At the foot of the Toe Head peninsula in south-west Harris, Northton (An Taobh Tuath in Gaelic) sits beside wide sandy bays. From the township you can walk across the machair, low grassland made fertile by wind-blown shell sand and thick with wild flowers in late spring and early summer, to the headland of Rubh’ an Teampaill. There you’ll find a late medieval chapel beside the footings of an Iron Age broch, a round drystone tower, and an eroding mound with traces of settlement going back to the Middle Stone Age. Ceapabhal rises behind Northton Beach. The village’s heritage centre, once called Seallam and now Hebrides People, is closed for refurbishment until 2028, though its genealogy service still runs.
