Safe Return Doubtful

Just over 600 people live on Unst though as many tourists will be around in the summer months. Few of those tourists stay on the island though. Now, in Unst Fest week, most visitors are here for the day from Brae or Lerwick.

Hermaness is the destination of most visitors to Unst, and the 2 miles of boarded trail from the Nature Reserve car park are the most popular trek on the island. The weather has been wild all week, but today was particularly so, with 40 mile per hour winds, and squally showers that merged into what might better be termed, as simply, rain. Though in it, one didn’t get wet for long, as that 40 mph wind had a drying effect. It was a maximum on 10C, feeling much less than that in the wind. As is evident, not a great day for clear photos..

At the end of the 2 miles of boardwalk are the cliffs at Toolie, 150 metres down to the ocean waves, crashing into the rocks below. At this point today, it was difficult to stand up. From here there is a path both to the north and south along the cliffs. I didn’t fancy it, I’m not great on cliff edges at the best of times, but today conditions required even more nerve. Roja is fine, but there are a lot of rabbits here, and the mix of the three things, rabbits, labradors and cliff edges, doesn’t go well. The photo above is about 3 metres from the edge.. I didn’t want to go any closer.

Instead we hiked up to the summit of Hermaness Hill, at 206 metres, from where I hoped we would get some views out to Muckle Flugga, and we were rewarded.

Photo of the day was Roja getting skua’d again.. bomber by a Great Skua, to whom one can attach little blame, her chicks were close.

Muckle Flugga Lighthouse is Britain’s most northerly lighthouse. The jagged towering rock of Muckle Flugga lies a mile off the northwestern tip of the island.  Its name derives from “mikla flugey”, which means large steep-sided island in old Norse.

This is a Stevenson lighthouse, although when it was commissioned in 1851 David Stevenson visited in atrocious weather and recommended other sites, as this was too wild. However, the Admiralty overruled Stevenson and decided the light would be built. The first, intended only to be temporary, light, was damaged beyond repair in a storm in 1854. Replacing it was a 64 foot tower, embedded 15 feet into the rock below, and standing 220 feet above sea level. The Stevenson’s supervised, but it was difficult and expensive (they were paid more than double the standard rate) to find workmen. All the materials had to be transported by boat, landed at an exposed rock, and carried up to the 200ft summit.  Sometimes provisions could not be landed due to the weather conditions. It was first lit on January 1st 1858.

Robert Louis Stevenson visited Muckle Flugga on 18th June 1869 with his father Thomas. It is reputed that Unst may have been one of the locations to inspire Robert Louis to write his novel Treasure Island.

Four families of keepers lived at Burrafirth Shore Station, just below where I was parked in a relatively sheltered position. A relief boat, which often had difficulty landing, ferried keepers to Muckle Flugga on rota. The boatman’s house was Shoreline Cottage, now a holiday cottage. Both the Shore Station and the Cottage in the photo below..

In the 1950s one of the skippers rescued a Swiss woman who had fallen from the cliffs at Toolie. When she was recovered and at home, she sent him a cuckoo clock. When I read this I found it difficult to believe that anyone could survive such a fall, let alone get rescued afterwards as well.

In 1939 the lighthouse was enabled with radio contact which made staying in touch with the Shore Station much easier. Muckle Flugga was one of the last British lighthouses to get automated, in 1995. The Burrafirth Shore Station was sold off as two private houses. They are incredible places to live.

Despite the wild weather we were out for about three and a half hours, for just more than 6 miles, and then decided to get out the worst of the wind, and head across the the eastern side of the far north of Unst.

We are parked up at Norwick Beach, in a spectacular situation practically on the beach itself. This is just a few hundred metres from Saxa Vord, the UK’s new space port. More on this tomorrow..