Castlebay
village and community council area on the island of Barra, Scotland
Castlebay (Scottish Gaelic: Bàgh a' Chaisteil [baːɣ ə ˈxaʃtʲɪl]) is the main village and a community council area on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The village is located on the south coast of the island, and overlooks a bay in the Atlantic Ocean dominated by Kisimul Castle, as well as nearby islands such as Vatersay. Castlebay is also within the parish of Barra. The village is located on the A888, which serves as a circular road around Barra. In 1971, it had a population of 307.
Community
Castlebay is home to the majority of shops on the island. The main street forms a square with the ferry terminal and the ring road, and features several grocery shops, a bank, post office, and tourist information centre. There is a larger supermarket to the west of the village, having opened in October 2009. There are also several hotels in the village, plus the island's medical centre, a petrol station and the police station.
Church
Our Lady, Star of the Sea, a Roman Catholic church, was opened in 1888 on a mound overlooking the town centre.
“Castlebay” enters the record as village and community council area on the island of Barra, Scotland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Castlebay, village and community can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Castlebay” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Castlebay, village and community provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1049581. VIAF identifies the subject as 249997461. The Library of Congress control number is nb2012010949. Authority coordinates are 56.955, -7.487. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 2009 and 1888.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Castlebay”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Castlebay primary sources, Castlebay archive and Castlebay research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Castlebay”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Castlebay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.