New island alert! 🚨

Regular readers (are there any left?!) will recall that we do like an island or two, and we particularly enjoy the chance to explore new ones, so being able to add two previously unvisited ones to our list recently was a bit excellent!

Appreciating the sunset from the top of the fort…

When our pal Laura mentioned a few years back that she had plans to book the rather incredible Fort Clonque on Alderney for a week for her 50th birthday celebrations, it took us precisely zero minutes to assure her that we were very much in for this plan - even before we looked at the photos of the place it sounded fabulous. Logistically for us it needed to work around our Hebrides trip, but planning that in was fine, and lead us to a 5 week period where I actually only had 6 working days too which was marvellous! The financial planning took some working in - but we were determined and in the end we diverted our usual “joint fun” budget for the last year, plus some extra diverted from monthly surpluses for the last few months to cover spending money as well, and we were all set. Having a good long run-in to the trip was helpful in this regard as it gave us time to ensure that the costs were covered - no nasty post-holiday credit card surprises for this household, thank you very much! 

The fort from the end of the causeway

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and the long awaited trip was finally upon us - so MrEH and I headed for London City Airport for our first flight - the 1 hour-ish hop down to Guernsey on Aurigny Airline’s ATR 72 aircraft. Being able to fly from City did add to the cost a bit but having never flown from there before we were both keen, and it reduced the travel at the “home” end a lot over the alternative drive down to Southampton too. We were fortunate with having gloriously clear days for the flights at both ends of the trip too - always a bonus and a good chance to play the game of trying to work out where precisely you are as places look very different indeed from the air! I did spot that we flew out over the coast over Beachy Head though - I have spent too much time in Eastbourne for airshow purposes not to recognise its distinctive pier and Martello tower!  A short break between flights on Guernsey so not too much time to explore but we did manage a short walk out to the coast before heading back to meet some of the rest of the gang in departures ahead of the short hop across to Alderney. This was a novelty on several levels - first another new-to-me aircraft type in the shape of the Dornier 228. Broadly similar to my favourite De Havilland Twin Otter in shape and style, this has a cabin head height of just 5’ - and while I could navigate this with barely a need to duck, our 6’7” friend Marc wasn’t quite as comfortable while boarding! This was also the shortest flight I had ever taken at about 12 minutes - and to add to that we departed early so actually taxied up to the terminal at Alderney Airport before we should technically have departed Guernsey! 

Alderney is a superb little island - at around 3.5 miles long and 1.5 across it’s just a great size for exploring on foot, which is a good thing as there isn’t actually any public transport available for the most part - and although you can hire a car, we opted not to. There IS an extremely helpful taxi driver - we made a lot of use of his services during the week, both as transport for those less comfortable with walking long distances and as a way of getting shopping to the Fort as well. There is also - 1 day a week and running just two return journeys - a railway, which of course we had to visit! An added bonus here was the fact that the two passenger carriages are 1959 London Underground Northern Line stock - complete with their maps etc in place! Rather wonderful and amusing to tick off a bit of “Hidden London” style tube geekery! 

Underground overground….and on an island! 

Probably the most notable part of Alderney’s history is that it was occupied by the Germans during WW2 and as a result the vast majority of the island’s residents were evacuated in 1940 for their own safety. The had just a few hours notice of this, and were ordered to arrive at the pier for the boats carrying just a single suitcase each, and pets were to be killed and livestock set free before they left, which must have been an incredible wrench for people already terrified of what was to come. Those evacuees did not get to return until over 5 years later - in December 1945, and when they did return it was to discover that their homes had been ransacked and in some cases destroyed completely. The German occupation has left huge amounts of history all over the island too which includes many of the Victorian forts which are to be found right round the coast bearing more recent (relatively speaking) German additions. There were 4 labour camps on the island too one of which - Lager Sylt - later became a concentration camp. All that remains now are the gateposts, but it was indescribably haunting to stand and look at those gateposts now, all these years later. 

