1 Beinn a'Chlaidh (Hill of the Graveyard) is a ritual area in the south, though it's unclear what is prehistoric and what is Viking, early Medieval or later. There's a standing stone (Clach Mhor, big stone), west of it the remnants of a Bronze Age chambered cairn (A'Chiste Chloiche, the stone chest), and 125 yards southwest is Leac an Righ (stone of the king). This is carved with the imprint of a human foot and resembles the stone at Dunadd in mainland Argyll where kings of Dál Riata were crowned.
Nurse's Cottage 200 yards north of the harbour is the base for Berneray Historical Society (Chomunn Eachdraidh Bheàrnaraigh). It's open May-Aug: M-F 11AM-3PM and has a small exhibition of island life. The society publishes an online newsletter in May and Nov each year. A resident nurse wasn't needed once the causeway offered help from the other Uists.
2 Berneray Church, Church Road HS6 5BD. The church is a plain 19th-century building above Backhill the main settlement. It's Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) but all are welcome at services, held at noon on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of each month, with the 2nd and 4th Sunday services in Lochmaddy. These are mostly in English, with one psalm in Gaelic. Psalms are sung in the Hebridean style with no music. (updated Sep 2023)
Grey seals or Atlantic seals (Halichoerus grypus) have a colony on the shore of Bays Loch, and an even larger on the west coast where they're less disturbed. They're the ones with broad Roman noses, while Common or Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), also found here, have puppy-dog noses.
Otters (Lutra lutra) are most likely to be seen on the rocky east and south coasts, and Bays Loch is as good a place as any. Freshwater springs flow out on those coasts, which otters need to clean their coats, and the crabs they eat dwell among the rocks. The rising tide gets the crabs busy so the otters do likewise.
Crotal is the orange lichen on the intertidal rocks. From it is extracted a red dye used in traditional knitwear, but first the wool thread must be cleansed of its oils and soaked in a "mordant" so the dye will fix and not wash out. England from the Middle Ages used Fuller's Earth for this, but Highland Scotland up to the Clearances still used the age-old mordant of urine, human or animal, the staler and stinkier the better for its ammonia content. Hand-working the wee into the fabric was communal women's work, accompanied by "waulking songs".
The Armoury of Macleod 50 yards north of the Youth Hostel is more prosaically a ruined 18th century cow shed. A Latin plaque above the door states that this was birthplace of Sir Norman MacLeod, who fought at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. There's no sign of a structure that old, perhaps it was built over or its stone re-used to house the cows.
Port Ludaig next to the Youth Hostel is the stumps of an old jetty, probably from Sir Norman's times when Ruisigearraidh (Rushgarry) was a sizable farming community and transport along the island tracks was onerous. A shingle bank stretches out for a mile at low tide, with an inshore cut-through navigable by small craft.
3 Telford Kirk or Parliamentary Church fell into ruin but has been rebuilt as a private house. Early 19th-century church provision was out of kilter with population centres, so government money was allocated to build "Commissioners Churches" across England. In 1824 this was begrudgingly extended to Scotland, with the entire country receiving less than was spent on a single English church. Thomas Telford built about 30 of them to a simple austere design on which every expense was scrimped, including this example at Rushgarry.
East Beach is the long sandy stretch by the Telford Kirk. It's a convenient picnic spot as it's flanked by a public road.
4 Old Berneray Cemetery is a walled enclosure on the south flank of Ben Leva. It's disused and the graves are mostly 19th century. Earlier grave markers are badly eroded and it's possible some of them are just stones, dumped here to clear the farmland.
Cill Aiseam, the church of St Asaph (a 6th-century Welsh bishop) lay in a green spot on the hill midway between the old cemetery and Cnoc Na Greine. Ruins were still visible in the Victorian era but now all trace has vanished.
Lazybeds (Gaelic feannagan) are the cause of the parallel furrows seen in hillside fields. This cultivation system maybe got its name because the field surface lay untilled and idle, while ridges were heaped up with peat and seaweed fertiliser. It was the common way to grow potatoes in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland and Highland Scotland, and demanded no small labour, but the name gave gentry the notion that their tenants were layabouts smoking their clay pipes and procreating far too many children. The system mostly died out during the 1840s blight and famines, as did those whose survival depended on home-grown potatoes.
