Vatersay

Vatersay ( Scottish Gaelic: Bhatarsaigh ) is the southernmost inhabited island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland and over a short causeway to the island of Barra (Gaelic: Barraigh ) connected. The few inhabitants live in the small, single village which is also called Vatersay, and in individual farms in the southern part of the island.

The island is divided in two by an isthmus in a northern, mountainous and a southern, hilly half, covered by peat and machair land. Connected the two halves are separated by a narrow strip of dunes, which is bordered by two long sandy beaches. On the west, the Atlantic beach (West Bay), the water temperature is usually much higher than that of Scotland facing Vatersay Bay, an influence of the Gulf Stream, which touches the shores of the Outer Hebrides.

As a result of poor infrastructure Vatersay threatened to become completely abandoned by people from the mid-20th century. Shopping, doctor and church visits were possible only by translating by boat to neighboring Barra. It was not until the construction of the Vatersay Causeway, a causeway to Barra, near its main town of Castlebay, finished the Exodus.

Today, the population of Father Says is between 50 and 100 people who live on Vatersay as a sheep farmer or by tourism or earn their livelihood on Barra. Slang is beside english especially Gaelic.

Vatersay can only be reached via the link road of the pavement of Barra from. On the route several times a day buses.