The beaches of Uig on Lewis rival the famous Harris beaches and sometimes reveal hidden secrets!

The Uig Peninsula on Lewis (not to be confused with the village of the same name on Skye) is an incredibly pretty corner of the island with beaches to rival the famous Harris ones. It’s where the famous Lewis Chessmen were discovered and has some fantastic cliffs, rocky shores and sea stacks where you can sit and admire the Atlantic waves crashing against the coastline. It might not be packed with attractions but is stunningly beautiful and is somewhere we highly recommend.

We can’t talk about Uig without raving about the stunning white sand beaches along its shores. Ardroil, Bhaltos, Kneep, Bosta – each is stunningly beautiful, backed by dunes and – best of all – almost always completely empty! Thanks to the seclusion and low population of the Outer Hebrides, chances are you’ll have the beaches all to yourself. They’re pristine, and the clear water and silver-white sand combine to make the most stunning emerald seas. We could rave about them all day!

The beaches are backed with Machair, a habitat largely unique to the Outer Hebrides and Ireland. This fertile, sandy soil is ideal habitat for wildflowers, so if you visit at the right time of year, a blanket of blues, yellows and orange will lead you down to the sandy beaches. Just spectacular.

Much of the Hebrides still retains a crofting lifestyle, where crofters keep a few animals for subsistence. Uig is no different, and the area if scattered with pretty crofts, drystone walls and of course highland cows!

On Great Bernera, accessible by road bridge, is Bosta Beach. Alone this is a fantastic beach and well worth visiting, but the dunes that back it revealed a fascinating secret in recent years. In 1993, a severe storm swept up the sand from the dunes to reveal an iron age blackhouse village. One of the houses was reconstructed to how it would have been at the time, and you can visit today. Meat is even smoked in the blackhouse – meaning you can smell as well as see how it would have been to live in one of these houses!

A little south of Bosta is Callanish Standing Stones, an impressive stone circle accompanies by a excellent visitor centre and café.
Seafood lovers shouldn’t miss a visit to the Scallop Shack – a wonderful scallop shell-clad shed sat on the jetty at Uigen, containing a fridge full of scallops and an honesty pot!

Don’t miss a visit to the Suileachan Monument, commissioned by the Bhaltos Community Trust, to mark the effects that land reforms have had on the area. It commemorates the 19th century land clearances, the 20th century raids by the Reef Raiders, Scottish land reforms, and the creation of the Bhaltos Community Trust itself.

Keep an eye out for the northern lights while you’re here – with its northerly latitude and low light pollution, the area is perfect for spotting the ‘merry dancers’.

We could talk all day about the area – you really do have to see it for yourself to fully appreciate its beauty and charm. Don’t be put off by the isolation – you could spend weeks here and never tire of the spectacular Hebridean scenery.