St KIlda - Thursday 27 June

Everyone in the work party is expected to help with communal duties – helping Alison our cook in the kitchen setting tables, clearing up, taking away waste to the skip or recycling as appropriate. There is a rota of 2 people each day who help , and everyone has been fitting in very well. Depending on what Alison has planned , one can often assist in food preparation as well as serving.  We tend to have breakfast at 8am with a view to starting work at 9, mid morning tea at 11ish, lunch 1ish, afternoon tea 4 and then stop anywher4e between 5,30 and 6.30 depending on what we are doing. The helpers also do the housework – sweeping floors and so on – everything to keep things working smoothly.



Jo (left) helps Alison (right) with dinner





Washing up! (L-R Janice, Jo, Paul and Ken)




Derek dusting the bookshelves



Work ongoing includes cleit roof repairs – an arcane art to replace sections of cleit roofs which have been eroded with new turf.  The erosion is caused by the Soay sheep grazing on the roofs (more of this later, or simply erosion because the old system of repairing roofs (now abandoned I am glad to say) did not result in good repairs as the grass ended up burnt by the preparation.

Now, one marks out the area to be replaced and cuts blocks of new turf to fit. These are cut from the turf in the locality so that the vegetation which will develop on the roof is similar to that in the area of the cleit.

CUtting the rurf to fit the gap. (L-R Kevin, Ian, Sara and Janice)

The hole in the roof of the cleit is packed out with moistened soil from our “soil bank” – broken down soil we have collected over the years, and stored in House 7. The newly cut piece of turf is soaked in water, positioned in the space prepared for it, slid under the turf above (this is done by shaping the hole and shaping the new turf to match), and then trimming it to fit exactly.  Now that we are gaining experience, we are going to attempt a large repair which will probably take 6 people at least half a day.

Kevin, Sara, Ianh and Janice lift the turf in to place




Kevin trims turf to fit



Safety is all important, and if one is at any height, ther ladder has someone at tyhe foot making sure it is stable. Fal, one of our party, is a very (and I mean “VERY”) keen botanist. AS one walks, her eyes are always aimed towards the ground. Today I noticed, that even holding a ladder she was looking at tyhe plants growing around the cleit.



Fal botanises even while holding the ladder!



Another task has been recoating the roofs of cottages 2 and 5 (the bitumen is replaced roughly on a 3 – 4 year cycle).  This is messy. The bitumen is fairly runny when it is warm, but goes stiff when the day cools down. Then one has to work ones way along the roof spreading this thick black goo with a spreader which itself gets stiffer as the day goes on.



Renate stirrs the thick gloop to spread on the roof





Ken on the roof of House 5 (our workshop)



Helicopters come and go – on Tuesdays and Fridays, we can have up to 3 flights as crew changes take place – they look fantastic as they sweep over the village.

The Orcas (trip boats) came in from Leverburgh yesterday and brought an interesting visitor.  One lady, walking down the street mentioned that her great, great grandfather had been born in House 1 (our living house) in 1805. She and her daughter had come to Harris for family reasons, and had managed to arrange a day trip to St Kilda. I took her to House 1, and showed her the Mackinnon family tree (one should never leave home without one!). On the tree, I pointed out her great, great grandfather’s name and marriage and she mentioned that he had married a lady from Harris and moved there. She was astounded and left the island really happy to go off and find out more. At the pier there was a real mix of people (3 boat loads). There I introduced her to a couple from Harris who I had spoken with in the village street. The couple asked about her great great grandfather, asked how long the family had lived on Harris and if she knew their croft. The couple knew the family, and the croft – a link made on St Kilda!

Renate (left) with Mrs MacKinnon (right) looking at the St Kilda  Mackinnon family tree

I mentioned Soay Sheep - “Soay” from the old Norse for “Sheep Island”. C1000 years ago, the Vikings find a wee island with wee dark sheep on it, and call it the Sheep Island “Soay”. The name finds its way on the maps. W come along, and find an island called Soay wityh wee dark sheep on it, so call the sheep “Soay Sheep”. The full translation of their name in to English would thus seem to become “Sheep Island Sheep”.

They are an exceptionally primitive breed of sheep – google it! Their closest5 relatives are the Mouflon of Central Europe, so they are probably direct descendants of the original sheep brought to Britain by the Neolithic peoples some 6000 years ago – here in St Kilda, they have not suffered from selective breeding for wool, milk or mutton production, so remain close to their ancestral past.

Soay go up vertical walls, so the head dyke of the Village leans outwards – likewise the wee planticruz which are found in the Village area – more on these later.