S.S. Lager Sylt

While unquestionably WW2 buffs will love the island, it definitely has something for everyone - the wildlife is amazing - with flowers, birds and other creatures a-plenty. We saw huge numbers of Gannets from the Fort, and Gannets and Puffins from a boat trip round the island. If general history is your thing then the Victorian forts (there are forts EVERYWHERE!) will float your boat, and if you just like exploring then there is so much to see in spite of the small footprint Alderney has. 

If all else fails, fellow 70’s kids will enjoy the Womble connection - Elisabeth Beresford lived on Alderney, and so there are references everywhere which is rather fun. There is a Womble trail, a Womble display in the museum - and even rather fabulously a Womble covered ice cream van, and yes, you’d best believe that Laura, Tony and I did indeed agree that if one sees a Womble ice cream van it is the law that one must have ice cream! 

All in all we had an amazing week - we walked, we cycled (shout out to the fabulous Cycle and Surf Alderney crew who sorted us out with e-bikes for a brilliant day exploring!) we ate and drank, we enjoyed sunsets and relatively little rain (yes, what did fall did it as we were heading back to the fort one day and we got soaked, no I do not have photos of this!) and frankly we are all already planning when we are returning! 

Robyn

Islandey planning...

This year is feeling a bit upside down on the Island front. Of course we were in the Hebrides for Christmas which was wonderful - we had a glorious week in a lovely little cottage right next to a beach - can't be beaten, that!  Normally at this time of year we would be beginning to think of all the things we need to do ahead of our main fortnight trip up there - but not this year as we've been invited to join a big group of pals for a trip to Lundy again instead at the same sort of time - so the main Hebrides holiday has been postponed until later in the year. It feels very odd that we are only now booking our accommodation for that fortnight!

Lundy - The view of the Old Light from the graveyard - May 2015

We've decided to re-book for the lovely cottage at Balranald where we stayed last year - it suited us well and we loved the location. Being within walking distance of our favourite RSPB reserve was a definite bonus and it makes a lovely circular walk on a day when we don't want to take the car out - we always try to avoid using the car at least one day while we're on the Islands. We did have somewhere else in mind to book as well, so a decision had to be made. We reverted to our old planning method of a Pro's and Cons list for each place, and then discussed that between ourselves to reach a conclusion. While there are some things that are really a "must have" for us when we're away for a fortnight now (a real fire, and a nice location close to beaches) there are others that are negotiable and we have found that writing a proper list of the advantages and disadvantages can really help to clarify things. This time around advantages included "A bit cheaper" on one, and "All electric included" on the other, which kind of balanced each other out a bit - but we decided in the end to book the less expensive one with limited electricity included, but to politely ask whether a bit more electric could be added in for us as we are booking for a fortnight at a less popular (and colder!) time of year - the answer came back "Yes, we can do that" right away which we were appreciative of. It's always nice when people will go that extra mile to thank you for repeat business, and this just confirmed that our decision to return is the right one.

The views from that sunroom out over the machair are fabulous!

While we were discussing our planning for this year's trip, it also suddenly occurred to us that if we want to switch our weeks back to our usual time of year for next year, we'd need to think about booking that pretty soon to so as to be sure to get the weeks we want in the accommodation we chose - and for that we've decided to take the plunge and book the other property that we were looking at for this year. A quick look revealed that for the different time of year that one was actually going to work out a little cheaper, and as none of the other "Cons" on that one's list were anything substantial, we've decided that a change will be good, and if it works out well it will give us another option for choosing our accommodation for future trips. It's in a beautiful location a little further around the west coast - and still has glorious walking right from the door in all directions. It's also an area we've said before that we'd like to explore better, so hopefully being right there will enable that. Yes, it does seem utterly crazy to be thinking about booking a 2019 trip already, but with the tendency of people re-booking for the following year directly after their current stay we really will have to get cracking on this within the next few months if we don't want to miss out.

