Isle of Barra

Taigh Tangaval - house details

For Sale



I'm considering the possibility of putting my holiday house on the market at the end of next season. Perhaps sometime in September 2026.
Get in touch with me if you want to discuss details having looked through the following information.
Contact details are given further below.

Sale particulars

Offers Over: £90,000
Property address: 11B Bentangaval, Isle Of Barra, HS9 5XN
Tenure: Freehold
Council tax band: A

Description

Rare opportunity to purchase a walk-in condition one bedroom detached property with fantastic views, located in Bentagaval, near Castlebay, in the south of the beautiful Isle of Barra in the Western Isles of Scotland.

This freshly furnished and decorated house is comprised of a double bedroom, bathroom, two hallway areas, and a lounge area with through kitchen.
Most of the house's furniture and equipment, including kitchen white goods, can be considered as part of the deal.
The kitchen has an electric cooker, fridge-freezer and washing machine.
The lounge has a large three-seater sofa.
The bath has a fitted mixer tap with adjustable shower attachment.
The house would make an ideal home for a first time buyer, or it could be purchased with the intention of continuing to be let out as a self-catering holiday cottage.
Note that the property has been granted a licence for short term holiday letting purposes from the Western Isles Council.
The licence runs for another year (meaning renewal will be required from 01 November 2026).

Home Report

A copy of the Home Report is available on request. Note this dates back to October 2024.
Home Reports don't have an official 'expiry' date as such, but mortgage providers typically won't lend against one that's more than three months old.
On that basis, a 'refresh' report may be required at some point. This may result in reassessment of the property's market value.

Please note (as detailed in the Home Report's Single Survey) the gables of the property are of poured concrete construction.
This is not an unusual method of construction in the islands. However, some lenders may consider it 'non-standard' build.
Please check with your lender before making an offer.

Pictures and virtual tour

There's some pictures of the house further down in the Gallery section under the original Self-Catering details.
Note the more pictures link too; a further page, including floor plan and neighbouring fence boundary.
In addition, here's a wee virtual tour video of the lounge and kitchen area.


Renovation

The house was purchased in semi-derelict condition in 1989.
Extensive renovation was completed early in 1990.
renovation work
The illustrated plan includes detail of the improvement work.
The Renovation link gives more information.

Poured concrete

As mentioned, the original gables of the property are of poured concrete construction.
Here's a picture of the loft space.

loft space



-/-


Holiday bookings


This website, or one similar to it, may continue in some future form, depending on who buys the house and what they intend to do with it.
As things stand, it's not possible to book the cottage for holidays in the usual way.

In theory, I could be taking bookings for 2026 summer season at some stage.
However, at this point, I don't have a regular housekeeper signed up for cleaning and linen changeover duties, so it would need to be an exceptional booking.
For example, a longish stay just before I come over for own holiday in mid-July (in which, case I could do the housekeeping tasks myself).

Self-catering details


The information below, left as it stood for the end of the 2024 holiday season, remains temporarily for reference only.
It may be of interest, for example, if a buyer wants to take the place on with the intention of continuing to let it out as a self-catering holiday cottage, or simply to have a look at the photos in the gallery section.


STL ref: ES00427F   EPC rating: F

A lovely detached one bedroom holiday cottage, perfect for couples, conveniently located in Bentangaval/Nask, near Castlebay, in the south of the Isle of Barra in the Western Isles of Scotland.

The house consists of a double bedroom, bathroom, two hallway areas, and a lounge area with through kitchen.

The house is freshly furnished and decorated. The kitchen has an electric cooker, fridge-freezer and washing machine. The lounge has a large three-seater sofa. There's a 32” HD TV + Blu-ray/DVD player and Hi-Fi.


House availability

The house is available from April to September.

Holiday season bookings are on a weekly basis, typically from Saturday afternoon/evening arrival to following Saturday morning departure. But occasionally with gaps happening to appear in the planner that turn out to suit a midweek to midweek booking.

Have a look at the planner. Bear in mind that the first day shown for any blocked out period corresponds to the house being unavailable for the afternoon /evening of that initial day, so you will be able to make a booking for the week immediately prior, for a stay which departs on the morning of that same blocked out day.

A booked day means stopping overnight. A booking shown as ending on a Friday actually means departing on the Saturday morning.

Yellow /orange colours indicate available days. Unavailable days are shown in darker colours.

2024

Click planner image to enlarge.

click planner to enlarge image

Prices and contact details

£360 per week in high summer - ie. July and early August (rate applicable from 25th June to 16th August 2024).

£340 per week in June and late August (rate applicable from 1st to 24th June, and from 17th to 30th August 2024).

£320 per week at other times.

If staying for a fortnight or longer then you can discount £50 for second and subsequent weeks.
Thus, for example, a two week holiday for two people in June would be 340 + 340 - 50 = £630.

A deposit of £50 is required to secure your booking, with the balance due at least four weeks before the start of your holiday.


Linen discount

There's a £50 discount available for those able and willing to bring their own bed linen and towels.
There's no obligation to do this, but it's quite a popular option for those travelling by ferry and bringing their car.

Number of guests

Prices quoted are for one or two people staying.
The maximum number of house guests is two people.
The lounge has a large three-seater sofa which can comfortably sleep one.
There's an additional £20 charge for extra bed linen use if you wish to use lounge sofa this way.

Contact details

Simply send an email to the address suggested in image below (ie. the house name as one word @gmail.com).


The cottage is also advertised here - www.barra-accommodation.co.uk/list/self-catering/taigh-tangaval
and here - www.visitscotland.com/info/accommodation/taigh-tangaval-p1629621

House notes

Restrictions

The maximum number of house guests is two people.
The house isn't suitable for families with children.
Sorry, no smoking and no pets in the house please.

