Bernera, an island of Barra parish, Outer Hebrides, Inverness-shire. It is the southernmost island of the parish, and lies 14 miles SSW of the southernmost point of Barra proper. It measures about 1 mile in length and about ¾ in breadth. It consists of gneiss rock; and rises in Barra Head, on the SE side, to a height of 530 feet. Its cliffs on that side have a diversified structure and a romantic appearance; are now inclining, now vertical, now projecting; here smooth and there fissured; in one place massive and continuous, in another pierced with a cavern and cut into a cove; and in the summer months they are inhabited by prodigious numbers of kittiwakes, guillemots, auks, and puffins. The natives of the island derive much of their subsistence from the eggs and the young of these birds; but in obtaining it, they do deeds of great daring on the cliffs. Pop. (1861) 34, (1871) 38.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)