Chapels Little remains of themonastery at Balivanich. Thelichen-covered remains of anancient chapel, Teampall ChaluimCille, dedicated to St Columba

(NF783549), and its associatedwell, Tobar Chaluim Cille, lie on thesouth east side of the village.

The old chapel at Nunton

(NF768538) may date from the14th century. There was a nunneryin this area, Baile nan Cailleach(G Nun’s Town), but thisdeclined after the Reformation.

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BENBECULA (G Beinn naFaoghla, the Hill of the Fords) liesbetween the two Uists and is large-ly flat but dominated by the lowhill of Rueval (124m) from whichthere is an excellent view of theisland and the Fords.

The island is studded with manylochs. The west side has extensivesandy beaches with a widemachair plain, while the east coastis mostly rugged and backed bymoorland. In WWII an airfieldwas established at Balivanich (GBaile a Mhanaich, Monkstown)which continues to be used by themilitary as part of their Missile

Testing Range, as well as by civiliantraffic. Construction of a singletrack concrete bridge to SouthUist was started in 1938 and com-pleted in 1942, to facilitate theimport of supplies during WWIIIt was upgraded to the presentcauseway in 1983.

Archaeology There is much ofarchaeological interest on theisland. At Gramisdale, near theNorth Ford, there are severalstanding stones (NF825562 andNF825553). The northern sitehas one upright and nine fallenmonoliths, while there is oneupright and two fallen stones at the

southern one. The remains of twochambered cairns lie north of Lochnan Clachan (NF813527).

Of several duns, Dun Buidhe(NF793547) near Balivanich isthe most impressive. Its islet isjoined via Eilean Dubh to the lochshore by substantial causeways.The site was reoccupied in latemedieval times.

A Pictish symbol stone, now in theNational Museum, was on theshore at low tide near some ruinsat Strome Shunnamual. This gran-ite slab is incised with two sym-bols, a comb box, decorated withspirals and a disc with three small-er discs within, perhaps represent-ing the Holy Trinity. The onlyother such stone so far found in theWestern Isles was on Pabbay,south of Barra.

The only wheelhouse so farknown on Benbecula is now underone of the runways of the airport,and to date no Pictish or Norsedomestic site has come to light,making the carved stone evenmore enigmatic.

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BENBECULA - BEINN NA FAOGHLA

Gramisdale standing stones with Eaval in the background

Crown

Copyrigh

t

Beach below Balivanich Airport

THE HILL OF THE FORDS

Ancient chapel at Nunton

Teampall Chaluim Cille, Balivanich

BENBECULA

North FordFloddayGramisdale StonesBalivanichBenbecula Golf CourseTeampall Chalium CilleTobar Chalium CilleDun BuidhePictish symbol stoneNunton ChapelNunton SteadingBaile nan CailleachCulla BayPoll na CrannBorve machairBorve CastleRuevalRossinishLoch UisgebhaghLiniclateCreagorryPeter’s PortSouth Ford

Otters frequent these beautifuland unspoilt shorelines, which,although only a few miles fromhabitations, give a feeling of isola-tion. It was in this area that BonniePrince Charlie was hidden forsome time in 1746.

Peter’s Port The lack of a deepwater harbour on Benbeculameant that goods were landed atLoch Skipport in South Uist andthen transshipped by small boat.In the 1890s the CongestedDistrict Boardbuilt a pier at Peter’sPort on the south east extremity ofthe island. This typical example ofofficial folly initially had no road toit. The approach is hazardous forvessels of any size and thus was lit-tle used. Today small creelboatsand recreational craft still utilise it.

In the 20th century the presence ofthe military has done much toboost the economy of the island.Today Benbecula is the centre ofadministration for the Uists andBarra. There is a largeCommunity School at Liniclate. This incorporates a theatre, swim-ming pool, library, running track,fitness suite and a cafeteria.

MacGillivrays in Balivanich isparticularly to be noted for itssuperlative selection of books onHebridean and Scottish subjects.They also stock Harris Tweed,knitwear and much else.

Benbecula Golf Course“is a natu-rally flat course. which is popular withvisiting golfers seeking a game inslightly different surroundings. Thecourse is maintained by the membersand has a short back and sides moreregularly than any other course!

There are a number of testing holes todiscover that will require great judge-ment and club selection and somenatural hazards such as rabbitscrapes to add to the fun of the game!.Although only a 9 hole course, thereare 18 tees in operation, so yourround is anything but repetitive.

Situated beside Benbecula Airport,the golf course is minutes away fromBalivanich, the social and adminis-trative centre for the Uists. Visitorscan experience incredible views of theMonach Isles and Atlantic Oceanfrom many vantage points.”

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BENBECULA - BEINN NA FAOGHLA

The stones were said to be used forClanranald’s new house and farmbuildings in the 1700s. NuntonSteadings has been renovated.

