Huge monoliths rising out of a 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 golden-headed, snow white gannets. This is Sula Sgier one of the remote spots of the Outer Hebrides. A scrap of land in the often violently-stormy Atlantic and home to 10s of thousands of breeding gannets and guillemots. Topped with ground-hugging vegetation and dotted with ancient bothies and rock towers/cairns.
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. Were deafened by the constant chattering of kittiwakes. Cliffs and islands dating back eons, islands on which there’s evidence of human habitation from the Mesolithic period forward. Combine that with glorious wild flowers and sea birds - it’s mind boggling!
The wild Soay sheep live on this rocky island.
Looking up at the craggy heights this looked like a garden of blowsy cream flowers - albeit not as fragrant!
This looks like a plug of lava to me
This side of the ‘rock’ was less densely settled.
We thought this was part of the larger island but no ....
..... here it is gaudily decorated by the gannets. It works for me!
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