Boreray (North Uist)

Boreray is an island of around 550 acres lying two kilometres north of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. Once home to well over a hundred people, it now has a single croft and a single regular inhabitant, a crofter who has been rebuilding life on the island since 1999. In Gaelic it is Boraraigh.

Landscape

The north of Boreray is hilly and dominated by Mullach Mòr, while the flatter southern half is largely cut off from it by Loch Mòr, “the big loch”, and a strip of sand dunes. The croft and its buildings stand in the north-east of the island. From its shores there are wide views over the Sound of Harris, to Berneray, Pabbay and the hills of Harris.

Island life

Boreray has been lived on since prehistoric times. From the 15th century it belonged to the MacLeans, and when the thirteenth MacLean of Boreray left around 1810 the island was divided into twenty crofts. The population grew fast: 181 people were recorded in 1841, and there were more than a hundred through the 19th century. But over-cultivation and the collapse of the kelp trade, which had made seaweed so valuable, led to a slow decline.

Then, in 1999, the present crofter began rebuilding work, and he remains the island’s only regular resident.

More about Boreray

In 1923 most of the islanders asked to be moved, and the island was evacuated. One family stayed on until the 1960s, when Boreray was finally abandoned. Then, in 1999, the present crofter began rebuilding work, and he remains the island’s only regular resident. The grazing on the rest of the island is leased to crofters from Berneray.

Visiting

There is no ferry to Boreray. It can be seen from the north coast of North Uist and from Berneray, and boat trips in the Sound of Harris sometimes pass nearby. You can collect Boreray as a landing or a sighting in your Island Passport.

Wildlife and area

The machair, dunes and lochs of Boreray and North Uist are good for Lapwing, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Corncrake in summer, and for barnacle geese and greylag geese in winter. Look out for Grey Seal and Eurasian Otter around the shore. Other islands nearby include Lingay, Oronsay, Berneray and Pabbay.