Borve Castle (NF773506) is saidto have been built by Amie

MacRuari in the 14th century andit was the Clanranald base formany years until Ormiclate Castlewas built on South Uist. Littlenow remains of this once imposingbuilding or of the nearby TeampallBhuirgh. The nameBorve suggests

that there may have been a ruinedbroch here in Norse times.

Nature For birdwatchers the westcoast beaches, machair and lochsare good places to view waders,wildfowl, and gulls. Culla Bay andPoll na Crann or Stinky Bay, socalled because of the smell of rot-ting seaweed which often pervadesthe beach, are especially attractiveto waders in migration times. Thedrain from Oban Liniclate(NF785498) and the lochs nearbyare particularly good for migrants.

The machair behind the dunes onthe west side of Benbecula has anabundance of wild flowers in sum-mer. This is partly due to lowintensity grazing by cattle in win-ter. Several rare species of bumble-bees thrive here.

Rossinish The east side of theisland is rugged and remote. Thetrack which leads to Rueval fromthe Market Stance (NF806537)also leads to the remote but beau-tiful Rossinish peninsula. Thesandy beaches backed by machairand dunes on the north side of thisheadland (NF873538) are unusu-al for their east coast situation.

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THE HILL OF THE FORDS

Wild flowers on the machair near Nunton

Borve Castle was built by Amie MacRuari in the 1300s

The west coast of Benbecula has lovely sandy beaches, South Uist is in the background

Peter’s Port was built in the 1890s but did not prove to be a good harbour

Cattle grazing on machair fields at Borve

Benbecula farm on the west side

deployed under RAF CoastalCommand on short range patrolsin August 1944. In September1944 Wellingtons of 179 and 304(Polish) Squadrons arrived butdespite intensive patrols they failedto find a single submarine. Finally,36 Squadron, also of Wellingtons,was based here until June 1945.

Today Balivanich remains a mili-tary airfield but is shared by civilianairlines. These provide daily flightsto Glasgow, Stornoway and Barra.The airfield also serves the militaryneeds of the Missile Testing Rangeon South Uist. The continuedpresence of associated personneland their dependents provideswork and is a boost to the localeconomy.

Until the building of the causeways,Benbecula was isolated at high tideand during storm surges. Thecrossings could be dangerous on arising tide, in the fog, or in the dark,and were never suitable for roadvehicles. In fact the first outsidedirect links were by air, due to thelack of a suitable harbour.

The Fords are excellent places to seewaterfowl and waders. In particularthe south side of the South Ford isa favourite roost for waders at hightide. The small road along the northwest shore of South Uist at Iochdarand the eastern shore of Gualantend to be particularly good. Careshould be taken not to obstruct traf-fic on the causeways themselves.

There are spectacular views over theFords from many locations, butperhaps the best are from the northend of Benbecula (NF825565)and from the layby south ofCreagorry towards South Uist(NF803479). Depending on thelocation, season, weather and timeof day there are almost limitlesscombinations of land, water, sand

and sky for the artist or photogra-pher to interpret. The Fords can bedangerous on foot , so take care!

WORLD WAR II After all thesocial changes and upheavals of theprevious 200 years, the mid 20th

century saw much development,due to wartime necessity. Duringthe 1930s Balivanichwas one of thegrass strips used by the DeHavilland Rapides of ScottishAirways for the first regular air serv-ices to the islands. With war loom-ing it was clear that air bases wouldbe needed as far west as possible foranti-submarine and convoy protec-tion work.

The Benbecula runways were builtby laying bitumen directly over sandwhich had been compacted. Theresulting slightly flexible surface wasnot ideal, but was usable by the air-craft of the era due to their relative-ly low ground pressure.

Work on the South Ford road linkactually began in 1938, while con-struction of the airfield started in1940, and it became operational inAugust 1941. Although there wassome local concern about the possi-ble loss of traditional Gaelic culturedue to the influx, the RAF person-nel were made very welcome.

In late June 1942, 206 Squadronbecame operational on anti-subma-rine duties, with Hudsons whichwere soon replaced with B17 FlyingFortresses. These heavily armed longrange aircraft achieved considerablesuccess, sinking at least 12 U-boats.Perhaps more importantly theyforced the submarines to remain

submerged in the area to avoiddetection, thus denying them somefreedom of action.

220 Squadron, also with B17s,arrived in March 1943, but bothwere reassigned to the Azores thatOctober. Swordfishof 838 and 842Fleet Air Arm Squadrons were

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WORLD WAR II AND POST WAR

South Ford causeway looking south from the Benbecula end

Otters crossing sign at South Ford

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Boeing B17 Flying Fortress off South Uist

BENBECULA - BEINN NA FAOGHLA

WWII German U-boat on the surface, the reason for RAF Benbecula

Boeing B17 over Benbecula

Imperia

l War M

useum

Imperia

l War M

useum

Imperia

l War M

useum

South Ford and causeway with the hills of South Uist in the background