A Gaelic name, sometimes awkwardly translated as Linique into English. It is a quiet corner of the island of South Uist, a location I visited in 2009. I went there to find and photograph wargraves in the wee cemetery; as always in these islands, it is located near the sea. I parked the car at the road junction, and stepped out, looking around me for a minute. The distant hills of Beinn Mhòr and Hecla loomed on the southeastern horizon, their summits wreathed in low cloud. Not a sound.
I would not have wanted to have been there four and a half years before, that terrifying night in January 2005. It was blowing a hurricane, and the wind gusts were measured in triple digits. Sea spray would have blown in off the sea, and shingle from the foreshore. Enough to scare anyone. A decision was made to leave the location and drive across the causeway into Benbecula. But it would seem that the Benbecula causeway was never reached, and those waiting on the other side were still waiting by morning.
The South Ford, the stretch of water between South Uist and Benbecula, slowly gave up those it had claimed that night. In the past, people would literally ford the shallow passage in foot, a feat that required detailed and up-to-date knowledge of the location of the sandbanks. The causeway had made that all safer. Under the roadsurface, one culvert allowed the movement of the tide between the islands. And that night, the storm blew too much water up the South Ford to pass under the causeway. And the storm also blew up the level of the waters of an inland loch, Loch Bì - adjoining the South Ford.
Benbecula and South Uist still mourn the five members of one family, spanning three generations. January 11th is a day of remembrance. May they rest in peace.