Blackhouses are seen all around the island, many in ruins, others deserted but several restored, such as the Youth Hostel. They had double dry-stone walls packed with earth, and wooden rafters covered with a turf or thatch roof. If thatch, it would be pinned down by a "hairnet" weighted with stones against the winter gales. The floor was flagstones or packed earth, with a fire in the central hearth which must never be allowed to go out. No chimney, so the smoke percolated through the roof and stained the residents. That helped distract from the stench from the cattle that also lived within, separated by a wooden partition. After the 1850s, people upgraded to more hygienic taighean geala, white houses, and it only remained to take down their blackhouse partition to turn the whole smelly abode into a byre.
5 Cnoc Na Greine (Hillock of the Sun) is a grouping of stones, mostly likely a burial chamber. The largest is a glacial erratic boulder, naturally deposited there, then three other stones were positioned as chamber supports. Human remains were found here but are undated.
6 Loch Bhrusda is a freshwater lake with fishing for brown trout, and the island's water supply. You might see mute swans, greylag geese and buzzards, better known as "tourist eagles" — if a visitor spots an eagle, it's probably a buzzard. The loch gives its name to the ferry that used to ply the Berneray-Harris route, but it only had room for 18 cars and soon had to be replaced. MV Loch Bhrusda now acts as a back-up vessel whenever a Calmac ferry is out of action, which in the 2020s is all too common.
7 Chairstones are a group west of the lane end at Borve, part of a prehistoric burial chamber. Some 20 yards south, one stone happens to resemble a chair facing the others, so this gave rise to the legend that it was a Viking law court.
West beach runs the length of the Atlantic coast and is backed by machair coarse grass and sand dunes. Wading birds on the shore include redshanks, sanderlings, turnstones, oyster catchers, dunlin, curlews, whimbrels, ringed plovers and herons; further out you see gannets diving.
8 Giant MacAskill Monument, Queen's Beach. A drystone plinth marks the birthplace of Angus MacAskill (1825–1863), the world's largest "true" giant. You can still discern the outline of the lost village of Sheabie - his family moved to Stornoway, and Sheabie was abandoned during the Clearances of the 1850s. Macaskill was six, and still a normal size, when they emigrated to Englishtown on Cape Breton Island (in Nova Scotia, Canada). There in adolescence he grew and grew and grew to 7 ft 9 in (2.36 m). His family were of unremarkable size, and he was a "true" giant with no hormonal or other metabolic syndrome, and of normal proportions. He was prodigiously strong and joined Barnum's circus as a performing strongman, then returned to Englishtown to own a mill and general store. At age 38, he died of a "brain fever". There's a museum about him near Englishtown and another at Dunvegan on Skye. Several places in Scotland are called "Giant's Grave" and are prehistoric burial chambers, but this fellow was real. (updated Sep 2023)
9 Cnoc nan Claigeann ("Hill of the Skulls") hasn't been excavated, but findings include prehistoric pot shards and a mix of animal and human bones. It's probably that archaeologists' idea of paradise, a midden. A ruined shepherd's bothy stands on top, and nearby is the outline of a former blackhouse.
Braighe na Ceilp (Breastwork of the Kelp) is at the end of West Beach, beyond the Hill of the Skulls. It's a grid of flat stones where kelp was dried before burning for potash. This was a lucrative industry in the early 19th century, as potash was essential to make soap, bleach, fertilisers and other chemicals. The price collapsed in 1822 when peace with France made cheaper imports available, and other chemical processes were devised. Kelp harvesting continued on a small scale for local use, but sharp fellows in top hats and high cravats no longer jostled to buy the stuff.
10 Pabbay is an uninhabited island 3 miles northwest of Berneray and about the same size. Its southeast is low-lying and fertile, with a landing beach though no harbour, but the population was evicted in 1846. It's been used ever since for sheep grazing and there's a modern farm building. Papey in Norse means hermit monks but there's scant trace of them here - the other Pabbay south of Barra has a ruined chapel.
Shillay (Siolaigh) a mile north of Pabbay is triangular, half-a-mile each side. It's rugged and has never been permanently inhabited. The name means "seal island".
