Barra - the Scottish island with a beach runway
For many plane spotters and avgeeks, an item on the bucket list is the beach runway on the island of Barra, the only such airport in the world with regular scheduled flights and where schedules are subject to tides!
Located in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, Barra is the southern most inhabited island of the chain (along with Vatersay to the south which is connected to Barra by a road causeway). The current population is said to be 1,264 people and they have five connections to the outside world:
1) 4 hour 45 minute CalMac ferry Castlebay to Oban on the mainland ~ distance approx 93 miles
2) CalMac ferry Castlebay to Scarinish on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides
3) CalMac ferry Castlebay to Lochboisdale on South Uist the next main island to the north.
4) CalMac ferry Ard Mhor to Eriskay and onward to South Uist by road causeway
5) Or... a twice daily 1 hour 10/15 minute flight to Glasgow (GLA/EGPF) airport.
First of all, this trip was back in April 2019, so some details may have changed since then. For context and before we get into planes and to get some photos going, we arrived via option 1 on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry "Isle of Lewis". She was built in 1995 locally at Port Glasgow by Ferguson Shipbuilders. She is one of only two ferries in the fleet over 100m long at 101.25m with a tonnage of 6753.
Oban is a beautiful town in the county of Argyll & Bute with the expected old buildings, a bustling harbour with vibrant colours and a large ferry operation from CalMac and of course the famous namesake whisky distillery. A trip up to McCaig's Tower is worthwhile to get an overview of the town. The weather was incredible, the cloudless sky reflecting in Oban Bay. We got an early afternoon sailing which was delayed if I remember correctly, so had a meal in the onboard Mariners Café and caught a beautiful sunset on the almost 5 hour crossing through the Sound of Mull out into the Sea of the Hebrides, technically part of the Atlantic Ocean I suppose.
McCaig's Tower and Battery Hill looking west over Oban Bay
The Oban Distillery
"Isle of Mull" berthed in Oban harbour
The island of Barra is roughly a circle shape with a circular road the A888 round the island about 13 miles total and a peninsular to the north and a causeway to Vatersay to the south as mentioned. The main town is Castlebay on the south east side which is home of the main ferry terminal to Oban, Tiree and South Uist. The ferry from Ard Mhor to the next island Eriskay is to the north.
Photo credit: Patrick Revell maps
As aforementioned, the weather remained spectacular after an overnight stay in the Castlebay Hotel. The beaches are equally spectacular with their white sands and even whiter capped waves. I don't know if it would ever be warm enough in summer to spend a day on these beaches sunbathing. Certainly on the west side, as there is nothing between here and Greenland, even Canada, the wind off the ocean is certainly bracing! Unless you are into walking, there is little to do, but the views as you drive round the A888 are incredible, but a day is more than enough to see the whole island. Castlebay itself is very small with basic necessities, the largest building being a church and the main attraction is Kisimul Castle which becomes an island when the tide is in. You can drive across a causeway onto the island of Vatersay which is home to remnants of Iron and Bronze Age settlements. There is also the sobering memorial to the emigration vessel "Annie Jane" maritime disaster of 1853 with over 350 souls lost and buried in mass graves among the sand dunes. For the aviation enthusiast and WW2 historian, there is another memorial to the loss of 3/9 crew of RAF Consolidated PB2B-1 Catalina IVB serial JX273 which crashed here on 12th May 1944 and there are are few remaining pieces of the aircraft too. There are few places to eat on the island outside Castlebay and in fact we actually ate at the airport terminal.
Kisimul Castle, Castlebay
West of the island near Borve
"Annie Jane" memorial and mass grave on the beach
RAF Catalina JX273 wreckage and memorial
To the north, the communities of North Bay and ferry terminal in Ard Mhor also provide some photographic opportunities, as does the Eoligarry peninsular to the north. We found a vehicle scrap yard in a field up here and it yielded some interesting recent history from the 80's and 90's - I have photos on my Flickr stream.
Ard Mohr ferry terminal to Eriskay
Let's get to the aviation... The airport is located on this peninsular and is often called Eoligarry and the beach runways are located in a large bay named Traigh Mhor, which is translated to Big Beach, to the east side of the peninsular.
There are three official runways, as follows:
07/25 ~ 799 m ~ 2,621'
11/29 ~ 680 m ~ 2,231'
15/33 ~ 846 m ~ 2,776'
The airport is operated by HIAL (Highlands & Islands Airports) and the IATA code is BRR / ICAO code EGPR. The airport is also available for use by general aviation, though from what I have seen traffic is not exactly heavy! Though the sand is very compact and in effect is as good as concrete, when the tide goes out there are lots of water pools and soft wet sand, so aircraft with retractable gear are advised against using it - on a regular basis anyway - as it is possible sand on the tires and gear could cause it to jam when retracted. That unfortunately would include the Scottish Air Ambulance Beech King Air's.
The scheduled flights are operated by Scottish airline Loganair who have their headquarters in Glasgow using 15-19 seat de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 and 400 series aircraft. The flight schedules change with the tides and are very much subject to weather, but they are generally twice daily mid morning and lunch time with current flight numbers LM451/455 inbound and LM452/456 outbound.
