I’m off to the Black Isle show » A walk to the tidal island of Vallay was a highlight of Sollas Week. copyright Susy Macaulay 2010
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I visited Vallay last Wednesday (04/08). I found the atmosphere a little uncomfortable and more so after the following. Myself and my brother camped there and had a strange and unnerving experience when at about 10:30 pm a vehicle came across the strand in the darkness. We heard it come to a stop and then some seconds later we heard an almighty bang which turned out to be a firework. A second one was set off about 30 seconds later. The vehicle then drove back to the ‘mainland’ of Uist. Do you know what this might’ve been about?
Judith
Hi Judith, that’s most disturbing. Can’t think what it was unless possibly army exercises? Maybe they were flares rather than fireworks?
Or possibly it was just people larking about. I’ll ask around. Interesting you found the atmosphere uncomfortable before that though, what was it about the place do you think?
Hi again Judith, I’ve been making enquiries about your uncomfortable experience and discovered it may have been goose-scarers who go over at night and try to keep the geese off the crops. That’s the most likely explanation so far!
Hi,
I’m not sure why I felt uncomfortable though this may have been due in part to concern about the tides (which I didn’t need to be as it turned out). My father, who lived on Uist for about 15 years, camped on Vallay with my brother some years ago and he also thought it had a strange atmosphere.
I have since wondered if the fireworks (they weren’t flares as they didn’t last long enough) were to scare geese but I thought they wouldn’t do that at night. Are there arable crops on Vallay? The fireworks were rockets and were set off on the strand quite close to where we were camping judging by the tyre marks we found the next day. There were a number of small red plastic cones (that you might find on a firework) near the tyre marks more than the two we heard so perhaps it was goose scarers after all who come to the same spot regulalry. Thank you for your response anyway.