Definitely a "Room with a view" at the top of the Old Light!

I mentioned Lundy above - well that isn't our only visit there this year as we have been invited to spend Christmas on the Island - with the same group we're going with in the Spring. Availability of accommodation on the Island for Christmas and New Year can be a bit of a nightmare as the regulars tend to snap it up - our group have a couple of folk not able to attend this time and so we've been asked if we'd like to take their place - needless to say we jumped at the chance! We seem to have slipped into a bit of a pattern over the past few years of spending Christmas on an Island - with the last two years being on Benbecula of course - I'm vaguely hopeful that MrEH might avoid giving me a streaming cold for Christmas this year though - that would be rather nice!

Robyn

On blogging (or not blogging), and "stuff"...

So, I didn't blog much from the Hebrides this year, did I. I did do a fair bit on Instagram, and on Twitter - both mediums that suit the dubious nature of internet signals up there rather better than blogging. For a start both can be done from my phone very easily, whereas blogging is easier on the laptop, and while I have the laptop with me, it has to be turned on, and a signal obtained that is actually strong enough to do anything from...and as bizarre as it sounds, if it is raining, or the wind is in the wrong direction, that's not always going to be viable!  When I blog I also tend to feel like I should post "proper" photos, from my "real" camera, rather than pics from the phone...and yes, I know that's a pressure I put on myself, not one applied by anyone else, but that doesn't make it any the less real...

When we were away in 2014 I found myself on several occasions slightly resenting "having to" do my blog post - there were other things I felt keener to do - going for a walk, or just sitting on the sofa with a book. And then I felt guilty about that, so I got on with it and blogged anyway. But you know what - we were ON HOLIDAY for goodness sake - what on earth was I thinking?! So this year I decided in advance that blogging was going to be minimised - I'd see how I went with it. I still stuck the credit on the dongle for the laptop, but then discovered when I got there that there was an intermittent 3G signal which would enable me to do almost everything I would want from the phone, so that has been struck off the list for next year.

The holiday was what I needed - no question. I've been struggling with some personal stuff for a while now - no, before you ask, nothing serious, and yes, I'm fine, thank you, it's just "stuff" that I need to work through, and work through it I will, but the fortnight away gave me the space to acknowledge that my head's not in a good place and I need to cut myself some slack to deal with it. Sometimes it's tough when you're juggling all that real life throws at you to actually step back, look at the clutter in your head, and realise that the only way it's going to fall into any sort of order is by making time and space for it to do so. This summer is looking like being another ridiculously busy one - and with the amount of fun and excitement we already seem to be having lined up for us it seems ludicrously self-indulgent to be wittering on about "needing space", but I know from experience if I don't start the airshow season in a healthy state of both body and mind, I won't last the pace - and there's no WAY I want that to happen!

So, for now, I'm going to blog as and when I feel like it. There may be photos, there may not. In the meantime though there is another bit of islandy-adventuring to come - a wee trip to Lundy Island which both sounds and looks like somewhere from the Famous Five, doesn't it! That will be my first chance ever to see one of the UK's rare-breed ponies too - the eponymous "Lundy Pony" - which is quite exciting too. There WILL be photos in due course I'm sure, but most likely not while we're there as - in the true spirit of islands, it's another place with an utterly rubbish mobile signal - hurrah!

Robyn

Island Hopping...

We’d hoped to be able to make a trip to one of the uninhabited Islands of the Hebrides this time round, and sure enough word came from Nick – who runs trips on his boat the “Lady Anne” – that he was planning on heading off to the Monach Isles, or Heisgeir, on Friday. You might remember we did a wildlife watching trip with Nick when we were here last year – seeing all sorts of birds including a close encounter with a White Tailed Eagle, so we knew we’d not be disappointed.