A gaggle of Soay lambs in a cleit



Jo in our party is trying ot become a NInja Soay stalker - she is finding out how one can approach them without scaring them away and this get close up pics




Soay get everywhere



Today the Polar Pioneer arrived landing 53 visitors and several crew. Our shop is where the ST Kilda Club makes a lot of money which goes directly to the NTS purely for ongoing work on St Kilda. While we are here, one of our duties is to man the shop. Did you know that it is acceptable to the GB passport office to have your passport stamped with our rubber stamp – you can only do this on Hirta as the stamp remains here all year round. Visitors also stamp books they buy, postcards and anything they can put the stamp on.

Janice (left) and Sara (right) serve visitors from the |Polar Pioneer

Day off tomorrow, so more walking for those who want to see the “Cleit at the End of the World” -  a challenge not for the faint hearted!

St Kilda - Tuesday 25 June

The last few days, we have been walking, visiting various parts of the island, and getting used to the meaning of “vertical”. When we walked to the Gap (600', c 200m above sea level), sadly the low mist meant we did not get the view, however, Ken was able to throw a stone out and watch as it fell, and fell, and fell... falling in to the sea 600' directly beneath us. That is vertical!

On our first visit to Ruival, and standing on the Mistress Stone, we paused on the way back to see how many could stand on an rather exposed boulder – we did quite well as can be seen from the picture.]

Yesterday, we went off to the Cambir  at the NW corner of Hirta. ON the way we paused at the Lovers Stone.  Traditionally, the story is that a St Kildan man, before he was allowed to marry, had to show his ability as a cragsman by standing on this stone on one foot with the toe over the edge. He then put the heel of his other foot to the toe, and leaned down to put his first to the toe of the outer foot.  The fact that St Kildans went on getting married is probably becauise this was a story designed to extract money from tourists by posing at the Stone. This would have come from the 1880s, when St Kilda slid from a barter to a money based economy.

 

The Cambir is an excellent place to get views of a) Hirta and looking the other way, of Soay

Hirta from the Cambir - wide angle lens!

 

 

 

 

 

Soay from the Cambit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch at the Cambir, then off to the Amazons House and the Tunnel. 

Derek and Ken - what on earth is Derek doing to his boots?

 

 

 

 

 

Jo contemplates her lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from the Cambir to the Tunnel (Jana, Ken and Alison)

Standing at the entrance to the Tunnel

The latter is a fantastic place – as we sat on a ledge just above the water, we had seals playing below us, and Eiders with chicks swimming in the surging seas.

 

 

The Amazons House (in Gaelic - House of the Women Warriors) - what cartographic vandal translated this to English so that it is now on all our maps?

 

The group is getting on very well and bonding nicely. Derek had seen the George Washington Wilson photographs of the St Kildans taken in 1886, and decided to make himself a St Kildan beard!

Dishes - what a team!

 

St Kilda - Sunday 23 June

The work progresses apace. Weather not great - cool, windy and damnp with the cloud hanging rond at just over 600 feet. We have now had a tour of the village - Kevin the St Kilda archaeologits walked us through the archaeology, occasionally stopping to point out tools which could quite easily be prehistoric.

Here Jo "escapes from an Iron Age Souterraine. These structures, probably for storage, can be found throughoiut the north and west of Scotland (google it!)

Soay lambs are looking good as they are still frisky and cle3an - as with domesticated sheep, the lambs form wee gangs which go marauding in the village area. They like trying to east anything, including Ranete's jacket!

Work continues apace - major work on cleit roofs and wall tumbles, but also ongoing repais to the fabric of buildings - here Paul carries out a temporary repair to the door frame of Cottage No 1 (our living room/dining room/kitchen)

 The Church (built 1829) and School room (1898) have been deep cleaned - it is noce to see people enjoying the work - a moment of great hilarity while tactics are discussed with (L - R) Jana, Jo and Janice.

One job is to sand, repair where we can, then paint the outside wood and metal work of the Church and School room - this need to repair outside woodwork is a reflection of the severity of the conditions on ST KIlda - wet and very wiondy - wood needs repainted fairly frequently, and replacing everything with PVC would not please Historic SCotland or look good on Britain's only Double World Heritage site!

