Climate
The summer months of June to August have exceptionally long days the latitude is comparable to the most populated regions of Scandinavia or Alaska, and also tend to be warmer. Due to its location, Berneray tends to have favoured warm air flows; the temperature very rarely goes below freezing, and snow occurs at most for one or two days per year.
However, sun and rain are possible at any time of the year. The months of April to May and September to October are favoured by many travellers. The days are still quite long and the weather is often excellent better than the summer for the last two years.
Do not discount the winter, which has its attractions, for visiting. Key amongst them are the Northern Lights, a dazzling night-time display of shimmering curtains of different coloured light that stretches across the sky. The lack of light pollution makes Berneray an ideal place to view this event, as well as stars, meteors, comets and other astronomical features.
A resident of Berneray has a weather station that automatically feeds live data (http://www.weatherundergr...) on-line.
Understand
Berneray has a population of 137 as of June 2010 which has been mostly rising for the previous three years.
Most people live on the east coast in the spread out settlements of Pol An Nor, Backhill, Ruisgarry and Sandhill. There is also a settlement in the center of the island known as Borve.
There is strong evidence that points to Berneray being inhabited since the Bronze Age and possibly before. The island is scattered with ancient sacred sites, stone circles, signs of Viking inhabitation and historical buildings, some several centuries old.
Crofting family-based farming on a small area of land, usually in a non-intensive manner and fishing are the mainstays of the economy, although tourism, information and media services also provide income to a number of households.
Due to the total lack of industrialization most visitors notice that most of the "noise" on Berneray is natural — waves, seals, geese and birds. Often the only audible human-made noise is the bell on the ferry that leaves the south of the island and crosses the Sound of Harris.
Berneray never becomes crowded or overrun with tourists due to the limited number of passengers that flights to the Outer Hebrides can take, as well as the high cost of bringing a vehicle over from the mainland on a ferry.
Landscape
Apart from Boreray population: 1, Berneray is the only inhabited island in the Sound of Harris, with an area of 10.1 square kilometers 2496 acres. Berneray rises to a height of 305 feet 93 m at Beinn Shleibhe otherwise known as Ben Leva or Moor Hill and 278 feet 85 m at Borve Hill.
A key feature of Berneray is its machair, an area of land next to beaches and shorelines that has been fertilized over time by crushed shells and other minerals. Traditional crofting practice, which involves summer agriculture using seaweed together with dung from winter grazing animals as natural fertilizer, has, over time, bound together and stabilized the machair. In the summer months the fertile soil of the machair supports a spectacular and colourful array of wild flowers and plants.
Berneray is perhaps best known for its beaches. The famous west beach is a three mile unspoilt, deserted crescent of sand. The east beach, at the end of which sits the Youth Hostel, is also spectacular, as are the little coves and beaches on the south side. All of these are good locations for a picnic, and for spotting otters and other sea life.
Even in the middle of summer it is very rare to see more than a few people on any stretch of Berneray beach. The Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland 2004 said "The superb beaches of western Berneray are unparalleled in Scotland."