Linen

Clean linen and towels will be provided, including all bedding, with spare duvets and extra blankets in the house if you need them.

Guests are kindly requested to put bed sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases in the machine and kick-off a wash on morning of their departure.
Towels too, if space allows, or else left in laundry bags by the washing machine if no room.

There's a £50 discount for those who can and want to bring their own towels and bed linen (double bed size).

Washing machine

The machine has a manual.
It's simple enough to use, but it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with how it operates, prefarably before the morning of your departure for setting off a wash when leaving.
A mixed colour 40C wash cycle is recommended.
Common mistakes include putting powder in the pre-wash drawer.

Cleaning

The house will be clean and tidy for your arrival.
My housekeepers are set to do a quick linen changeover and check of the house after guest departure, not spend hours of work cleaning up after people.
In the spirit of 'self-catering', it will thus be greatly appreciated if you can leave the house as you found it, and have a good clean and tidy of the place before you go.

Bins

Do not put loose unbagged rubbish directly into the wheelie bin.
When tidying up on the morning of your departure, make emptying the kitchen bin and putting tied up bin liner in the outside wheelie bin one of your final tasks.
This will help avoid the temptation of throwing last minute found leftovers and scraps elsewhere.


Telephone

4G EE mobile network coverage is available from the house and most of the island.

Parking

There is plenty of room for roadside parking on the opposite side of the road to the house.

Electricity

Assuming fair useage, electricity use is included in the price.

Further detail

Check the following Detail notes link for more information.

Gallery

 

 

Finding the house

Take the main road round the island via the west side out of Castlebay, ie. turn left off the slip road up from the pier.

There are some traffic calming measures around the school, apart from which the road is otherwise fairly wide and straight. From here you can see the house on the other side of a small bay directly in front. The road bends to the right, goes over a small bridge near the bay and straightens out.

Take the turning left to Nask (Nasg). Up, over a cattle grid, the road then dips, the house is just before the bottom of this dip.

Look for two houses quite close to each other but on opposite sides of the road. You want the one on the right, a house with a grey slate roof and a front porch with a yellow door.

It's best to park on the opposite side of the road to the house.


Taigh Tangaval's position is indicated in the Google Map embedded above. You can also see the house via Google's Street View.

The image below is via Streetmap. You can try this direct link if you'd like to zoom and pan around Barra on an Ordnance Survey style map.



A postcode search on HS9 5XN should get you a fairly close result in most other mapping websites, or coordinates 56.957, -7.506 even better.

For some further fun, if you want to see a model of my house then it's in Google's "3D warehouse", where I've described it as - 'Taigh Tangaval' holiday house at 11B Bentangaval, Isle of Barra. If you have Google Earth then you might be interested to know that the model has been geographically positioned, and included in its 3D Buildings layer, so you have the option of zooming in and flying around to see the house and where it sits on the beautiful isle of Barra.

Overview of Barra

Barra is about 65 miles from Oban (ie. the mainland) off the west coast of Scotland. It is linked to a smaller island, Vatersay, via a causeway. These are the most southerly inhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides.

Barra has an area of about 35 square miles. There is a circular road around the island of about 14 miles (the A888). There is a branch road from Northbay which takes you to the cockle-strand/airfield.

The beaches on Barra are magnificent. From the cottage, it is about a mile walk to Tangusdale which has a lovely beach and a hotel. Further along the west coast you will go past Allasdale beach, Seal Bay, where you can watch the seals on the rocks (they often will swim towards the shore to check you out), and past the golf course, to Greian Head, a great headland to see cormorants, shags and various gulls.

From the house, if you follow the Nask road over the hill, you can get to Vatersay via the causeway.

The centre of Barra is hilly, Heaval being the highest point at 1,260 feet.

Barra's geology consists of Lewisian gneiss (metamorphosed granite), the oldest rocks in Britain and some of the oldest in the world (some 2,800 million years old).

Barra is known as the "Garden of the Hebrides" because of the variety of wild flowers.

How to get to Barra

The ferry from Oban to Castlebay takes just under 5 hours. Costs ~£30 return per passenger. If you want to take your car, it'll cost about £140 on top of your passenger fare. Contact Caledonian MacBrayne for more details such as timetables and prices.

You can also make your way to Barra from other islands via ferries from Uist /Eriskay, or take a flight from the mainland arriving at Barra's beach airport.

Local amenities

Most of the island's shops are in or around Castlebay. In the 'main' street there's a store which sells groceries, newspapers and petrol (the fuel pumps are on the opposite side of the road). There's also a Post Office, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tourist Information, hardware shop and a wee cafe.

On the way into Castlebay from the house, you will go past the local school that has a swimming pool and a games hall. There is also a library with Internet facilities. Check locally for times when facilities are available. The main Co-op supermarket is also in this vicinity (in Horve).

Castlebay

Craigard Hotel and Castlebay Hotel serve meals.
Also, in the 'high street', there is the Kismul Cafe.
The local pubs include the Castlebay and Craigard bars.

Other than Castlebay

Away from Castlebay on the west side near Tangusdale beach is the Isle of Barra hotel. On the north east side of the island, in Northbay is the Heathbank Hotel.

Places to visit

Kismul castle - This is situated in Castlebay harbour. There are frequent boat trips out, especially in the summer. Check with the tourist board or locals.

Mingulay - This is a long boat trip. Views of the cliffs around the uninhabited island of Mingulay are incredible. Again, you need to check with the tourist office or locals.*

*Some trips (eg. quite often the Mingulay trip) operate independently of the tourist board, meaning that the tourist board might not tell you about them.

It is nice just to walk anywhere on Barra.