Vatersay

Vatersay lies to the south of Barra, facing Castlebay across the Sound of Vatersay. Only a narrow strip of machair, or sandy grassland and dunes, prevents it becoming two separate islands. It has been the most southerly inhabited island in the Western Isles since 1912, when Mingulay was abandoned. People have lived here for thousands of years, but Vatersay only really began to feature on the map as a result of land reform. By 1906 the island had been owned for many years by Lady Gordon Cathcart, who had visited it just once during the period. Her tenants farmed the whole island as a single holding.
 
Pressure on land throughout the Western Isles led one man to sail to the island and invoke an ancient right by erecting a thatched dwelling and lighting a fire within a single day. He was followed by others, who together became known as the Vatersay Raiders. Some were rewarded with imprisonment, but in 1909 the Government responded more positively by buying the island and divided it up into 58 crofts. During the 1900s the island became known mostly for rearing cattle, and for lobster fishing. Cattle were transported to market by ferry from Castlebay, but they first had to swim the 250m Sound of Vatersay to Barra. In 1986 a prize bull called Bernie drowned while making the crossing, and long-standing calls for a fixed link to Barra increased.
 
Construction began on a 250m causeway in 1989, and it officially came into use in July 1991.

(Courtesy of www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk)

Undoubtedly the remote location of this site at the very southern tip of the Western Isles accessible only by ferry or flight from the UK mainland has contributed to the lack of interference with the wreckage parts, despite being so near to a road, and so well-publicised. .

The Catalina crashed into the 172m high hill of Heiseabhal Beag on Vatersay, and all of the wreckage has subsequently ended up lying at the bottom of the hill on its eastern flank, between the public road that runs through Vatersay and the shoreline of Vatersay Bay. Remarkably 6 crew survived the crash. There is also a memorial to the victims of the crash at the site.

(Courtesy of www.edwardboyle.com)