Our last stop in the UK - St Kilda

Soay sheep greet us on St Kilda

We are learning how to play the game here. We had a briefing at 6.15pm yesterday for our next stop, St Kilda. However, there then ensued a debate. Whether to get sorted for the evening prior to this briefing, or after. I was all for having showers after the briefing and maybe cram in a quick kip prior to the briefing. Then Mr Sensible-Pants reminded me that come 6pm we are required to wear smart elegant dress, no trainers, shorts, denims, MAGA caps, blar, blar blar. Ok, that’s decided us. No kip, hot shower, tart up, out for briefing. Then we get an announcement that advises us we can watch the briefing from the comfort of our room. Queue quadruple eye-rolling at this point.

The corpse being revived

So it was off to the bar for prinks and for me, a Corpse Reviver. Well, it was kill or cure and quite frankly, it was cure. I felt very righteous having just the one drink, when Nick had two glasses of pop, until you actually understand what was in my drink. I’m amazed I’m still alive.

The ingredients

Last night’s delectation was The Grill. I didn’t have very high hopes for this restaurant, but we were so looked after, kept warm and “watered”. The latter I’m beginning to realise is Silversea’s USP. It’s an outside space and last night was cool, but there were heaters and blankets should we need them. We certainly didn’t need the latter with the heaters on. We both opted for the same. A grilled vegetable salad, grilled prawns and sweet potatoes fries. A drop of red for me and white for his nibs.

It was an early arrival into St Kilda, 7am, but we’re fairly smug that we were on the 9:15am disembarkation. So a leisurely breakfast in our room with the delightful Santosh setting us up to look like a 5 star restaurant. We’ve decided not to do either of the guided hikes on offer, but to do our own thing on the island. From all the warning signs we’ve been receiving, we’re very lucky to have actually landed on St Kilda, as it’s technically hard to land due to the swell. Some people have tried 8 times and failed miserably. Oh, so we rock up and make it on the first attempt. Sometimes you just need luck on your side and calm waters.

I had expected St Kilda to be hostile, whereas it is tranquil and vaguely surreal. It’s a place for hushed tones and taking life slowly. Last inhabited by a community in 1930, when the dwindling few realised that their lot was not an entirely happy one, so they decided to hot-foot it to mainland Scotland. With no trees on the island, boats were few and far between, so food consisted of sea birds as opposed to eating fish. With few new residents coming to the island, the population became rather in-bred. What really hits you, as you walk around the dilapidated houses, is what an utter hardship the St Kildens had. It really came across the volume of hardship and lack of facilities they had to endure. No smiling faces on the photos.

It is now under the stewardship of the National Trust for Scotland and has the UK’s only duel World Heritage status from UNESCO in recognition of its natural Heritage and cultural significance.

Nesting seabirds

The island is now home to puffins, gannets, Soay sheep, researchers who reside from April to October and the MOD. I think that if you were posted out here, you’d really know you’d failed in your duties.

Seabirds swarming

After we had ambled around the village, visited the chapel, school and honesty shop, it was back on the zodiac with Josh at the helm and a small cruise around the coast. The island was swarming with puffins, guillemot and fulmars. We were strongly advised to keep well away from the fulmars because if they feel threatened, they projectile vomit at you. There’s friendly then. Fun facts about puffins. They are small and I mean tiny and their colourful beaks are only present when they are mating.

Stacks covered in guano

Later in the afternoon we cruised past Boreray island. Its first claim to fame is it has the highest stacks. Armin measures in at 196m and Stac Lee comes in at 172m both a mix of Gabro and granite. Its second claim to fame is it houses the second largest gannetry in the world.

I need to correct some information I gave out in one of my earlier posts, that the Zodiac is like a life boat, this is utter rubbish and is little more than an inflatable dingy. However, in my slight defence, when we had the on board briefing for our first Zodiac trip, we were informed of the survival rations and equipment housed in metal boxes at the bow end of the boat. Well, that’s reassuring.

All that fresh air (plus a rather tasty Portuguese red wine at lunch) meant a lovely snooze was in order.