Over the sea.....

...to Eriskay!

Another wee Hebridean jewel.

Eriskay has a lot of history for such a wee island:

The island is where Bonnie prince Charlie first set foot on Scottish soil and it is said that the pink flowers that bloom here in the machair grasses grew from seeds he dropped from his handkerchief on his arrival before heading off to the mainland to lead the Jacobite Rebellion.

It was off the shores of Eriskay that the ship the S.S Politician foundered in 1941 - and from here that the local seafaring community set sail to salvage her precious cargo of Whisky - which was in short supply on the islands during the war years. Island fishermen used their boats to reach the wreck, reportedly bringing more thousands of the bottles ashore, which they distributed across the island using the indigenous Eriskay ponies.

The incident became the basis from Compton Mackenzie's book Whisky Galore.

Modern Eriskay ponies are the last surviving remnants of the original native ponies of the Western Isles of Scotland. They have ancient Celtic and Norse connections and Eriskays have been proven by measurement to be of similar proportions to those found on ancient Pictish stones throughout the North and West of Scotland.

We spent a great day on Eriskay, picnicking, watching the kids in the sea, wandering along the beach collecting shells and soaking up the sun.

So many photos on such a beautiful day but this wee boat caught my eye as we crossed the causeway back to South Uist.... It could be Greece!