Barra

View across Bagh Thiarabhage, Barra

We spent the first week of our Hebridean hoiday on the island of Barra. We stayed in a little cottage overlooking Bagh Thiarabhage, which is one of those long fingers of sea that seem to reach into the island and tickle it under the armpit. We watched seals and oyster catchers and wondered at the crowds of gulls who gathered in anticipation of the fishing boats landing at the fish factory up the road.


There is a certain tension in this landscape between the ruggedness of the terrain (which can change from bog to bare rock to machir to bare sand to sea in a 10 minute walk) and the overwhelming orderliness of the croft system, which superimposed straight lines across the land and regularly spaced cottages. I think I’ll be returning to this in future prints.