After my day in St Kilda, I said goodbye to Harris for now and drove to the Isle of Lewis. It was time to explore the Uig peninsula and the surrounding area. The home of the Lewis Chessmen.
Somewhere in the endless dunes of Uig Bay the ancient chessboard made out of walrus ivory was found – known today as the Lewis Chessmen. The original chessmen live in the British Museum in London, but there are still a few (very big) chessmen to be found on Lewis.
The Bay of Uig is an endless beach, one can walk for hours and just enjoy the views and take a bit of paddle in the sea.
We made the last round around the St Kilda islands and stacks, where the men of St Kilda used to, came in the summertime to hunt birds. It is hard to imagine that they stayed in these rocky places in tiny bothies, sometimes for weeks or once even for months.
Stac LeeLooking back towards Hirta and Soay
Every year thousands of Puffins, Gannets and other birds spend their summer in the St Kilda archipelago to breed.
Suddenly the clouds started to come in and the sea got a bit wilder.
Am Plastair
Our boat ride back to Harris was a bit rougher and wilder than in the morning, but we arrived save and sound in Leverburgh. Accompanied by this guy for quite a while.
Back down in the village, our time on Hirta was almost over. I met some of the others and the rangers in front of the Manse and we spent the time chatting. The anniversary ladies were telling us more about their work party 50 years ago and the rangers told us about living half the year on Hirta.
The anniversary ladies and ranger Sue
Almost everyone going up the hills had encounters with the bird bullies, but at least we had some stories to tell.
Our time in Hirta was over, we went back to our boat and started a little round around the St Kilda archipelago.
The old pier while I was waiting for my turn to go back to the boat.
The two rangers waved us goodbye and maybe had some fun about our bird encounters. Regarding birds, St Kilda or the cliffs of St Kilda are home to around 1 million sea birds: Puffins, Fulmar, Gannets, Shearwater, Petrel, Kittiwake and Shags – they helped the St Kildians survive and are still breeding there today.
A gannet flying by – more to come..
Looking back on Hirta and village bay.
Soon we were surrounded by big swarms of birds – all the puffins one can imagine.
We were making our way around Hirta.
It was shortly before the end of the breeding season and the birds went back to the sea.
After a day full of calm water and sunshine, the first clouds started to set in. We were warned that the weather could change pretty quickly, we soon should be expiring that.
