small Twin Otter aircraft seats 15 at a push, although on the way out there were only 7 passengers. The lady who greeted us at the steps of the tiny plane, checked our boarding cards and gave the safety briefing then proceeded to sit in the front and switch to her First Officer duties. No room for cabin crew on here. An open cockpit meant that we were able to watch the flight path over the pilot’s shoulder, and observe the primitive looking instruments on the dashboard of this aging aircraft.

On final approach

Once over the Scottish mainland we dropped to 2,000 feet for the last half hour of the flight, and the shimmering blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean looked stunning in the afternoon sunshine. No doubt this is far more enjoyable flying for a pilot than commanding a giant computerised jet plane.

Engine shut down, Barra airport

Barra appeared on the horizon as we dropped below 1,000 feet, and soon after passing over land the pilot banked to the right, dropped the nose and we were treated to a view of the wide expanse of sand that was now only a few hundred feet below: without doubt one of the most spectacular approaches I’ve experienced. The smoothest of landings and we trundled across the beach to the tiny terminal building, and disembarked in front of a waiting group of tourists who had come to watch the plane come and go.

We did indeed come back to watch a plane come in while cycling around the island, and on the day we left when the sun was shining brightly our departing flight drew a crowd of curious onlookers who were on a coach tour of the Western Isles. Here’s a short clip of our plane landing.

Barra Airport

The whole experience lived up to the high expectations I’d set, and I would love to do it again someday. We came to Barra on the strength of my desire to experience the beach landing. Yet the enduring memories will be as much about the beautiful scenery, the superb hiking and the warm hospitality we enjoyed during our stay on the island. The beach airport is without doubt the main draw. But once there, you may find that Barra has a whole lot more to keep your interest. More on that in my next post…

The Flybe plane before boarding

Related posts:

The island of Barra; small but packed with things to do

A different world: the seductive charms of life on a small island

I can’t believe it’s Britain

The fast lane; Barra

There’s something unique about life on a small island. You get a sense of community that is elusive to the places where most of us live. I’ve noticed this on our many visits to the remote corners of Scotland, and experienced this most of all on our recent trip to Barra, a tiny island at the southern tip of the Outer Hebrides.

Barra has less than a thousand residents, and people know each other pretty well. Most have been born and bred on the island which is home of the MacNeil clan (a very high proportion of Barra folk share this surname). As visitors we were made very welcome by everyone we met and quickly became comfortable in the island life.

So why is the life in this outpost of the UK so different? Here are just a few examples that might help explain it:

1. A sense of total trust. There appears to be an absence of crime on Barra. We stayed in a lovely self-catering apartment and were given a key but told there was no need to lock the door at any time. Cars too are left open, often with the keys in the ignition (at least you never need to search your pockets for them!) Children play out in the streets at all hours, and walk alone to and from school without the fears of evil strangers that exist elsewhere.

2. No-one is a stranger. Within a couple of days of arriving on Barra, we recognised and were greeted by the airport security man at the supermarket, the boatman along the main road and a local hotel manager who had seen us hiking. Another week and we might have known every other person.

3. Everyone knows others’ business. We had been there for less than three days, and were chatting to the owner of our favourite cafe. She had seen us walking along the road while she was on the bus, and the girl next to her who worked in the supermarket had pointed out that we were ‘the friendly couple’ who had been visiting the shop daily. I can only imagine how fast real gossip travels here!

The mobile cinema was in town

4. Common greetings. We cycled and hiked around the whole of Barra and neighbouring Vatersay. It is customary for any passing motorist to greet other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists with a friendly wave. Even walking through the main town of Castlebay (no more than a small village in reality) most people would greet each other in passing. It’s a world away from our impersonal exchanges in the south of England.

5. The concept of ‘the Mainland’. Barra is an hour by plane from Glasgow, and five hours by ferry from Oban. Getting to the mainland is a big deal, so when people travel there it is usually a trip with many purposes: to shop for clothes; to get specialist food ingredients; to buy a new gadget of some sort – everything is available on ‘the Mainland’. Kids look forward to visiting McDonalds and Pizza Hut, while the young adults can go clubbing or go to a concert. The Mainland appears to be this all-consuming entity across the water where everything is available, but where dangers that don’t exist on the island lurk freely.

6. Many hats worn. It’s hard to survive with one occupation in a small community. If you own a shop or a restaurant, you’re not going to get enough business from a tiny population. People take on multiple jobs. You might see the same person owning a fishing boat, taking tourists diving and owning a seafood restaurant.

I have to admit there is something seductive about island life. The total lack of theft and the absence of fear of crime is a joy to behold. So many people told us that it is the perfect place to raise children; they can play outside to their hearts’ content, and the long summer hours mean that darkness of sorts only descends after midnight (there is of course a corresponding downside in the winter).

Ultimately we’re used to the world in which we live and have become accustomed to the access to restaurants, shops and technology that we enjoy ‘on the Mainland’. But once in a while it is really refreshing to take a trip to somewhere like the one of the small Scottish Islands, and remember that there is another world out there; one where houses and cars remain unlocked, where bicycle locks don’t exist, where children can play without fear, and where people still take time to greet both strangers and neighbours as they pass. I would say visit Barra before it changes. But I’m actually optimistic that the people living in this, and other island communities, won’t let that change happen.

Related posts:

The island of Barra; small but packed with things to do

A life’s dream fulfilled: Landing on the beach in Barra

I can’t believe it’s Britain