St Kilda
- 40 miles out into the Atlantic, about 3 hours each way, so an 8am start from Leverburgh on the Kilda Cruises boat Orca III, crewed by Angus and David. The crossing was ok for me - pretty bouncy, but I must have sea legs as I even managed a light breakfast, while at the next seat to me were two young men who had their heads in a bucket for the WHOLE 3 hours.
When you arrive at St Kilda, the boat isn't allowed to tie up, in case you introduce rats/cats/other nasties, so little groups were decanted in to a rib to cross over to the pier.
The island has a small museum made up of a schoolroom and chapel, and a display room with trays of birds' eggs and a description of life on the island before the evacuation in 1930. There is a small shop where I bought and posted a couple of postcards, then went for a walk through the ruins and up the hill, which was speckled with tiny flowers.
After a while the sun came out, so I had a bit of a sun bathe on the shore, watching a seal in the breakers. I was almost warm
:-) In this area there are military buildings, pipework, roads and various concrete yards.
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Welcome to the St Kilda International Sea and Airport Lounge |
On the return trip we went round the island's towering stacks to see the puffins, fulmars and gannets, but the highlight for me was seeing BASKING SHARKS
. Fabulous things. We also feasted on home made scones and jam, handed out by Angus.
On return, I skipped the rather pricey restaurants on the front and went to the chip butty van, and swapped a few grunts with the owner, who quite clearly wanted me out of there as soon as possible. I drove back along the Golden Road, via a beautiful village called Geocrab.