Castlebay, Isle of Barra

The Outer Hebrides is a chain of hundreds of islands in the far flung Western corner of Scotland with the west side facing the Atlantic ocean and the east side, the Minch sea. The crashing waves of the Atlantic ocean carves a very jagged landscape into the islands and also creates a landscape unlike any other in the world. Only a few of these islands are inhabited and the total population of the whole chain does not exceed 30,000, it wavers depending the influx of new people and the outflow of the locals who seek more lucrative employment in the bigger cities of the mainland Scotland. The number of visitors have been increasing steadily. So more work catering to visitors are now available and has managed to keep more young people at home. One can go from South to North or North to South to explore these islands, they run about in a straight line, from North to South. Castlebay in the South is a very popular entry point. One can take the 5 hour ferry in from Oban in the mainland or fly in from Glasgow. I was at Castlebay airport one morning to wait for the 10am arrival of the flight from Glasgow. The runway is the beach at Cockle beach. (in between flights one can rake for cockles?) I made sure I had a good vantage point to snap some photos, I wanted to take the sand, the plane and the Machair and frame them all in one. This was the result. Many people do turn out to watch this on the mornings that the flight comes in.