Getting into Deep Water

The French company, Technip, is expanding its presence in and around Shetland and deep beneath its waters. The Lerwick Harbour authorities have responded by providing further facilities. The North Sea continues to provide the UK economy with  resources and revenue.

Scottish Islands Explorer - interested in the off-shore waters as well as land

Settle for, and in, the Scenic

Here is part of the beach at Luskentyre and it has, obviously, proved to be attractive for a long time. However, there were dramatic declines in population in this, and neighbouring areas, during the 20th Century. Then two years ago the West Harris Trust completed a community buyout. The trends indicate a rise in population, in housing and jobs available and they are featured in this week's Stornoway Gazette.

Scottish Islands Explorer - aware of trends

Stargazing

Stargazing by Peter Hill so impressed our regular contributor, Richard Evans, that he has submitted this review:
'Just finished reading this fine book, second-time-around. When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know, in lighthouses on Pladda, Ailsa Craig and Hyskeir, small remote islands off the west coast of Scotland.  Hill was 19, it was 1973 and, with his head fed by Vietnam, Zappa, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Watergate and Coronation Street, he spent six months on various lighthouses, 'keeping' with all manner of unusual and fascinating people. Within 30 years this way of life was to have disappeared entirely. The resulting book is a charming and beautifully written memoir that is not only a heartfelt lament for Hill's own youth and innocence, but also for a simpler and more honest age.'

Scottish Islands Explorer - also 'keeping' - in its way 

An Era of Installations

Margaret Gartside is a regular reader of this blog and is seen here at Kinlochourn, the nearest mainland settlement to the virtually insular Knoydart. The petrol pump must have been one of the last to be situated during that era of creating a national network of installations for motorists. Anyone able to feature anything similar?

Scottish Islands Explorer - a modern-day, picture-post

Past Sell-by-Date

The rainbow over Balfour Castle on Shapinsay has disappeared and the sale of the Estate has long gone. However, Richard Evans sent in this account as well as this remarkable Sales Brochure from 2008 /2009:


The expansive estate on the isle of Shapinsay in Orkney includes a 13-bedroom 'A' listed castle built in the mid 1800s and acres for wildfowling. The castle's large formal rooms are decorated in a Victorian style with elaborate fireplaces and intricate ceiling work. It was run for years as a hotel and the land includes three cottages and a farmhouse.

Part of the sale included Helliar Holm see page 7 on the attachment.

Scottish Islands Explorer - a different kind of brochure

Statistical Snapshots

Now that 300 items on this blog promoting Scottish Islands Explorer have been posted, here are some glimpses about where our visitors originate and gather. Today will see the 16,000th visitor to the blog. The most popular page previewed, with 210 specific clicks, is Are You Pulling My Fin?  followed by Open House for Heb Homes with 170. The sites that provide most access are www.google.co.uk and www.scottishislandsexplorer.com with by far the most searched keywords being 'pilot whales'.

83% of visitors use Windows; 9% are Macintosh; 3% Linux and 1% view on iPads. The geographical split so far is 10,000 from the UK, 2000 from the USA, 500  from Germany and 350 from Russia. These are followed by Spain 300, Canada 250, Netherlands 225, Italy 200, France 150 and Australia 100.

The virtual blue yonder of broadband is no match for the reality of this photograph of White Strand, Iona, taken by Ruth Fairbrother.

Scottish Islands Explorer - keen to be known

Origins of the 300

This is Balfour Castle, built on Shapinsay in the mid-19th Century, but deliberately conveying the look of a fortified building of the Middle Ages. The 2001 Census showed that this Orkney island had a population of 300. The origins of these residents were analysed. 'Of the island's 300 inhabitants, 283 were born in the United Kingdom (227 in Scotland and 56 in England). Seventeen were born outside the United Kingdom (four elsewhere in Europe, four in Asia, four in North America, one in South America and four in Oceania).'


This is the 300th item on the blog and the breakdown of the origins of our visitors will be analysed tomorrow. In the meantime do tell others about our existence. Some days we attract over a hundred people - there were 126 yesterday - and it is very rare for there to be under 50 who come on board for a daily 'island fix'.


Scottish Islands Explorer - ancient islands in modern presentations. 

Hot Desking on Lewis

An old Harris Tweed Mill on Seaforth Road in Stornoway will be opening as a Media Centre later this month. On the ground floor will be the headquarters and studio of MG Alba, operators of the Gaelic digital channel, BBC Alba. On the first floor there will be seven office units and 32 hot-desks. This is an exciting development that gives opportunities for small companies and individuals to be creative and inter-active. What would the 'former residents' of Lewis, depicted below, have made of such moves?

Scottish Islands Explorer - ready for new opportunities

Benefits All Round

An Edinburgh-based company, Aquamarine Power, makes these Oyster devices in a factory in Fife and looks forward to installing up to 50 of them off Lewis. They have been tested off Orkney. These electricity generators are, perhaps, the shape of things to come and their size is shown below in comparison to the work-force that generates them.

Scottish Islands Explorer - tries to generate interest

Elves and Earthquakes

This bright red fungi, Scarlet Elf Cap, was spotted and photographed in woods on Islay by David Clugston. It's only the second time that the variety has been recorded on the whole of the Hebrides. This was reported by the Islay Natural History Trust on 28 February. A day later, on the 29th, the earth itself moved on parts of the island, was recorded on the Richter Scale at a Northern Ireland seismological station and is reported on the Trust's blog.

Scottish Island Explorer - reports and records