Scotland, Western Isles.

18 June 13  part one.   St. Kilda.  I woke up to low cloud and intermittent light rain and was
thinking maybe I was a bit hasty in booking the trip without checking the weather forecast first..!  
Fortunately it cleared up later.

Also see here.

Leverburgh 6:30am, our boat the 'Hirta'.

Only 4 of us on board to start with but we were heading to Berneray first to pick up a party of 17.

The hills of South Harris from the Sound of Harris.

At Berneray.  Fortunately we had two boats so we still had plenty of room on board.

Heading out into the Atlantic now and we caught sight of a basking shark - well, a bit of one anyway.

A bonxie (Great Skua) pays us a visit.

Cameras out as we arrive at Village Bay, Hirta.

The boats can't moor at the jetty so we are ferried across in an inflatable.

One of the many stone cleits which the islanders used for storage.

There are 1,260 cleaten on Hirta and a further 170 on the other islands.

The Village Street, low cloud and light rain.

A walk along the Street.

The cemetery.

There is a radar station on Hirta and their staff arrive the easy way.

Village Bay and the jagged ridge of Dùn, as the cloud begins to lift.

As it seemed to brightening up I took a chance and headed up to 'The Gap'.

The cliffs of Conachair from the ridge of Oiseval.

Unfortunately, as I headed up the ridge, the bonxies took offence at my presence and I was
suddenly aware that I was being dive-bombed..! I was actually clobbered on the head twice
so, as the cloud was still down on the tops, I beat a hasty retreat and legged it back down.

Between bonxie attacks I managed a shot of Boreray, Stac Lee and Stac an Armin.

The 'Hirta' and the 'Orca III' in Village Bay, with Levenish behind.

Back in the village.

One of the huts has been converted into a small museum.

At last the sun shone on the village so I had another quick thrash
along the street to retake some of the photographs in better light.

A couple of the locals - Soay sheep.

Never fired in anger.

We share a joke as we head back to the boat.

The second half of the group arrive back at the boat.

Blue skies appear as we have a cuppa before heading off for the second part of the trip.