After the washout of the day before I woke to good weather again, but unlike the previous day the weather stayed good. I had a strong temptation to do the walk I’d tried to do the previous day again, going up Beinn Mhor (which wouldn’t have been a bad idea), but in the end I did a pleasant, but long walk down the west coast of Uist between the beach and the grassy, fertile plain of the machair. Some of this grassland is farmed, but a lot of it has been left fallow and at this time of the year it was filled with a dense covering of wild flowers, mainly white clover, buttercups and a few daisies. I walked from the hostel to the beach at Bun na Feathlach and then along the dunes between the beach and the wide plains of the machair.
This went on all day with me trying to pick out my route along farm tracks, roads or through the pathless grasslands. Sometimes a path was easy to find and at other times it was quite tricky trying to make progress through the dense growth. On occasions I descended onto the beach and walked beside the sea for a while before climbing back onto the dunes. The weather was generally good all day with varying cloud cover and only occasional light showers, but the eastern hills never lost their clouds and there was even a thunderstorm over the hills later in the day. As I journeyed south I passed the cemetery on the headland of Rubh’ Àird-mhicheil, past the ruin of Caisteal Ormacleit and onto the headland of Rubha Àird a’ Mhuile. This rocky promontory is very occasionally used for weapons testing but not on this day as the herd of Hebridean cattle testified. Going around the cattle I visited the deserted, ancient settlement of Dùn Dùlan before dropping back down onto the beach. There was an abundance of wildlife throughout this walk from the many varieties of wild flowers in the machair to the birds that swarmed around the coastland.
This went on all day with me trying to pick out my route along farm tracks, roads or through the pathless grasslands. Sometimes a path was easy to find and at other times it was quite tricky trying to make progress through the dense growth. On occasions I descended onto the beach and walked beside the sea for a while before climbing back onto the dunes. The weather was generally good all day with varying cloud cover and only occasional light showers, but the eastern hills never lost their clouds and there was even a thunderstorm over the hills later in the day. As I journeyed south I passed the cemetery on the headland of Rubh’ Àird-mhicheil, past the ruin of Caisteal Ormacleit and onto the headland of Rubha Àird a’ Mhuile. This rocky promontory is very occasionally used for weapons testing but not on this day as the herd of Hebridean cattle testified. Going around the cattle I visited the deserted, ancient settlement of Dùn Dùlan before dropping back down onto the beach. There was an abundance of wildlife throughout this walk from the many varieties of wild flowers in the machair to the birds that swarmed around the coastland. 
After some hours I ventured off the path and through an area of the machair abundant in rabbit holes back onto the main road where I visited the South Uist Museum (called the Kildonan Museum). After lunch I spent some time looking around the museum getting a taste for what island life was like a hundred years ago. Back across the machair I walked further south negotiating a route through a golf course until eventually I stopped off for one last visit to the sea. Eventually I climbed back over the dunes and walked across the machair to the village of Daliburgh where I caught a bus back to the hostel. At the end of the walk I saw a sign for the Machair Way, but I never saw any other trace of this waymarked route and a look around the internet has failed to find much of a sign of it, which is a pity as it would be a lovely route. This was a pleasant walk through the peaceful and secluded landscape of the Isle of Uist and I especially enjoyed looking at all the flowers that were growing in the machair.
The day after this walk I caught a ferry back across to the mainland to start my journey home. This was a good holiday where I saw some really different scenery, but it also didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. My week on the Isle of Skye went completely different to how I’d planned and with hindsight I wish I’d been able to go up more mountains than I did. As fabulous as the Outer Hebrides are they can’t really compete in the mountain stakes, but instead they have other charms. The hills of Harris are unique and the atmosphere of Uist is eerily special, but they don’t compare with a good Munro. Next year I’ll have to quench my insatiable desire to be at the top of mountains that the Outer Hebrides has been unable to satisfy.
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