In brief 1 = Other Walking & Cycle Routes 7 14 Flora MacDonald Category: Easy 8 Map Reference: OS Landranger 1 2 Map 22 (Benbecula & South Uist) : OS Explorer Map 453 (Benbecula 9 & South Uist) 10 Start and End Grid Reference: 3 NF 744 274 4 11 Walking Distance: 8 km / 5miles 5 Time: 2 hours with stops 12 Route Walking 13 Flora MacDonald Our walking and cycling 14 routes are part of a series of self-guided trails through the Outer Hebrides. 6 For more information scan here. 15 16 www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk/apps Our islands offer great opportunities Outdoor Safety “ This is a great walk, which is to explore the outdoors, with walks Staying safe whilst walking is mostly a matter well worth a full day out with providing you with the chance to get of common sense: a picnic lunch on the amazing close to nature, history and heritage silver sand beach and then • Check the weather forecast before you set out. of our islands or just to get out, enjoy finishing with cake and a • Take appropriate clothing – this walk covers the fresh air and get fit. some rough, wet ground, so wear your boots. cup of tea at the café at the A coat is almost always advisable. South Uist museum. The walk • Take extra care as some of this walk is along takes in the Flora Macdonald Choose coastal walks around the Outer Hebrides birthplace monument, quiet or opt for wildlife walks, such as hiking through steep cliffs. This walk is not for windy days! the nature reserves or walks to spot eagles, • Carry water and a bite to eat. roads through crofting deer and other exciting island inhabitants. • Always tell someone where you are going. communities, the outstanding machair of South Uist and a History lovers can choose to walk the Bonnie secluded beach.” Prince Charlie trail in Uist whole or part, while Scottish Outdoor Access Code a selection of hiking trails take in historic sites In Scotland we have some of the best access laws Flora MacDonald’s Birthplace and monuments providing ample points of in the world – we have the right to walk on most interest along the way. land provided we behave responsibly and respect the rights of others. Full information on access Whether you are looking for leisurely strolls rights and responsibilities can be found at along island beaches, or challenging hikes through rugged mountain terrain, walking on www.outdooraccess-scotland.com our islands gives you a chance to really connect with the outdoors and keep fit at the same time. If you keep to the following guidelines you won’t go far wrong: • Do not disturb livestock or wildlife. • Keep dogs under control, especially For more information and to download at lambing time. other walking routes, visit: • Leave gates as you found them. www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk • Take all your litter home. The Route Sanderlings This is a great walk, which is well summer, you may see worth a full day out with a picnic The Coast: Birds gannets or terns diving for 4 When you get to the coast, fish. Along the shoreline, you lunch on the amazing silver sand you have a choice - You can may see waders: sanderling go on the beach or on the running back and forth at the beach and then finishing with cake path, known as the Machair edge of the tide or larger, and a cup of tea at the café at the Way. If you go on to the orange - billed oystercatchers. beach, turn right and aim for a At dawn or dusk you may see Kildonan Museum. Crofting walking through machair fields. gate in the distance before the an otter. If you go on the Machair (a gaelic word meaning shore curves round. Here, machair path, just follow the fertile plain) is formed by the you rejoin the Machair Way. track north. Continue round The walk takes in the Flora Macdonald birthplace Communities sand from the beach, the The glorious white sandy the corner as it rises gently. monument, quiet roads through crofting communities, the 3 Return to the main road and remains of crushed up shells, beach is just part of the This spot, Trolaisgeir, is a outstanding machair of South Uist and a secluded beach. In continue south. Take the first being blown inland onto the seemingly endless strand good viewpoint over bays to spring and summer, you will see a multitude of flowers, and turning on the right and follow naturally peaty soils. In spring stretching up the West coast. North and South. It is a great probably see and hear many birds too. Many of these have this all the way to the sea. After and summer the machair Out to sea, in spring or place for a picnic. become rare breeders in much of Britain. a mile or so, the surfaced road boasts a multitude of flowers: finishes, becoming a track. The daisies, primroses, buttercups, loch to your left - Loch Eilean bedstraws, trefoil, vetches and an Staor - has a small island in Teampull Mor complex at more. Exactly which flowers of Britain, changing farming it. This is a crannog - an Chill Donnain The Kildonan Howmore. There are also are in bloom depend upon practices mean that they now artificial island - with a small toilets, a café and a shop with the time of year and the 4 Before the path descends, breed almost exclusively in Museum building, on it. You are now local crafts. individual location. take the track to the right, the Outer Hebrides. You are 1 Park at the Kildonan heading back inland. As well unlikely to see one, but you Museum on the east side of From the museum, turn left as being good for flowers, the may hear it: it sounds like a the A865. This has a and walk down the main road Road Through Crofts machair has a rich variety of piece of paper rubbed along a fascinating collection of to the sign pointing to ‘Flora insects, including rare comb. This noise gives rise to exhibits and recreations of Macdonald’s Birthplace’. Here bumblebees. Large numbers its Latin name: Crex Crex. rooms from different houses you turn right before a house of wading birds, The path soon becomes a and buildings that give a and walk a short way across a oystercatchers, dunlin, surfaced road. It runs across compelling series of pictures field to a memorial inside redshank and lapwing breed a causeway between the two of island life. It holds a some low walls. This is the here. In spring or summer, parts of Loch Chill Donnain. collection of items about the township of Airigh-mhuilin you may hear skylarks Go to the end of the road and island collected by a local (Milton), an old settlement with singing, and perhaps the turn right on the main road to parish priest, Father John houses on drier land among jangling key calls of the corn return to the museum. Morrison, during the 1950s boggy hollows. Dry ridges bunting. There are corncrakes and 60s, and the carved nearby were used for in this area too. Once Clanranald Stone from the cultivating oats and potatoes. common across the whole Flora’s Birthplace Trolaisgeir American rebels and she Flora MacDonald returned to Britain on a ship 2 Flora Macdonald is most that was attacked by famous for her role in helping privateers. She returned to Bonnie Prince Charlie Skye, where her husband escape from South Uist “over eventually joined her and the sea to Skye”. However, where she ended her years. this was just one incident in her amazing life. Following Despite the signs, there N N the Prince’s escape to is uncertainty that Flora France, she was arrested, Macdonald was born in this taken to London and house, though possibly she imprisoned in the Tower. Her lived here as a child. The story and courage led to her monument was placed here by being pardoned. She married Clan Donald to commemorate and later emigrated to North her life. It is a marvellous The Beach Carolina where her husband viewpoint, looking out over the fought for the British in the low fields on all sides. American Revolutionary War. “ The glorious white sandy He was captured by the beach is just part of the seemingly endless strand stretching up the West coast.” Leaflet produced by Supported by FOR A HAPPIER, HEALTHIER SCOTLAND Design: we-are-bright.com.