North Uist
(Uibhist a Tuath)

Measuring twelve miles by sixteen (19 km by 26), the low-lying island of North Uist (Gael: Uibhist a Tuath) in the Outer Hebrides has fertile croftland on the west and a heavily indented coastline in the east that is deeply penetrated by Loch Maddy and Loch Eport. Its total area is 30,305 ha (74,884 acres) and its principal settlement is the ferry port of Lochmaddy. The island economy is based on crab and lobster fishing, scallop farming, crofting, weaving and knitting, bulb growing and the production of alginates from seaweed. The Macdonalds from Sleat, who succeeded the MacRuaraidhs and eventually evicted many crofting tenants, owned the island from 1495 until 1855.

Notable landmarks include the pre-Reformation church of St. Columba in Clachan Sands, the ruins of the mediaeval monastery and college of Teampull na Trionaid at Carinish and the adjacent Teampull Clan A' Phiocair, the chapel of the Macvicars who taught at the college. At the northern tip of the island a causeway links to the island of Berneray and from there a ferry service connects to Leverburgh in South Harris.

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