Island 457 - Lingeigh 1, North Uist

Confusingly there are two tidal islands called Lingeigh within two miles of each other off the coast of North Uist.  This one is much smaller than its neighbour to the north east and it is closest to the area marked on the map as Cleit.  It is half a mile walk to Lingeigh across the strand of Tràigh Athmòr north from the A865.  I parked in a very long passing place on the main road, close to a slipway down to the beach, as there was nowhere else to park.  The sand was firm (on my way back I passed a man on a quad bike driving across it, presumably to check his livestock on the larger island of Orasaigh to the north).

I had tried to visit Lingeigh the previous day during Storm Hector.  Although it had stopped raining, it was still extremely windy: so windy in fact that wind had prevented the tide from going out and the beach of Tràigh Athmòr was still covered in water less than 2.5 hours before low tide.  I don't know if the water did eventually recede as it got closer to low tide, as I decided to come back the next day.  The following day the wind had dropped to a fresh breeze and just under 3 hours before low tide Tràigh Athmòr was clear of water, apart from a couple of shallow channels.

Lingeigh is about 200 metres long by 150 metres wide and low lying.  It is covered in grass and  is sometimes grazed by visiting cows and sheep, as they had left cow pats and droppings behind as evidence.  However there were no grazing animals when I visited on a sunny afternoon in mid June 2018.  Bird's foot trefoil, silverweed, tormentil, milkwort, cuckoo flower, thrift, irises and clover were all in flower.  There were a few gulls around.

North Uist from Lingeigh

 

Greanam from Lingeigh

 

Looking south towards Lingeigh with North Uist in the background