The weather continues to be changeable – last night was very blowy, so no boats bringing visitors today. This is rather unfortunate as our stocks of alcohol are running rather low and we had oirdered more to come out with the Orca last week. At this rate, we can see the boat which comes to collect us on Wednesday arriving with the alcohol! So.. our isolation continues.
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| Indeed - a deserted island |
We have already seen the Soay Sheep, and it continues to be fun to try to walk through a group without them scattering to the 4 winds. The only other mammal on St Kilda (excluding man and seals, which are transitory) is of course the St Kilda Mouse. About twice the size of our house mouse, the St Kilda Mouse is descended from the field mice which were here at the evacuation. There used to be House Mice and Field Mice on St Kilda. After the evacuation, the House Mice died out, and the Field Mice have thrived – they live in the crevices in the dykes, and of course in our houses. If one site quietly, and puts down a biscuit almost anywhere on the village street, eventually a mouse will come out of the wall to drag the biscuit in to a crevice in the wall. Professor Sam Berry did work on the DNA of the St Kilda Mice some years ago and found that their DNA was closer to the DNA of Norwegian mice than mice from Scotland – that and the plethora of Norse place names on the islands tells us something about the early settlers on St Kilda.
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| St KIlda Mouse removes half a Digestive Biscuit |
Today was a half day of work and a half day free, so after lunch, a group went off to see if they could spot an interesting visitor to Hirta – look at this photograph taken by Renate!
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| On the way to see the Owl |
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| Our very own Snowy Owl! |
Work parties get up to daft things – is this an example of an early species which moved from the sea to the land? Indeed, is this a cross between a Plesiosaur and a Soay Sheep?
One tradition of Work Parties is to make a St Kilda Mail Boat – you can read a bit about these in the book by Tom Steel on St Kilda. We have made 2 mail boats – one built for speed but not very durable, the other built to last but heavier and slower. Today we went to the Point of Coll (a small promontory east of the village) to launch them. This was the traditional point where St Kildans threw their mail boats in to the sea. Derek launched both boats while others took photographs. The first mail boat was only 20 yards out, when a seal stuck its head up between the boat and ourselves and looked as though to ask what we were doing.
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| Both mail boats ready to launch |
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| Derek launches the big mail boat (the frist one is out of sight already!) |
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| The big mail boat floated right way up!! |
Two nights ago we had the St Kilda wardens and Alex (the NTS Artist in Residence) round to join us for dinner and we had an excellent Curry evening prepared by Alison – after it, most of us could not move!
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| Alison and the selection of curries we had. |
Today, on the half day of work, we are finishing up various tasks – varnishing the 3rd coat on to the bench which sits outside the Manse for visitors to collapse on after they arrive, roof painting of House 2 is now complete. The roof window of House 6 is leaking, so Paul managed to open it (not an easy task), scrape out the rotting material from round one side where he found the cause of the leak, put in trowelling mastic, and covered it with bitumen. Also, having pressure hosed loose paint off the Manse in preparation for the walls to be professionally coated later in the summer, today we brushed up the loose material which had been washed off the walls. A thankless task which needs to be done. Finally, the museum needed the artefacts cleaned – a splendid job which allows one to handle the things in the museum!
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| Derek varnishes his bench |
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| Paul repairs the leaking skylight |
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| Ken and Ranete paint roof of House 2 |
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| Fal, Kevin and Sara cleaning in the Museum |
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| Janice, Sara and Jana brushing up the paint |
The NTS warden on ST Kilda (Paul), went off last Friday on the one helicopter flight (90 minutes later than scheduled because of weather) and was replaced by Peter Holden from Marr Lodge. Today Peter came up to present those who ran the Chimney Challenge with their Certificates. I know that Ken’s two children are following this, to find out your dad’s time, you will have to ask him!
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| This is the Chimney. One runs from near this viewpoint up the Chimney and touches a leit to the right of the top. |
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| Sara receives her Certifcate from Paul (thye Warden) |
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| Ken receives his Certificate |
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| Jana receives her Certificate |
Tomorrow is our last day on Hirta. If all goes well, we depart Wednesday early afternoon, however we hope (weather permitting) to return to Harris via the Stacs and Boreray, so the last blog will probably be on Friday and will hopefully have some pics of these places.
Meanwhile – our isolation continues.
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