Stand on the ferry pier at Castlebay and the village reads itself out loud. The castle sits on its rock about a hundred yards offshore, the church looks down from the hill, the school sits on the western edge, the lifeboat station is around the corner, and the A888 single-track loop slips around the back of everything. In 1971 the population was 307. It still feels about that size. This is the only village on Barra, which means it is also the harbour, the supermarket, the bank, the petrol station, the school, and the cafe where everyone you have already met has just sat down.
Kisimul Castle is the reason the village has its name; Castlebay is just an English description of what your eye does the moment you arrive. The castle is the seat of Clan MacNeil and probably medieval in core, though MacNeil tradition pushes its origins much further back. When Roderick MacNeil sold the island in 1838 to pay debts, the castle was abandoned. Its stone was carted off as ballast in fishing vessels, and some of it ended up paving streets in Glasgow. In 1937 Robert Lister MacNeil, an American clan chief, bought back the Barra estate and began restoration. In 2000 his successor, Ian Roderick MacNeil, leased the castle to Historic Scotland for a thousand years at the famous price of £1 a year and a bottle of Talisker whisky. For the 2011 census, the islet was officially classified as an inhabited island that nonetheless had no usual residents.
Castlebay Community School sits on the western side of the village and is the only secondary school on Barra. Before it was upgraded to a full high school in 1992, pupils studying for Highers had to board in Stornoway, more than 130 miles north on Lewis, returning home only at term breaks. The school has since absorbed the local preschool, so it educates the village from age three to eighteen under one roof. In September 2022 the island received £1 million for Gaelic-medium development at the new Castlebay education and health hub, a substantial bet on a language that still rides about sixty percent of conversations on the island.
On a normal weekday Pier Road covers most needs. A & C Maclean is the general store, with butcher counter and filling station, open six days a week. Royal Bank of Scotland is next door. The Castlebay Hotel and the Craigard Hotel are the principal places to eat and drink, with live music when the calendar allows. Isle of Barra Distillers operates from the village too, currently making gin, rum and vodka, and building Scotland's most westerly whisky distillery here. The CalMac ferry from Oban arrives at the pier in the centre of the bay, in plain sight of the castle. The lifeboat is moored nearby, ready for any night the Atlantic chooses.
Coordinates 56.9549N, 7.4866W. Castlebay sits in a sheltered south-facing bay at the southern end of Barra. Kisimul Castle on its small islet in the centre of the bay is the unmistakable landmark; the village wraps the shore behind it. Our Lady Star of the Sea church is visible on the slope above. Heaval (383 m / 1,257 ft) rises immediately north with the white Madonna statue near its summit. Recommended viewing altitude 2,000-3,000 ft for a clear look at the harbour. Nearest airport is Barra (ICAO: EGPR), about 7 miles north on the Traigh Mhor beach runway. Expect Atlantic weather and southwesterlies.