After taking the ferry from the Isle of Barra to the Isle of Eriskay for a wee visit, we drove across the causeway to the large island of South Uist.
There, we had many adventures!
These included chances to meet and listen to some great musicians, walk the broad western beach, see lots of birds, enjoy the grand vistas of the flowered machair — the fertile soil along the west side of the island, composed mostly of seashells that have been caught up in the vast blender of the Atlantic Ocean and its stormy seas and winds.
Our schedule allowed us to enjoy at least an event or two associated with Ceòlas, a summer school teaching fiddle, piping, dancing, and Gaelic language and song. Begun in 1996 by piper Hamish Moore (see earlier article about his contribution to the revival of Scotland’s bellows-blown bagpipes tradition), Ceòlas has brought in great instructors to work with students who come from the area as well as from many parts of Scotland and other countries.
Often there was a concert by faculty or a ceilidh with performances and dancing that we got to enjoy and participate in while we were in the town of Daliburgh. A beautiful new building called Cnoc Soilleir (Gaelic for Bright Hill) is now one of several venues for the Ceòlas summer camp classes and events. This new building is also run by the University of the Highlands and Islands, which is spread out across its broad base, featuring in-person specialties in each local campus and online learning for everything else. The music major for the university is based in Benbecula, a small island located between North and South Uist.
Sometimes we enjoyed private concerts by musicians visiting our small group, including Chloe Steele, who sang Gaelic song and played bagpipes for us Chloe’s a very talented young musician who grew up in South Uist. Among her projects is an effort to organize ceilidhs in Kildonan, with support from the local Kildonan Museum. The museum was the endpoint of one of our longer walks along the beach and then inland. It offers interesting exhibits about South Uist history and culture, along with various shops. Chloe also made a film highlighting the strong historical connections between South Uist and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. You can hear her sing at the end of this post.
Because of Ceòlas, we got to have a special performance one time from the great fiddler Alasdair White. Alasdair grew up on the Isle of Lewis, and became quite well known when he joined the Battlefield Band as a teenager and toured with them for 16 years.
On another occasion we enjoyed a visit from Gaelic singer Gillebride MacMillan (pronounced Gill-uh-BREE-jeh). Gillebride grew up in a Gaelic speaking family in South Uist, and eventually took to learning Gaelic songs, winning a gold medal at the National Mòd competitions. Gillebride became quite famous when he sang Gaelic as The Bard in the first season of the Outlander TV series. He continues to be helpful to the show as a consultant when they needs more Gaelic songs.
He and I figured out that we had met at a ceilidh in South Uist back in 1987, when Laura Scott and I performed along with a Gaelic singer (Talitha MacKenzie) and a smallpipes player. But we didn’t know we met, because he was just a boy who always went to the ceilidhs growing up, since his father was always the MC for them at the Bornish Village Hall. Laura and I still fondly remember that ceilidh, which started at around sunset (11pm!), with lots of presentations, performances, songs, an even home movies, followed by a ceilidh dance played by Ian McLachlan (composer of the Dark Island) and his band. An afterparty at the barn of the B&B where we were staying went into the wee hours. Everyone sat on styrofoam salmon boxes (the B&B owner also ran a new salmon farm), and all the men took turns playing pipes. This was, to me, an interesting contrast with Cape Breton at that time, where all the men at a party would take turns playing fiddle, while the women played piano.
Below is a photo of Alasdair White playing for us, and one of Gillebride singing as Laura dances to his singing. Many Gaelic songs are dance tunes with strong rhythms, sometimes even with nonsense syllables just to fill out the musical beats.
The long walk that ended at the Kildonan Museum began at a golf course. It’s easy to imagine why the Scots invented golf; the landscape is perfect for it, with natural contours, water, and sand traps!
Along the way to the beach, we saw the remains of neolithic homes in round formations, which had been dug out and examined by archaeologists. We then proceeded onto the incredibly broad beach. One time we came across whale vertebrae
One of our travelers kept a log of all the birds we spotted on our trip, and the number came to more than 50, including some rare species. Near the water, it was not uncommon to hear the cry of flying oystercatchers, probably warning us and other birds that we were walking close to their nesting area.
As we left the beach and walked in the machair, we enjoyed broad vistas of grasses, flowers, homes, hills, and in the east, a few mountains.
Once in a while, we had some fellow travelers on the road.
Next time, we’ll continue with a visit to a very special part of South Uist. The owners of that B&B I mentioned above did many things, including ten years running a B&B, a stint running a salmon farm, a time hosting kids water festivals as one of many efforts to keep kids entertained and willing to possible grow up and stay on or return to South Uist instead of heading off to mainland cities.
He also took on a huge and amazing project: fencing off from deer and sheep a huge area of land at the foot of Beinn Mor, the largest mountain on the island, and planting native trees that had disappeared centuries ago. We’ll take a look at the results next week.
❤️