Loch Druidibeag and the beach on South Uist

Sunday 7th June 2015

When I was previously on the Isle of South Uist, in 2011, staying at the Howmore Youth Hostel, I did a walk from Ralph Storer’s definitive guide to the “100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains” that involved climbing the three highest hills on the island: Beinn Mhor, Ben Corodale and Hecla. On that occasion I got to the top of the highest of the three, Beinn Mhor, when bad weather forced me to abandon the walk. On this return visit I had intended on doing the whole walk during a two-night rest at the Howmore Youth Hostel during my Hebridean trek north. However when I got to the hostel the previous evening, I was so thoroughly exhausted after carrying a heavy rucksack all day I really didn’t have the energy to then climb three mountains. Instead I decided I would take it easy and after a slow start to the day I wandered down to the coast and slowly made my way up the beach.

I wouldn’t have done the hill walk if the weather had been bad again, but the weather was a lot better than four years ago with good weather almost all day even though it was a bit breezy, which seems to be the norm in the Outer Hebrides. The wind wasn’t as strong as it had been the day before, but it had shifted to the north bringing such a chill to the air that I often wore gloves despite the sunshine. As I walked up the coast I reflected on the rubbish that I was seeing that had presumably been washed up from the sea and made me feel really depressed about mankind and the way we treat the planet. There were millions of plastic bottles, and also old tires, pallets and even a microwave. After walking along a track behind the dunes for a while I decided to drop down onto the beach and enjoy the stunning weather with a retreating tide making for views that were amazing. A beach appeals on a primal level to us all, or maybe it appeals especially to anyone born within a hundred miles of the sea, i.e. anyone born in Britain.

I wandered slowly up the beach while taking loads of pictures and hopping around the shoreline playing with the lapping seas. The cold weather was not a concern as I basked in the blue skies, the sunshine and in the churning seas. Eventually I tore myself away from the beach and onto the track that took me to a white flagpole that marks the edge of the Hebrides Range. On a Sunday the missile testing range was not going to be active, but I was wondering about the next day when I would be passing through this area again on my Hebridean trek. Since I was in the area I thought I’d explore my options for the next day, but I couldn’t find much of a route until after I had crossed several fields and eventually found a clear track that took me away from the military range through the township of West Gerinish to the main road, where there didn’t seem to be anything to help me with my route for the next day.

On reaching the main road I turned south for a short distance to a road that heads up to the top of the small hill, Ruabhal, where the control centre for the range is situated. Technically I wasn’t supposed to walk up to the range control, but I wanted to get a view across the flat machair grasslands out to the coast. The hills on North Uist could clearly be seen, but it was the extensive views of the loch-filled coastal plain of South Uist that caught my eye. Before reaching the range control buildings I turned off the road to a tall, white stone statue situated on the western side of the hill. This statue of a mother and child is known as “Our Lady of the Isles”, but since I’m not catholic it held little interest for me except for the views that can be seen of the surrounding area from beside the statue. It reminded me of the statue that I had seen on the side of Heaval on the Isle of Barra that overlooks Castlebay, but this one is on a much bigger scale.

After taking a few pictures I headed straight back down to the road and after eating my lunch I continued heading south beside the road until I reached a crossroads with Grogarry to my right and a road to Loch Sgiopoirt to my left. I took this latter road past delightful lochs away from the wildflower-rich machair plains that I had previously been walking through in South Uist into the bulk of the island made up of heather and bog-filled moors and hills. The three hills that I had originally planned to walk up on this day was now dominating my view and they were teasing me with what could have been as I made my way along the road until I reached a small car park and the start of a small track that headed back towards the main road. After a short distance this track became a recently constructed, and heavily manufactured, path that led across the boggy, heathery ground.

If a path is going to be heavily used on this sort of terrain then a heavily manufactured gravel path is what is needed, but I couldn’t help wondering why this path had been built, and whether I could use it on my trek north. This path would make a great addition to the trek, but I couldn’t see how that would help unless there was another path from the Loch Sgioport road that led to the minor road near Loch Sheileabhaig. It was a delight to walk along this excellent path and added to my enjoyment of the walk through this stunning nature reserve until finally I returned to the main road near the township of Drimsdale. When I realised where I was I was astonished as my map had indicated that the path went to Stilligarry, which must mean that this new path follows a completely different route to the one marked on the map. While musing on this I followed the road through Drimsdale to Drimsdale House where I turned left along the Machair Way back to Howmore.

When I got back to Howmore the weather was stunning with the low tide enticing me to venture back onto the beach where I took countless pictures of the sea, but it was the view inland that really attracted my attention. The three hills of Beinn Mhor, Ben Corodale and Hecla were arrayed in glorious fashion and looked stunning with the white sands in the foreground and these hills in the distance, but I think the best picture of these hills, and one that I’ve seen on postcards, is taken from the bridge over the River Roag. This sight encapsulated a fabulous day that more than made up for missing out on walking up these three hills, but since most of the day these hills had been enveloped in cloud I was reassured that I had made the right decision. This was just the sort of walk that I needed after my near total exhaustion at the end of the previous day.