HEBRIDEAN HIDEAWAYS

There are some incredible hidden harbours along the west coast of Scotland, many offering 360° shelter, although some may be rather challenging to enter

- Paul McNeill

When I was age 12 , we went on a family holiday on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast. I was pottering around the jetty at Eoligarry on the north end of Barra when local men, boys and dogs suddenly appeared. They asked me if I wanted to help with the sheep shearing on a nearby uninhabited island. I ran to the holiday house where we were staying to get my parents’ permission.

It was a strange flat-bottomed craft which chugged its way across the Sound of Barra on a glorious day towards an island I later discovered was Gighay. As we approached the island I became alarmed that the boat speed was not being reduced for landing, but who was I as a 12-year-old visitor from the mainland to question local wisdom, so I braced myself for impact with the rocks ahead. Instead of the looming disaster something quite magical happened. The island suddenly split in two and we entered a very narrow channel into a totally hidden harbour known locally as the Blue Lagoon.