Clubley - Scotlands Islands

RICHARD CLUBLEY lives in Sheffield which is not a good place to stay if you love Scottish islands. Even so, he makes the journey north several times a year and it is always a thrill. He has visited 65 of the islands and never tires of them. They are all different, beautiful and endlessly fascinating.

He has led school parties to Staffa; camped on Mingulay and argued with the Laird on Eigg. He has seen rare birds on Fair Isle, otters on Mull and kayaked to Pladda.

Richard has visited Britains smallest secondary school on Out Skerries, found archaeological treasure in Orkney and discussed wind turbines in Shetland. He almost perished on Ailsa Craig and was blown off his feet on Tiree. He met a Bronze Age queen on Bute and enjoyed Lady Monicas bed in Rum (a story not included here). He hasnt made it to Shiant yet but saw pink dolphins off St Kilda.

LIZ THOMSON trained as a teacher before taking up her brush and pencils and graduated from Sheffield School of Art in 1979. Her work is regularly exhibited both locally in Sheffield, where she still lives and nationally. Liz won a major prize for landscape in the 2001 Laing competition and was a regional finalist in the 2005 competition for Channel 5. Her work hangs in private collections in the usa, Holland, Austria and France, as well as here in the UK.

First Published 2014

ISBN (PBK): 978-1-910021-07-1

ISBN (EBK): 978-1-910324-05-9

The authors right to be identified as author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

Richard Clubley 2014

Dedicated to Nigel Laybourne: schoolteacher, valued colleague and sea kayaker. Nigel understands, absolutely, the special nature of the freedom to be had exploring the Scottish islands. You can read about one of his adventures in chapter five.

Contents

THE FIRTH OF CLYDE

THE INNER HEBRIDES

THE OUTER HEBRIDES

THE ATLANTIC OUTLIERS

ORKNEY

SHETLAND

THE FIRTH OF FORTH

Map 1 Scotland with all her islands in the right places.

Map 2 Ailsa Craig to the Outer Hebrides.

Map 3 Lewis and the Atlantic outliers.

Map 4 Orkney and Shetland.

Map 5 The Firth of Forth.

Acknowledgements

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has helped, in any way, with this book.

It would be impossible to name everyone who has given me a lift, told me a story, offered a cup of tea or a place to camp, but please know you are all part of what makes the islands such great places.

Thanks to Liz Thomson for all the tea and biscuits and for transforming my photographs into these super drawings.

Thanks to Gavin MacDougall and everyone at Luath, especially Lydia Nowak and Laura Nicol, for sound advice and guidance.

Thanks to Serco Northlink, Promote Shetland, Orkney Enterprise, Caledonian MacBrayne and Loganair for financial assistance with travel.

Thanks to John Humphries, editor, Scottish Islands Explorer magazine, for his support and encouragement and for publishing some stories in the run up to this book. John, and Linda Grieve before him, gave me the confidence to believe people might be interested in a book.

Thanks to Mairi Hedderwick for her encouragement and for her supportive foreword.

A number of people have looked at all, or part, of the final manuscript but the responsibility for any errors or omissions is entirely mine. The pace of change, especially in communications, renewable energy and the rest, is so great that some of my statements may be out of date as soon as I write them, but I hope the sentiments and principles still hold good.

Finally, thanks to Bev, my wife, for letting me go island-hopping, and for still being here so far each time I get back.

Foreword by Mairi Hedderwick

LAWRENCE DURRELL IN Reflections on a Marine Venus defined the word islomania as a rare affliction of the spirit and islomanes as sufferers from this powerful addiction to islands. Scotlands Islands is for all such sufferers; myself being one of the afflicted, long since thralled to the draw of islands.

Richard Clubley has created a random plaid of the Scottish islands. He uses different colours and textures for each island experience. Difference being the essence of an island; that sea in-between defining its individuality. There is honest factual appraisal for some islands woven into emotional and personal responses for others. And everywhere the birds. And islanders, a rare species in their own right.

There is a quirkiness to the authors interweaving reminiscences, some with other islomanes, juxtaposed with analytical studies of current island statistics. It is also a style that gives one island in-depth analysis and a personal and impressionistic brush stroke for another. These are the revealing vagaries of all personal journeys.

This book is full of valuable references for now and for the future. The islands are changing rapidly. Some romantics rue this but our islands are not just made up of sand, sea, wildlife and machair . They are also made up of communities carving out livelihoods with limited resources and supply chains that sea in-between. Given the nature of their diverse island conditions some islands are better placed, geographically and socially, for the necessary development to retain and enlarge their populations. There are some islands that still keep with the past but a compromise can be made and change accepted; that special kind of freedom need not be lost.

Liz Thomsons striking black and white illustrations are strong and direct with an engraving quality to her images which partner the text without sentimentality. So often the art of the illustrator is sacrificed to the colour photograph.

All in all, a book for islomanes to savour in sips. Nightcaps are suggested; that way the addiction can be controlled.

Introduction

MY DICTIONARY DOESNT LIST Islomania although I think it should. The passion many of us have for islands is well known and documented, so I think there should be a word for it. I dont know when or where or how I caught the island bug but I have it and there is no known cure. All one can do is scratch the itch now and then but that only seems to make it worse. I have been wondering if the condition is innate or nurtured in us.

I was born and raised in Withernsea on the east coast of Yorkshire and I remember my father pointing out Bull Fort, a WWII installation in the mouth of the Humber, when I was about six. It was my first island. I wanted to go and explore it but never did. Forty years later I passed very close to Bull Fort on a ferry out of Hull. It is nothing more than a rust-stained block of concrete but the desire to land and walk around it was as strong as ever.