Mingulay, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.  Day 16 , 14th July.

A couple of dolphins from the bow of the ship.  Some of the others got better photographs of them than me.

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A curiosity.  A fully restored cottage with people inside plus the derelict skeleton of a connected building.

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Mingulay is part of the Barra Islands, in a chain of the islands of the Outer Hebrides stretching down from Lewis and Harris and Uist.  Mingulay is the southernmost apart from Berneray.

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Mingulay was always a harsh place to live.  There were no good harbours and the island could be effectively inaccessible by sea for months at a time.  It was not affected by the clearances and in fact the population increased with refugees from other islands.  Ultimately, the islanders decided that life here was not sufficiently viable and left by 1912.

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This is the remains of “the Village”, the only settlement on the island.  An iron age midden was also found nearby.   The island has a long history of settlement.  There is an iron age dun and other traces of ancient settlement further south.

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The village has been largely buried by sand blown up by storms.  Here we see the lintel of a doorway so the sand must be from four to seven feet deep.

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