Baleshare

Baleshare is a Scottish island. It is located just a few hundred meters west of North Uist and Benbecula north of and belongs to the group of islands Outer Hebrides, or administratively for the same unitary authority. Historically Baleshare belonged to the county of Inverness -shire.

Geography

The maximum north - south distance is about 4.4 km, the width of more than 3.3 km, where it has a total area of 9.1 km2. The highest point of the flat island rises 15 m above the sea level. Baleshare marks the western terminus of Northford, which flows along the east coast. In the south of the bulge demarcates to toim Baleshare the neighboring Benbecula. On the west coast surges of the Atlantic Ocean. At low tide the Northford dries out between Baleshare and North Uist and can be crossed on foot. In contrast, the bulge leads to toim in the south at low tide water. An area in the north of the island is called Illeray. Once, these were to own the island of that name, but in the 19th century with Baleshare grew together. Although Francis H. Groome Illeray still describes in the 1880s as separate islands, both islands are summarized in the census of 1861, where they were treated separately as part of censuses of 1851 and 1841.

Population

On the sparsely populated Baleshare live 49 people ( as of 2001) .. These are distributed in two main settlements, Samala on the east coast and Teanamachar on the west coast. Like most Scottish islands, the population has declined considerably in recent times. So lived in 1861 still 199 people in 35 houses on Baleshare and Illeray (1851: 204). The 1962 built Baleshare Causeway is attributed to a significant role for the moderate population decline on the small island. This is a 350 m long causeway to North Uist, which is the only fixed transport route from the island. He leaves the island at Samala.

Landscape on Baleshare; in the background of Eaval, the highest mountain in North Uists can be seen

Baleshare Causeway