 LOCHMADDY FERRY TICKET RESERVATIONS |
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Lochmaddy (in Scottish Gaelic Loch nam Madadh, "Loch of the dogs") is the administrative centre of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
Lochmaddy sits at the end of a sea inlet (tairbeart) and, due to the rocky nature, is the only settlement of any size on the east coast — far from the villages in the more populous west of North Uist.
Virtually the first mention anywhere of Lochmaddy is a complaint of "piracie and murder" in a report dated 1616: "Lochmaldie on the coast of Uist is a rendezvous for pirates" it said. The coves and inlets characterising the area around the village were ideal hiding places for raiding ships stocked with fine goods bound for the clan chiefs of the time, and contraband activity persisted until the modern era.
Nowadays the same good harbour makes Lochmaddy the ferry port for the island with the MV Hebrides plying the route to Skye. The commercial activity of shops and public building has been generated due to the port activity, and today the village has the only bank, courthouse, tourist information office and youth hostel on North Uist. Lochmaddy hospital closed in March 2001. It was replaced by the newly-opened Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh (Uist and Barra Hospital) in Balivanich, Benbecula. Lochmaddy was an important fishing community before the commercial decline of the herring.
Lochmaddy has a long history. The original name of the area was Cearsabhagh or Kersivay, probably given by Norse residents up to 1000 years ago as a description of the complex shape of the bay. By the 1600s, Loch nam Madadh was the name in use, a reference to the rocks in the entrance to the loch shaped like dogs' or wolves' heads (madadh in Gaelic). Possibly the first reference to it in writing was a report of the loch being used as a base for pirates in 1616.
There was a quay at Lochmaddy by 1703, and in 1802 a fishing village was built here to take advantage of the plentiful herring in nearby waters. In 1834 Lochmaddy took up the role as the North Uist terminus for steamers from Uig; a role further developed with the arrival of the first vehicle ferries in 1963. In 1985 a roll-on roll-off service was introduced, and from 1989 a Sunday service started on the Uig-Lochmaddy leg of this service, despite some local opposition.
Until 1996 Lochmaddy's ferry links to Uig on Skye and Tarbert on Harris provided the only means of transporting vehicles between the two main parts of the Western Isles. Since the advent of the Sound of Harris Ferry this role has disappeared, but most traffic heading south from the southern terminus of the Sound of Harris Ferry on Berneray comes via Lochmaddy anyway
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