Daddy saw a possible gap in the weather, so we decided that instead of going to the Shiant Islands we would try to get to St Kilda. St Kilda is a group of Islands about 45 miles West of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic. There is an old ruined village, some Soay sheep, lots of seabirds, big sea stacks covered in gannets and the highest cliffs in the UK, up to 427m high (1,401ft).
We left Stornoway on Sunday morning and did a long motor sail down the East side of Lewis and Harris, past the Shiant Islands, through the Sound of Harris and then west to St Kilda.
We arrived at about 1am and we were woken by the sound of the anchor chain, and Daddy gave us a midnight snack!
On Monday, we woke up in Village Bay on St Kilda. We could see the old village and MOD base on Hirta, the rocky island of Dun, Stac Levenish outside the bay, a big supply landing craft at anchor and one other yacht.
We went ashore in the tender where we were met by the Warden, Sue. She told us where we could and couldn't go. She stays on St Kilda from April to September but doesn't stay over the winter because of the storms which make it difficult to get supplies.
We walked through the old village.
There were slates outside each house telling us who the last occupants were before the evacuation in 1930. Two of the houses were occupied by families with 8 children and 11 children! There was a little museum which told us that St Kilda is home to a quarter of the global population opf gannets, and about 136,000 pairs of nesting puffins.
The village is in an arc around the bay and is a mixture of ruined blackhouses and 16 more recent two room houses built in the 1860s. Some of these have been restored for volunteers to live in.
We walked up behind the village to a place that Daddy called the saddle, which is a dip between two higher peaks shaped like a horse's saddle.
One one side we walked up a hearthery slope, past lots of cleats. The cleats are where the St Kildans would put sea birds that they caught to dry and cure. They had a grass roof to stop rain getting in. We looked in some cleats and found one with a dead sheep and a birds egg inside.
On the other side of the saddle are sheer sea cliffs with lots of Fulmars nesting on them and flying around the tops of the cliffs.
From the saddle we could see Boreray, Stac Lee and Stac Anarmin over the cliffs.
On the other side we could see down into Village Bay.
We had a picnic lunch with an amazing view!
After lunch we walked back down to the village and visited the Museum again and me (Archie) and Daddy walked to the end of the village. We then headed back to the boat, dropped off our bags and took the tender over to the island of Dun on the other side of the bay.
We saw thousands of puffins in the sea and the sky. The puffins nest in burrows in the grassy areas. We saw lots of guillemots nesting on the cliffs, which looked like lines of soldirs standing to attention. We saw lots of lions mane jelly fish, and a seal followed the tender. There were two big arches right the way through the cliffs, and we explored the cliffs between Hirta and Dun.
After we got back to the boat we raised the anchor and motored across to Boreray and went around Stac Lee. The Stac is a sheer vertical rock, and every slope and crack had gannets nesting on it.
We saw soay sheep on the steep slopes on the island of Boreray.
We anchored back in Village Bay for the night.
Yesterday, we left St Kilda about 8am and motored to Castlebay on Barra. We got here about 6pm. It was very flat and we spent most of the day listening to audiobooks.
Today we had a bit of a lie in, did home school about St Kilda: st kilda fact file.pdf, went swimming and did some shopping. Tomorrow we're planning to explore Barra in the rain!
