Season: spring
Traigh Mhor is the beach that provides the runway for Barra’s airport. Its English translation from the Gaelic is “Big Beach”, just as well. An orange windsock warns of planes’ imminent arrival. The machair behind the beach is also a riot of wild primroses in late spring and it’s deceptively peaceful here, particularly at low tide. Traigh Mhor is popular with cockle pickers too.
What the beach means to skipper Donald John (DJ), on the ferry between Eriskay and Ardmhor, by Traigh Mhor.
The ferry approaches Ardmhor, with a view of Traigh Mhor.
The scene at Traigh Mhor beach.
The beach is not just any old beach. It manages to be a recreational resource, a food source, an airport, and a tourist attraction. We walk on the beach, some even drive on the beach, many dig cockles on the beach for food, and of course every day for several hours it becomes our link to the mainland. It is the only airport in the world to have scheduled flights operating from a tidal beach. Every day at plane time it becomes biggest tourist attraction on the island as visitors gather to watch the unique spectacle of the plane landing on the sand.