30/05/2016

Keeping the best to last - Kisimul castle.

Although I saw Kisimul castle as I arrived in Castlebay I thought I'd leave to last when posting as it is absolutely superb positioned in the middle of the harbour.

The view from the ferry. You can, see how close it comes


The position is more obvious once you climb up Heaval, that overlooks the whole of Barra and the islands to the south.


It's in the care of Historic Scotland and the castle has to be accessed by boat.


The interior


Looking back north to Heaval


On departure the boatmen took us round the whole of the castle before returning us to sore





The MacNeils seemed to have been the better chiefs of the highlands and it wasn't until in 1838 they sold that the clearance happened on Barra. A descendant bought the castle back pre-WW2, restored it and the castle is now in the case of Historic Scotland.

5 comments:

Andy Canham said...

Now you've done it Will. The missus is planning a visit to the ancestral pad. Which ferry did you use?

Cheers, Andy

Fire at Will said...

Andy the ferry was Calmac Oban to castlebay. Be warned that there is little accommodation on Barra and as the ferry arrives in the evening you can't leave until the next morning so it is a bit of a bottleneck.

The other option is to fly in and land on the beach - there are scheduled flights, but they do vary with the tides

KEV. Robertson. said...

Very interesting WILL - Thanks for posting- We were in Scotland during early May of 2015 ...very cold- windy and rainy...it does look as though you faired a beaut day for the Castle visit. Regards. KEV.

rct75001 said...

Will
What a wonderful coincidence. My wife's family were originally from South Uist so last time we were in the UK we caught the ferry (into a huge sea) out to Barra and then proceeded onto South Uist the next day. Beautiful places - but would've been a hard life when her grannie was living there.
Richard

Conrad Kinch said...

Fantastic stuff Will - but how in God's name did they build the thing out there?