We woke amidst a vast ocean with a rising swell surrounding our small vessel. In the near distance, huge monoliths rose out of the heaving grey sea shrouded in a light fog yet almost glowing. Parts of the island stand like a huge misshapen candelabra dripping 'wax' - guano. Other aspects appear like steep cliff-gardens of huge exotic cream flowers - the beautiful nesting golden-headed, snow-white gannets. Sula Sgier literally from old Norse is súla, meaning 'gannet' and sker, meaning 'skerry'. Island of birds. It is one of the most remote islands in the British Isles. Like many islands along this coastline, this is the summit of a submarine mountain. A scrap of land in the often violently-stormy Atlantic and home to tens of thousands of breeding gannets and guillemots, it is topped with ground-hugging vegetation and dotted with ancient bothies and rock towers/cairns. St Brenhilda, sister to St Rohan, a C7 cleric, is said to have been exiled to one of these bothies by her brother for letting him see her ankle and thus tempting him to impure thoughts. There is another story that she exiled herself here to get away from her brother who was tormented by evils of the flesh. She died there.
Out here in the Atlantic, Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Skuas, Fulmars, even a few Eider Ducks and many others fill the skies, festoon the cliff faces, form flotillas numbering in the hundreds to thousands. The Western Isles, which we know as the Outer Hebrides, are home to important seabird colonies.
From the relative safety of our zodiacs, we stared up at Guillemots perched precariously on tiny rock ledges protecting their strange elongated pear-shaped eggs. We were deafened by the constant chattering of Kittiwakes. Cliffs and islands dating back eons, islands on which there is evidence of human habitation from the Mesolithic period forward. Combine that with glorious wildflowers and seabirds - it is mind boggling!
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| Island of Boreray - the wild Boreray Blackface and Soay sheep live on this rocky island |
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| Looking up at these craggy heights, it looked like a garden of blowsy cream flowers - although not as fragrant! |
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| This looks like a plug of lava |
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| This side of the ‘rock’ was less densely settled - less sheltered perhaps |
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| We thought this was part of the larger island but no .... |
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..... it was two islands
 | | A slightly crumpled route map to date |
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