Machair, the fertile, flower-rich turf found along much of this coast, runs for twenty miles down South Uist’s Atlantic side, backed by white sand and threaded with lochs. Inland to the east, the ground rises sharply to Beinn Mhòr, the island’s highest point at 621 metres, and its neighbour Hecla. Most of the island belongs to Stòras Uibhist, the community company formed after a buyout of the South Uist estate in 2006, which also covers Eriskay and part of Benbecula.
Flora MacDonald was born in 1722 at Milton, and in 1746 helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to Skye by disguising him as her Irish maid, Betty Burke; a cairn marks the site of her birthplace, and Kildonan Museum nearby covers the island’s history more widely. At Howmore, a row of thatched cottages stands close to the ruined medieval Howmore Chapels. On Rueval, a hill near the centre of the island, the sculptor Hew Lorimer’s granite statue Our Lady of the Isles went up in 1957, funded by local fundraising in protest at a missile-testing range proposed for the island; the range was built regardless. CalMac ferries sail into Lochboisdale from Mallaig, with a winter service from Oban, and causeways link South Uist to Eriskay and Benbecula. RSPB Loch Druidibeg protects machair, bog and freshwater loch for corncrakes and other breeding birds.
