Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Langass Lodge Hotel££
(
01876-580285;
www.langasslodge.co.uk
; Locheport; s/d from £75/109; )
The
delightful Langass Lodge Hotel is a former shooting lodge set in splendid isolation over-
looking Loch Langais. Refurbished and extended, it now offers a dozen appealing rooms,
many with sea views, and one of the Hebrides' best
restaurants
(2-/3-course dinner £30/
36)
, noted for its fine seafood and game.
HOTEL
Getting There & Around
Buses from Lochmaddy to Berneray, Langass, Clachan na Luib, Benbecula and Lochbois-
dale run five or six times a day Monday to Saturday.
Benbecula (Beinn Na Faoghla)
POP 1200
Benbecula is a low-lying island with a flat, lochan-studded landscape that's best appreci-
ated from the summit of
Rueval
(124m), the island's highest point. There's a path around
the south side of the hill (signposted from the main road; park beside the landfill site) said
to be the route taken to the coast by Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald during
the prince's escape in 1746.
The control centre for the Ministry of Defence's Hebrides Missile Range (located on
the northwestern tip of South Uist) is the island's main source of employment, and
Balivanich (Baile a'Mhanaich) - looking like a corner of a Glasgow housing estate
planted incongruously on the machair - is the commercial centre serving the staff and
their families.
The village has a bank with an ATM, a post office, a large
Co-op supermarket
(
8am-8pm Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun)
and a petrol station (open on Sunday). It is also the
location of
Benbecula airport
.
South Uist (Uibhist A Deas)
POP 1900
South Uist is the second-largest island in the Outer Hebrides and saves its choicest corners
for those who explore away from the main north-south road. The low-lying west coast is
an almost unbroken stretch of white-sand beach and flower-flecked machair - a new way-