Schedule at time of writing (November 2025) :
LM451 ~ dep GLA 1135 ~ arr BRR 11250
LM452 ~ dep BRR 1150 ~ arr GLA 1300
LM455 ~ dep GLA 1320 ~ arr BRR 1435
LM456 ~ dep BRR 1455 ~ arr GLA 1605
Base one way fares (at time of writing) vary from £125-165 with a 15kg baggage allowance included and 6kg carry on. An extra £5 flex fare gives a further 8kg baggage and ability to amend tickets. There are two other higher fare brackets with more perks available too.
The airport is a single building split into three sections with a small tarmac drop off area outside. The north end where you enter is the public area with an open plan layout with check in desk to the left with Loganair's ops room behind it as you enter and a small café to the right (which we discovered is only open when the flights are operating). In between are tables and chairs which double up for café use and a waiting room, plus there are small toilets too and a very basic gift store attached to the café counter and some interesting photos of the airport. The middle section is a two place garage for airport vehicles and the south end is the control tower which looks exactly as it is, bolted on to the end of the building. On the south wall is an old bus shelter which serves as the collection point for arriving baggage. As I didn't fly in I am not 100% sure, but I think you just go through the terminal building and there is a roped off path along the building to the side and your luggage will be brought here. There is then a separate three place garage for the fire and airport operations vehicles airside to the north of the terminal and that is it. To the south is a small car park and this affords great views of the airport operations.
Some memories of the 80th anniversary of the airport on the baggage claim shelter
It was all a very simple process. Of course bookings are made online in the normal manner and it is just a matter of checking in. The single counter can have two agents behind it, though one is normally enough as there will only ever be 15 passengers at one time. They have to weigh your carry on too and they instruct you to look at the safety instructions on the wall. We had a refreshment from the café and they call your flight, you walk out the back doors to a small screening area where they screen your carry on and you walk out across the sand to the aircraft. It is surprisingly soft and deep and your shoes invariable get filled with sand! Once you are on the apron the sand is very compacted and as the tide never comes up that far, as long as it is not raining pretty much feels like concrete. Service vehicles are golf carts with small pick up beds and large sand tires.
I flew out on LM456 on Loganair's 300 series - actually a rare 310 - registration G-BVVK built in January 1980 with serial 666 at DHC's factory in Downsview Ontario (greater Toronto).
Delivered to Norwegian airline Widerøe (full name Widerøes Flyveselskap - the latter meaning Airlines in English) on 14th February 1980 as LN-BEZ. Sold to Loganair on 21st December 1994 at the time as a British Airways franchisee and flying under the British Airways Express brand in full Landor livery, later receiving the current Chatham Dockyard livery. The franchise was then replaced by FlyBe on 26th October 2008 and painted in their full livery. When this ended it was operated by the now fully independent Loganair from 1st September 2019 and is now named "Spirit of Eilidh" (pronounced Ay-lee).
In addition, Loganair operate two factory new next generation 400 models built by Viking Air in Calgary Alberta and flown in a stand alone St Andrews flag livery on behalf of HIAL, who own the frames for operations from Glasgow to the former RAF Machrihanish at Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsular and the islands of Tiree and Islay as well as Barra. They are serial 917 registration G-HIAL delivered 15th May 2015 and serial 918 registration G-SGTS delivered 21st May 2015.
G-BVVK & G-HIAL Twin Otter's on their parking spots on the beach apron taken from the car park
On the first day both BVVK and HIAL were present and I watched their back to back departures. There are often shellfish pickers out on the bay and prior to an aircraft movement, an ATV goes out to make sure the runway in use is clear and stands by until the aircraft has cleared. I could not see any obvious marks in the sand to determine where the aircraft should taxi, other than prior tire tracks! There are possibly a couple of markers at the runways, but nothing hugely visible to the undiscerning passenger eye. HIAL was present again when we walked out to board BVVK.
Cafe where we ordered lunch prior to departure
Boarding BVVK with it's own airstairs built into the cabin door
Looking out of the cabin door after boarding, the ATV is use to bring out the baggage and cargo
Safety card on board Twin Otter BVVK
Cockpit of BVVK from the my seat in the last row - I believe it was an all female flight crew
View from my window seat last row on the right hand side
I believe we lined up for the longest runway 07 and departed off to the north east over the small island of Orosay, then Helisay and Gighay and the bigger islands of Coll and Mull at 4000', then down over the mouth of the Clyde into Glasgow.
Island of Fujay
Island of Mull from 4000'
Titan Clydebank, Clydebank Leisure Centre & West College Scotland
I can't remember which end of their runway 05/23 we landed on, probably 23, but we parked on Stand 1 of concourse D which is effectively a remote stand next to a company Saab 340 and you walk across the ramp into the terminal building - and there were a couple of prop freighters at the back of the apron. Baggage came through in a respectable time and we were on our way!
Disembarking G-BVVK on stand at Glasgow - she still remains in service today
G-LGNI ~ 1989 Saab 340B c/n 340B-160 ~ Loganair "Spirit of Orkney" ~ retired Dec 2023 and now stored in Springfield MO as N980ES with the lessor since Apr 2024
EI-SOO ~ 1998 ATR 72-500 (F) c/n 577 ~ ASL Airlines Ireland ~ retired in Dec 2021 and now active with Loganair as G-LMRX named "RMA Captain E E Fresson OBE" leased from ASL since Jun 2022
Links to my Flickr albums for full set of aircraft at Barra and the non aviation photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23870098@N04/albums/72157691446448643/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23870098@N04/albums/72157708288795445/
Thanks for reading!!
Comments
Post a Comment