There were 10 of us in total  including nick and his crewman Duncan – plus the adorable Ruby, a black Labrador belonging to Fergus, the owner of the North Uist estate, a lovely chap universally known simply as “The Laird”. The trip across to the Monachs took just over two hours from Kallin Harbour on Grimsay and was a fabulous chance to see various areas from a completely different angle to the usual – including the North ford causeway…

…very strange to be passing underneath something so familiar from above!

The Monachs consist of 5 main islands – the tiny Stocaidh, Ceann Ear, Sibhinis, Ceann Iar and Seillaidh. All 5 are uninhabited now and have been since the 1940’s when the last residents left – previously they had had a sort of “lifeline” provided by the regular visits of the Lighthouse Board to the lighthouse on Seillaidh (Shillay) but when the lighthouse was turned off during the war those visits ceased and they felt it was just too difficult to maintain a life there with no contact with the mainland. The village now lies abandoned and derelict…

…although a couple of the buildings – the Schoolhouse and the Mission Hall – have now been restored. The schoolhouse is still used by fisherman who put in to the islands on occasion and visitors to the Island join the select band who know where to find the key! 

We walked across Ceann Ear and around Sibhinis – and could happily have spent longer than the 5 hours we had there. There was wildlife aplenty, and in common with the rest of the Hebrides glorious white sand beaches to be enjoyed.

Robyn

Orkney Trip Part 3...

On our final day in Orkney we decided to take the ferry across to Shapinsay - one of the smaller Islands. Ferries leave several times a day from Kirkwall, and you can just walk on if you're on foot - the chap will come round and find you in due course and get your money. The crossing is a short one, taking just under half an hour, but the views are spectacular and on a bright, sunny day like we had it's fabulous!

Balfour Village was formerly known as Shoreside, and was built to house workers from the Balfour Estate.

We chose to walk up to the RSPB Reserve at Mill Dam - although there is not much in the way of facilities here there is a fantastic hide with panoramic views, and it comes fitted out with lots of pairs of binoculars and even a spotting scope on a metal frame - giving you excellent views across the reserve. We were astonished - this is not something you'd ever find just left for people to use in your average reserve in England! nothing particularly exciting to watch, but we did strike up conversation with a chap who wandered in after a while - he's lived on Shapinsay for a few months now and recommended a walk for us to try on from the reserve. (He also mentioned that he'd managed to lose his glasses a few days previously - more of that later).

Following our new chum's directions we wandered on along the road until it petered out into a track, and then followed that around a corner and soon afterwards we spotted this ahead of us...

...Old World War II Gun emplacements and associated buildings! We reckoned just about anywhere else these would have been behind fences, with "KEEP OUT" emblazoned in red on official looking signs, but not here - we were able to wander right up to the buildings and explore thoroughly! The new background on my Twitter homepage was taken there - it's the metal numbering on one of the gun emplacements which was used to line the gun up at the correct trajectory. Having had a good poke around that bit, we wandered on a bit further to this:

The "Ranging Tower" which would have been used I believe as a lookout - to give early warning to the gunners of anything they needed to be aware of and then to confirm to them what bearings the guns needed to be set to. The tower has three storeys and the steps were still in place up to the First Floor - needless to say we wandered up for a look! As the structure is made almost entirely of concrete it was perfectly safe, but again we found ourselves thinking that down in the South East where we live, such a building would have been barricaded up just for the sake of it. Great fun to wander around, but it did make up think how remote and lonely it would have been for those working on the site in the war, and also how different the place would have looked 70 years previously.

We decided to head back to the village in pursuit of food - we were hoping the tea room in the old Smiddy would be open, but seemingly they only open in high season and we were too early in the year, so we had to settle for a visit to the "sells almost anything" local shop instead, where we found locally made Water Biscuits, and a piece of "Orkney Cheese" - a slightly odd thing, a little like a cross between feta and Mozzarella, quite tasty but with the sort of texture which convinces you it would bounce if you dropped it....

