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Benbecula's main settlement is Balivanich in the northwest, home to a large Royal Artillery base and one of the few places in the Outer Hebrides with roadsigns in English in addition to Gaelic. The village is also home to Benbecula airport .

The remainder of the island is mostly Roman Catholic. Other settlements include Lionacleit , home to a museum and the Uists' only secondary school and swimming pool, and Uachdar .

Benbecula is linked to South Uist and to North Uist via Grimsay by causeways.

Flag

Benbecula is seen as a crossing point in the Western Isles – it splits North Uist from South Uist and it straddles the boundary between the Protestant northern Hebrides and the Catholic south.

The flags of the northern Hebridean islands of Lewis, Harris and North Uist prominently feature blue and white; the flags of the southern Outer Hebrides feature green and white.

Benbecula is a tricolour flag, blue in the ‘north’ (top), white in the middle and green in the ‘south’ (bottom).

Tricolour flags were virtually unknown in the British Isles and it has been widely suggested, especially with Benbecula’s small population which hardly warrants a flag, that this is a modern design.