Western Isles Geocaching

The Uists and Barra are a beautiful set of islands that are inexplicably overlooked by the geocaching community. The main islands of Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay have just 12 caches between them and 8 of those are on North Uist!

There are more ways to get to the Uists and Barra than there are are to Lewis and Harris. To start at the southernmost point you can get the ferry from Oban to Castlebay on Barra and then take the ferry from Barra to Eriskay from where you can drive all the way up the islands to Berneray. If you wish you can then get the ferry across to Leverburgh on South Harris and drive all the way up to the Butt of Lewis (there’s a fine cache there!). If you want to miss Barra out then the ferry from Oban will also call at Lochboisdale on South Uist which is a short drive from Eriskay and a long drive up to Berneray. If your plan is to collect the most caches in the shortest time then the best bet is to take the ferry from Uig Bay on Skye across to Lochmaddy on North Uist. It’s also the shortest and cheapest route to the Uists.

The Uists are a fair old drive from Lewis that also involves a ferry ride otherwise I’d be tempted to head on down there and put out a good few caches, particularly on South Uist, but it really needs someone local to take charge. Hopefully someone will be inspired by reading this!

Barra is even more of a geocaching oddity. The population of Barra and Vatersay is about the same as North Uist yet there are only four caches on Barra three of which were placed in 2005! The most recent cache on Barra dates from July 2008! Someone on Barra needs to catch the geocaching bug!