Things to see and do in North Uist
Birdwatching
North Uist is a birdwatching paradise with a wide variety of seasonal breeding birds and passage migrants. Corncrakes, Golden eagles, Merlin, Short eared Owls, Godwits, Curlews, Greenshanks, Golden Plover, Red Throated divers, Whooper swans to name but a few.
RSPB Balranald Nature Reserve
This beautiful nature reserve is located a few miles down the road offering advice and information on the local flora/fauna in the local area. Seals, otters and basking sharks can often be seen from the coastline.
Fishing
Wild brown trout fishing in the Hebrides offers the visitor an unending variety of sparkling roadside and remote lochs, many of which rarely see man or rod. The Uists are literally peppered lochs of all shaps and sizes. The tidal sea pools are havens for the elusive sea trout at low tide.
North Uist Angling Club Tel: 01876 580653 for further details.
North Uist Estates: Tel: 01876 500329 for further details.
Cycling
For those who are keen there is the Hebridean Way Cycle Route, 185 miles crossing 10 islands in the Outer Hebridean Archipeligo, passing some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes in the British Isles. Alternatively, you can just meander through the peaceful countryside and just listen to the sounds of birds and nature.
The Uists have spectacular walking on miles of unspoilt beaches, headlands and flower laden machair. Eaval the highest point on North Uist gives a spectacular view of the Island. The distant mountains of South Uist offer true wilderness walking for those looking for that wild escape.
Beaches
It is hard to describe the natural beauty of the many unspoilt, sweeping shell-sand silver beaches on the north and west coast of the island. The aqua marine colour on a sunny day are quite breath taking. Take time to explore these unspoilt gems.
St Kilda (Hirta)
On a clear day from Hosta beach you can see the mythical islands of St Kilda and Boreray on the horizon. An archipelago with stunning scenery and amazing wildlife. A place of great history with the last inhabitants sadly leaving the island on August 1930.
Day trips to St Kilda can be arranged through Uist Sea Tours departing from Eriskay. A once in a lifetime experience.
Neolithic Tombs, Duns and Brochs
North Uist and the Outer Hebrides have a wide variety of Iron Age Brochs (crannogs), Island Duns and Neolithic chambered cairns some of which have been dated back over 5000 years. The history of many of these structures is often a mystery and still to be fully investigated by modern archeologists.
Machair
The surrounding pastureland (machair) is rich in wild flowers, wild orchids, butterflies, bees and seasonal breeding birds.
Machair is a Gaelic word meaning fertile low lying grassy plain. This is the name given to one of the rarest habitats in Europe which only occurs on exposed western coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Machair habitats in the Outer Hebrides run up the western shores of Uist, Harris and Lewis.
Here sand, largely made up of crushed shells, is regularly blown ashore by Atlantic gales. Over time the calcium rich shell sand and traditional Outer Hebrides crofting land practices have led to the development of a mosaic of fertile Scottish grassland habitats renowned for its Outer Hebrides wildflowers, Western Isles birds and insect life.
Great Yellow Bumble Bee
(Bombus distinguendus)
One of the rarest British bumblebees, now restricted to machair and other flower-rich areas in the Orkneys, Scottish islands, and Caithness and Sutherland. The species appears to have a particular association with red clover.
