Mark Stephen; St Kilda
Post categories: Outdoors
| 06:00 UK time, Saturday, 9 July 2011
Mark Stephen sent me this blog ahead of Out of Doors (9/7/20011) featuring St Kilda.
Mark Stephen
once had the reputation of being The Islands at the Edge of the World. They are islands plural, rather than just the one. Hirta, Soay, Boraray and all the associated sea-stacks are all that remain above the surface of a vast volcanic caldera. Take an empty ice-cream cone, nibble most of the rim away so that all that's left are some jagged pieces sticking up and that's what's happened here.
We left Miavaig just before 8am and just before lunchtime we started to see the islands capped with cloud.
We were landed at Settlement Bay by rubber boat. This is for reasons of Bio-Security - the NTS don't want rats, (the real kind), getting onto the island.
The hills around the bay are dotted with hundreds of stone-built shelters called cleits. They start about 100 feet above the sea and rise to nearly 1200 feet. These were used to store and air-dry food and fuel. They represent a monumental amount of work and the truly fabulous thing about them is that they could range in age from Victorian right back to Neolithic - that's how long they've been building them here.
We were shown to our sleeping quarters - the Street where the St.Kildan Parliament took place - the daily meeting of menfolk to establish what that days tasks were going to be. 6 of the cottages have been restored, and they are pretty comfortable but I took one look at the dormitory arrangement and decided to find somewhere else. I snore pretty badly so I shifted my bed to the tool shed. It had a nice wee cubby hole which is used to store archaeological artefacts - so somehow I felt right at home.
Euan and I had a fantastic time - on a wet and blustery day we visited a massive sea-cave called The Tunnel and sang to the seals. We scared ourselves witless standing on top of the Mistress Stone - 600 feet above the sea.
We got a close up look at a St Kilda Fieldmouse ( Mus Hirtensis). More like a hamster in size it was wandering about in broad daylight without a care in the world. Locla opinion was that it was "Trap Happy ". They are caught and monitored on a regular basis.
We were dive-bombed by Great Skua and I was actually hit by an Arctic Skua - they attack from behind.
We were allowed to use the Puff Inn at night. It's run by the civilian contractors who help the MOD Radar Team on the island. It is, without a doubt, the cheapest pub I have ever been in in my life. I've got a bar receipt in front of me. It's for 6 lagers, 5 whiskies, 4 rums, 3 cans of coke and 4 bottled beers and the price? £12.18.
The boat trip across to St Kilda can be pretty tough , which is one of the reasons that and are currently engaged in digitally mapping most of the island. The results are stunning and should allow folk who can't come here to get a flavor of what it's like.
I applaud the effort but if you can, come and see the real thing.
Out of Doors is on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Scotland every Saturday morning 0630-0800, repeated Sunday 1105-1200
Comment number 1.
At 10th Jul 2011, GlasgowWestEnd wrote:We visited St Kilda as part of the 50th birthday celebrations of a friend and we met Mark during our stay. Please pass on our thanks for the detailed info that he gave us and especially for introducing me to the delights of being happy slapped by the Arctic Skuas. In Mark's words, 'it’s like being slapped on the back of the head by a wet towel'.
Hirta (St Kilda main island) is very dramatic, historic and other worldly but words are inadequate to describe the trip to Boraray and the Sea Stacks; the most awesome experience.
As Mark says, 'come and see', but beware, it's not for the faint hearted, it is three hours each way, and the seas surrounding St Kilda are oceanic with swells to match.
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