Medieval Conveniences on Barra

We decided to set out on a longer sail to cover the 50 miles from Coll to Castlebay on the island of Barra.  This is at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides and getting there involved leaving the nice sheltered flat seas we had so long been enjoying.  We would be setting out into the bigger waves from the Atlantic Ocean.
The passage was hard on the wind and the boat heeled over as we pounded our way through the waves.
Sailing to Castlebay on the Island of Barra
We made good progress and arrived in Castlebay at 4:30 pm having had quite a hard sail in fairly poor visibility and F4/5 winds.  
It was a nice surprise to find that a marina had been constructed the previous year so we could tie up alongside rather than having to blow up the dinghy and row ashore from a mooring.  The marina was still a "work in progress" and they were in the process of building a new slipway for small boats but had not made the shower block yet.
The following day we found that we could get showers at the swimming pool attached to the Castlebay Secondary School - a bit unusual and we had just finished by the time a class of pupils arrived for their swimming lesson.
Then we took a short boat trip out to the castle in the bay called Kisimul Castle. This is said to be the best preserved medieval castle in Scotland.

Kisimul Castle
The castle has been the stronghold for the MacNeil clan since 1040 and has domestic living quarters on the inside.  It was falling into disrepair until in 1947 when an American named Robert Lister MacNeil, the 45th Chief of the Clan decided to carry out major repairs.  He used stones taken from many jetties round the bay which themselves had been built from parts of the castle walls in the past!

Inside Kisimul Castle
Castle walls often contain a toilet or "garderobe" - basically a hole in the floor with a metal grid over the top that hangs out over the area below - in this case the sea.  We found 2 of these and decided to check them out for comfort.
Doug on the First Garderobe
And Rosie on the Second One
Hmm, maybe a bit breezy :)

We spent our final evening in Castlebay in the aptly named restaurant Kisimul.  They were a bit short of space and asked if we minded sharing our table with other diners.  This was great fun and we ended up with two other couples.  We were the last diners to leave as we had such a good time finding out about each other!


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