Mapping the Edge of the World | RCAHMS Return to St Kilda

Angus came and collected today. It took us over an hour to load our kit and us on to the boat. Then we said our goodbyes to our island friends and we headed for Stac Lee, Stac an Armin and Boreray. They lie about 7kms north east of st kilda. The stacs are alive with bird life, especially gannets. this is after all the largest gannetry in the world, i am informed by an informed person.

We have a flat calm ride to Leverbugh and meet a couple of white beaked dolphins on the way. At Leverburgh we unload the boat [only 47 pieces of lugage] and get a great meal in the Anchorage. I recommend the langoustine! So farewell St Kilda.

DAY 11

Today is our last full day on St Kilda and also happens to coincide with my [James] 31st birthday for which Alex has given me the gift of blog so here goes... We spent the day learning a lot more about Glen Mor as Mary took us on a tour of the Amazon's House and similar structures that have made the valley one of the most enigmatic areas of the island. On returning to Village Bay having sated our archaeological appetites there followed a birthday ritual, undertaking the Chimney run; the route takes you from the steps of the Puff Inn down to the helipad on the west side of Village Bay then up almost vertical Gabbro slopes to the cleit at the top of Mullach Sgar the best thing about the run is sitting down in a heap at the top as your lungs recover, admiring the view and waving to our team over 200m below.Tired but happy I strolled back down the hill thoughts starting to turn to home...

We get all our cleits recorded by lunchtime, so the afternoon, including blog hour (16.00-17.00) is taken up chasing trackways up and down Mullach Sgar. We also spent part of blog hour is spent looking at the ‘prehistoric quarries’ on the east face of Mullach Sgar. These are high up above the scree slopes and conmprise outcrops that have been quarried to provide the raw materials for stone tools. The stone tools end up all over Village Bay and beyond, but how old they actually are is harder to establish. 

Thank you for all your comments, keep them coming.

As regards the marker pen yellow fluorescent waterproofs, I haven’t had a chance to wear them, but I was told that they may scare the birds so I probably shouldn’t anyway. 

Best wishes,

Robinson.

Blog hour is 15.00 to 16.00, which for Ian, George and myself was spent in the most glorious sunshine on the south side of Osieval. This is a big hill that we had climbed up from the south with Steve so that he could take some photographs of RCAHMS ‘at work’. I hope he got some shots of us working rather than panting out of breath, given the gradient and the weight of my pack, because I was carrying his tripod.  We were down the precipitous slopes of Osieval. Ian and I were not going to go down some of the slopes though because they were too steep for us. So George (NTS ST Kilda Archaeologist) went down and recorded a group of cleitian that defy gravity and I am sure were only built as a competition by the St Kildans to see who could build a cleit in the most dangerous location. 

Today is Tuesday, the ninth day of our 13 day trip and for me one of the hardest. I have to really make an effort to be enthusiastic about the repetitive number of cleits we have recorded today, and would really rather watch some crap on TV. Unfortunately, that’s not possible and I have to continue to talk about this fascinating island. Every now and then glimpses of the wider world come into view, like the helicopter, which comes twice a week and delivers important things like Guinness and a PARCEL FOR ME!! 

Anya has sent me a cake, which is just what a flagging man needs. Now I am in a dilemma; should I hoard it and only share it with the mice, or share it and only get a little. What do you think?

Yesterday I uploaded days six and seven, to find lots of people had posted comments over the past week. This was a great surprise and really pleasant one too, so thank you. This has prompted me to consider the blog as more of a diablog now and not just a ‘message from the Ministry’.  If you permit me I’ll fill you in on what happens on St Kilda, who is here and what goes on in house 1. As I’m sure you all know there is a permanent presence on St Kilda of the Qinetiq radar base. Among the many things they supply our water, electricity and the web access for this blog. As well as us (RCAHMS staff: James, Ian P and Angela) there are Jill, George and Bill from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). There is also Mary Harman, who you all know by now. Last but not least are Christine and Ian; Christine is the cook on this trip and along with Ian, her husband, they are keeping us fed, watered, sorting out tool stores (along with Glynn) and house 1 in excellent working order. We are a demanding lot and they provide us with cordon bleu meals, which are brilliant.  We go out everyday as two teams of three (RCAHMS x 2 and NTS x 1) to different parts of the island and carry out our surveys, come rain or shine. Until today it has been all shine, which is unheard of to have such a long spell of settled weather. Today it briefly rained and it was just at the point when George, Ian and I were furthest from our waterproofs. However, by the time we had our waterproofs on it had blown through and was dry again. During blog hour (14.00-15.00) we were on Oiseval trying to sort out the cleits on the steep ridges that descend east from the summit. We spent a long time going back and forth until George, the new St Kilda NTS archaeologist, managed to work out slopes, descriptions, GPS plots, aerial photographic discrepancies and what was what. He will go far, but I think RCAHMS should poach him fast as he’s got great potential as an Archaeological Investigator.   Anyway, enough of this, keep posting your comments and thank you Anya for looking after the kids and keeping the hearth warm for when I get back.