While we were in the shop we spotted these...

...and to the lady assistant's surprise were able to explain to her who we assumed the owner to be...I do hope he got them back!

Having found both tea & cake at a rather fab quirky cafe back in Kirkwall...

We returned to the Flowers homestead before heading off with Fay & the Dogs for a stomp at Yesnaby just as the sun was going down - beautiful cliffs....

...and a stunning sunset to see them by. A really wonderful end to the trip!

We had an absolutely fantastic time up in Orkney, and definitely want to return!

Robyn

Back to the Farnes...

Remember these chaps? Puffins, of course, and photographed on our trip across to the Farne Islands in 2008. One of THE best places in the UK for wildlife photography, and somewhere I had been dying to get to. The trip out in the boat was fine - bright and cheerful if with a stiff wind blowing. The boat did a cruise around some of the islands, coming in close to give us good views of seals...

...before dropping us off on Staple Island for the first of our two scheduled landings. Initially all went well - there were literally thousands of Puffins, and once I'd got over the tendancy to stand staring at them saying "aaaahhhhh!" a lot, I got some cracking shots of the strange looking little creatures.

Then the light started dropping though, and the wind got up a bit more, and then the rain started falling....a short while later the National Trust Ranger approached to explain that the weather was closing in badly - the boat company were getting concerned about being able to land the boat back to pick us up any later, and accordingly they were evacuating the Island. The journey back across was - frankly - quite grim. Rough, windy and very, very wet. Most of us had camera gear we were desperately trying to protect from the worst of the weather, and one or two folk were looking distinctly green. We got a refund on half the cost of the trip, but that was precious little consolation - we were bitterly disappointed.

Now though, we've booked to go back! We're crossing our fingers for better weather, and lots of puffins, and a second Island too, this time, with Terns and Guillemots. You'd think we would have had enough of Islands, wouldn't you? No, OK, you know us better than that.

Robyn

Desert(ed) Island...

Something we have talked about doing pretty much each and every year since we first started visiting the Hebrides is walking across at low tide to visit the island of Vallay - just off the coast of North Uist.  At last today the weather and the tides were right so we set off 1.5 miles across what is for most of the time seabed to explore. Vallay was occupied until 1945 but since then has been abandoned. Vallay House itself is now largely derelict and is unsafe to enter, although it is possible to look in through some of the windows to get a flavour of the former grandness of the interior. If you are interested in finding out more historical details then Google "Vallay House" and it throws up some interesting links. There were others there when we first arrived but once they had left we had the place to ourselves - quite an odd feeling being on an entire Island without anyone else there, we agreed! The house itself is marvellous, and there are remains of lots of other buildings to look at although at the moment we're not clear on what a lot of them are. We'll certainly be hoping to go back at some stage in the future.

It seems almost impossible that already we have to be thinking towards packing up to go home.  Tomorrow will be a day of shopping for Salmon, Pate, oatcakes and Scallops to take home, and revisiting places and people for a last time before driving aboard MV Hebrides on Saturday morning to begin our journey homewards. It'd be hard not to feel a lingering sadness about the idea of leaving but we'll leave that for the ferry on Saturday - to do anything else now would be to spoil our last precious hours here, and anyway we'll be back -once the Islands have got under your skin it's unthinkable that you would not return.

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown 2008!

Time for this to start again I think - just under 5 weeks until we leave now and to say we're looking forward to it would be an understatement!

The beach to the right is on Eriskay - which is the small Island to the south of South Uist now linked by causeway. We've had some lovely walks up the hill this is taken from, and this day last year (when we were heading down to catch the ferry across to Barra, but missed it as we misjudged out timings!) is no exception. As ever with these shots I must point out that whilst its had the usual levels, curves and sharpness adjustments through photoshop, it has not been adjusted for colour at all and yes the sea really does appear this blue! Stunning, isn't it!

Robyn