Outer Hebrides, May 2025 (1)

Another month, another great trip to Scotland - this time to the Outer Hebrides. It was our first School of Birding School Trip - i.e., a purely birding holiday for 'graduates' of our Schools, where we get to relax a bit more and focus just on in-the-field adventures - and I'm happy to say it was a great success, and hugely enjoyable from start to finish.

Approaching North Uist - flat calm....

Pit-stop on Skye

Sunset from the hotel (above), and the hotel (on the right, below)

We book-ended our trip at the Grant Arms Hotel (our usual School of Birding base), spending a night or two in the Highlands at either end, with a solid six nights on the Hebs in between. We broke up the journey westwards with a couple of birding stops along the road, the first - at a lochside pull-in - producing not only breeding Black-throated Divers but a pair of displaying Wood Sandpipers, a very rare breeder anywhere in the UK.

Morning runs around Carinish - just a 12th Century ruined Temple (and Scotland's first university), mountains, marshes, beaches and big skies....

Onwards to the ferry (via a couple of stops on Skye) and a perfectly still crossing between Uig and Lochmaddy, with the Minch like glass throughout the journey - with plenty of seabirds and Common Dolphins to enjoy before the short drive to our accommodation for the week, the Temple View Hotel in the hamlet of Carinish (if you're wondering where the nearest 'proper' town is, you'd need to get back on the ferry to find it).

White sand beaches, Lewisian Gneiss, turquoise waters, lush green lowlands, picturesque highlands - a hard sell indeed 

A word about our hotel: recently taken over, refurbed and relaunched by the truly lovely Katie and Alex (and super-chilled collie Heidi), we loved it. Great home-cooked food (breakfasts and evening meals were all excellent), wonderfully welcoming and relaxing, and brilliantly run - nothing was too much trouble and we're big fans. We'll be back soon, for sure.... 

What a week it was. I've been fortunate to travel extensively in the Northern Isles and also Inner Hebrides in recent years, but I'd not been to the Outer Hebrides for many years, since I worked on various bird surveying projects out there in the early and mid 2000's; even then, it was mostly Lewis and Harris, and so this was effectively new territory for me.

A happy team!

The view from the highst point of North Uist, looking towards St Kilda

We spent all our time on the three inter-connected islands of the southern group - North Uist, Benbecula, and South Uist. Once again - it's the theme of 2025 so far! - we were blessed with ridiculously good weather, with sunshine being the dominant feature of each day; just wonderful for soaking in not only the stunning scenery and habitats, but also the multitudes of birds we were fortunate to enjoy. Of which - see next post....

In a guiding capacity, for Simon and I, it was a dream - not only were the locations, birds and conditions wonderful, but we had a team who were an absolute joy to be with throughout. Everybody really got on board (as we knew they would, having had the pleasure of their company before), making every day a happy (and funny) one, with an inherently good craic from start to finish.

Barpa Langais cairn and Pobull Phinn (Finn's People) stone circle - two of the neolithic treasures of the Uists