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Last update

Aug 27/2010

(return to index)                        The Barra Isles

  We often assume that our MacNeil ancestors lived on Barra when in fact the early Barra church records indicate that many of the MacNeils lived on the small islands which surround Barra. My father’s MacNeil’s lived on Hellisay. My mother’s MacNeils (the line whose surname she bears) lived on Sandray.. Iona, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia was originally called Sandray. Today only Barra and Vatersay are inhabited. Here is a brief description of the Barra Isles.

• Located at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides;

• Barra is only eight miles long by four miles wide;

• Has an area of only about thirty-five square miles

• Supports a population of around 1300

• Barra's name is derived from St Barr

• 12th century church as well as prehistoric brochs and cairns on the island

• Kismul Castle, the seat of the McNeils of Barra.

• Gaelic language is still spoken on the island

• One main  road which circles the island

• The main town on the island is Castlebay

• On the mountain of Heaval there is a statue of the Virgin and Child carved from marble

• Ferry from Castlebay to Oban on the mainland and to Lochboisdale on South Uist.

• Air service to Glasgow,  the airport runway is the tidal sands at Traigh Mhor.