This morning we waved goodbye to Lewis and Harris after a great few days there, and hello to the Uists. This is my first time visiting this part of the Western Isles, excluding the brief visit to Weavers Point yesterday. A new place to explore!

During the research process for my book I had looked into access to the lights on the small islands of Gasay and Calvay on the approach to Lochboisdale. Calvay was obvious, it would require a chartered boat or you could get a good view from the ferries into and out of Lochboisdale. Gasay was a bit more involved and this morning we decided to investigate for ourselves.

I was aware that Lochboisdale has fairly recently undergone a harbour development programme and my research suggested that the island of Gasay had become linked to South Uist as a result. Arriving in Lochboisdale we found this is exactly what had happened with the harbour development works completed in 2015.

Driving slowly around the harbour area we spotted a slope that looked like it would lead where we wanted to go. We parked up and set off. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a well trodden track leading up from the harbour. This track led up to a recently constructed cairn from which you had great views and could see the light from.

Fortunately the track continued further until we reached a large gravelled area which gave some views looking back across the harbour.

This was where we had to go off piste and stomp our way through the heather. The island is peat moorland and there was evidence of peat being dug here in the past. This meant there were some banks to get up and down, but aside from that the walk wasn’t too bad – we’d both expected the ground to be a lot worse.

I was intrigued to see what the light looked like close up as it is so infrequently photographed. As you can see from the pictures it is one of the Northern Lighthouse Board‘s metal framework towers clad with white panels, except this light has the panels on the top level only and on one side there are no panels. It’s interesting to see another configuration of the white panels as they do differ on some of the flat-pack lighthouses.

As usual Joe the Drone had accompanied us and got some great images of the lighthouse, the island and the harbour too. These aerial images give a clearer view of Gasay as an island and the causeway that now connects it to Lochboisdale.

The Lochboisdale Harbour website suggests that a Phase 2 for the harbour development is being considered which could see the ferry terminal moved to the south side of Gasay. Whether this will impact on the position of the light on Gasay or not remains to be seen. Time will tell.

It may not be a big lighthouse, but Gasay was well worth a visit and also provided distant views of the Calvay light to the east. Hoping to get a bit of a closer look at that one later in the week. 🙂