As well as scraping out old paint, Ken found time to go back to school to practice his writing (he only got 4/10 for this exercise)

As well as working, we walk! ANd one of the first thingo to do is get poeple use to the St Kilda meaning of "vertical"!.. Here one member of our party stande on top of the Mistress Stone - more of vertical later!  We managed to get 7 of the party on to this stone (one at a time of course)

A couple arrived yesterday to camp for 4 dats - they are joining us this evening for dinner (being served 15 mins ago!!). Dinner calls

Friday 21 June St Kilda

Well - Wednesday, our due date of sailing dawned windy and damp. No sailing that day we were told.  So, most of us departed fo9r Stornoway and a walk round town. Then, a bit of culture - off to Dun Carloway and Callanish. Callanish has its excellent visitor centre, and the coffee and cake was very welcome. While everyone should be able to enjoy these world class sites in their own way, Callanish was a wee bit spoilt by a bloke playing the pipes (we thought for his girlfriend as he managed to smooch and play at the same time - no mean feat). The view also had rather large scaffiold towers and vans emblazoned "BBC".

Back to Leverburgh, where Alison, our cook, rustled up mackeral fillets in oatmeal, with boiled baby new potatoes with kale and glazed onion - yum,!

On the morning of the 20th, we received a telephone call sayinhg that we should be down at the jetty at 2 to load, had lunch at Am Botham (a mistake for some - perhaps best left unmentioned), then off to meet up with Orca 2 where we formed a very tidy chain gang and loaded the boat. Set off at 2,15 for what was a fairly rough crossing for the most part. THis meant that the Orca could not get up to normal cruising speed and for some time, we smacked downh in to the trough between waves. Arrives St Kilda just after 5.15 where we got those who felt most poorly off to House 1 for a cup of tea and to warm up. Work Party 2 had left us with the fire on, and a welcome pot of soup.                       It is amazing how quickly one recovers from sea sickness when ones feet hit terra firma. While our convalescents convalesced (under pretty firm instruction I have to add), others ferried everything up to Housesnumber 1, 2, 4 and 6 respectively (Hose 1 is our living area, the blokes are in House 2, House 3 is the Museum, ladies are in House 4). By the time that was done, we were all pretty damp (some might say "soaked"!). Back to House 1, where Alison had soup for us all, followed by haggis and tatties - if this beconmes rather food orientated, apologies, but between meals, we work, so it is either work or eat.

Today (21 June), a meeting with the Archaeologist, Kevin, who had kindly had a chociolate cake readyt for us on our arrival. Kevin talked about eh archaeology work he is doing, and briefed everyohne on what to do when one finds artefacts, then off to work,  Today we have 2 groups alternating working on rebuilding tumbles in dykes and cleits and on doing turf repairs to cleit roofs. Each group will do each job, thus building up our skills pool. After the skills are built up, we can take on some of the more challenging tumbles to dykes.  We have "before" pictures to work from which makes our job easier. In this picture, Jana compares the finished job with the "before" picture.

 Another small tumble - anh excellent training exercise. St Kildan walling is very difficult to replkicate if one has been on a drystone dyking course - the building is completely random (but appears to last a rather long time). We are too acustomed to straight kines. The other trick is to step back after placing each stone to see how the randomness fits in with what is there.

Today, the Hebridean Princes arrived (50 ashore) and 3 trip boats each bringing day trippers. Now the shop comes in to its own, so we have three volunteers (Sara, Jo and Janice) who will ensure that tyhere is always cover in the shop. As I came down to see how they were getting on, look what met my eyes - standing outside the shop, having coffee from china cups off the Hebridean Princess - Janice (centre) and Sara (right)

hard at work!  Seriously, they were doing a great job, and in that wee lull between parties landing, the crew of the HP had offered them coffee.  They havge taken to our St K shop like ducks to water - re-ordering the shop, stamping passports with our St K stamp on request, taking cards from visitors to put in the post, and generally being friendly and helpful to all those that come in the their shop.

An excellent first day - work well under way, everyone seems happy and acquiring the skills we need to do the work. Now...... I wonder whats for dinner?

Preparation

Monday 17 June 2013

Well - tomorrow evening 12 strangers are due to meet up in Leverburgh, Harris to set out for St Kilda.  Over the next 2 weeks, we will work on a series of conservation projects for the NTS on Hirta (the main island of the archipelago)

Sadly, the weather forecast does not look great and it may be that we do not cross over till Thursday evening.  However, as the weather can change without warning, we will foregather tomorrow (Tuesday) evening as planned and wait to see what happens.

At the moment, packing is the order of the day - walking clothes, working clothes and clothes to wear in the evenings. Then the general stuff - first aid kit, Gerber (everyone should have a Gerber), Torch, compass, sun block (!!??), boots, trainers, rig boots for work shampoo etc etc.  Now to try to compress it in to 2 bags.

AS things progress, regular updates will be added using the warden's pc on Hirta - watch this space.