Abandoned...

A bit of an unusual one, this. Normally, the shots in this series have been a building, which has been physically abandoned as a conscious and planned decision - houses that have been upgraded to "the next one on the ladder" or the school, which was closed as part of a planned closure package, and the children sent on to somewhere new and, allegedly, better. This time though it’s a whole set of islands - St Kilda, the most westerly of the Outer Hebridean Islands, last inhabited in 1930, which was when the final 36 St Kildans left, having done battle with the elements for as long as they could. Hirta, Soay, Boreray & Dun are the major islands in the group - although in this shot you can *just* see Stac Lee on the side of the right hand island. (In case you’d not worked it out by the way - St Kilda is the islands which show as vague smudges on the horizon. The five quite distinct lumps of rock slightly closer in are Heisgir).

St Kilda is all the remains above sea-level of a volcano that was probably last active around 60milllion years ago. As a result pof this some of the rock comprising the islands is highly magnetic - you would do well not to rely too heavily on your compass here! It’s also so far west that nights last only around 1 hour in midsummer! (Having said that, it was still light here at around 10.30pm last night!)

One of these days we hope to visit St Kilda - at the moment the £150 or thereabouts price tag is outside our budget, though!

Robyn