Coming On Down

Some things are catching - like viewing the YouTube film of Danny MacAskill ascending and descending The Ridge during his encounter with Inaccessible Pinnacle, The Cuillins, Skye.

When he was featured here last Monday, the number of viewings was in excess of a million. Now it's grown to over 12 million - see the item on the BBC website.

If you are able to access BBC1 Scotland tonight at 19.30, then you can witness the ways in which his bike was ridden and the film made.

Scottish Islands Explorer - has its ups and downs as well

Two Weeks Today

Maggie Cunningham, the Chairman of MG Alba, the Gaelic Media Service, and the Chief Executive Officer of Columba 1400 (below) will be the speaker at the Angus Macleod Lecture, an annual event promoted by the Islands Book Trust. It is to be held at Gravir Primary School, South Lochs, Lewis at 7.30 pm on Thursday 23 October, two weeks today. The full details are in an item published in the Stornoway Gazette.

Scottish Islands Explorer - endeavours to book ahead

Feel Good Outdoors

There is something elemental about this image of Rackwick, Hoy. The ever-present sea around an island; dramatic cliffs; shelter and, perhaps, comfort in a cottage; the skills of people evident in a dry-stone wall. Malcolm Handoll and Rachel DuBois lived on Orkney for eight years and developed a series of day walks and three-day explorations, taking in many features including the Stenness Standing Stones.

For over a year they have been based in Perthshire, but their website, Five Senses, promotes ways in which participants are encouraged to 'Feel good outdoors'. As the evenings draw in and we hope to have positive sensations about being indoors, bear in mind what they offer for a future activity.

Scottish Islands Explorer - Like Five Senses, just a phone call away

'Modern Primitives'

Norman John Gillies (1925 - 2013) was the last male to be born on St Kilda. He barely recalled being there - unlike these men and women (below) whose daily life centred on the simple demands of survival. They were the focus of attention for tourists who came in the summer months.

Some rare photographs taken by Professor Thomas Patterson (1872 - 1949) while on a day-trip to Hirta in the late 1920s are presented in the blog of Keir Harper. He includes from the University of Glasgow Archives a gallery of images of a group of people referred to as 'modern primitives' by the visitors, who were quite unaware that within a short time the island would be evacuated at the request of the residents. The process started at 08.00 on Friday 29 August 1930.

Scottish Islands Explorer - All words and images have been archived

Ultimate Ups & Downs

If you have seven or so minutes to spare and can take the trip, join Danny MacAskill as he cycles up, along and down The Ridge of the Cuillin Mountains, Skye. Your link is either through a BBC website item or directly to YouTube. You may even feel the need to don a helmet while watching this acclaimed stunt-cyclist. Some one-and-quarter million viewers have accompanied Danny from the still shores of Loch Scavaig to the sharp summit of the Inaccessible Pinnacle.

What a journey for this Glasgow-based trials cyclist - from stunts that are not overshadowed by the Forth Bridge to a journey over the Skye Bridge reaching his home at Dunvegan and then into and up the Cuillins. Start your working week with an amazing spectacle of skill, stamina and ... a head for heights.

Scottish Islands Explorer - accustomed to sedate re-cycling

Recalling St Vey

This is the spacious and imposing Cumbrae House, which is situated on the east side of the 773-acre Little Cumbrae. To the north is an isolated valley that was the home of St Baya or Vey the Virgin who is said to have inhabited the island, where she lived in solitude surrounded by birds and beasts. The ruins of an ancient chapel are still to be seen and the saint is believed to have been buried a short distance away in the year 896. Apparently, as proof of her love of solitude, when the Rector of Dunbar attempted to to carry off her relics a furious storm arose through the saint's intervention and compelled him to desist.

Scottish Islands Explorer - Will it be recalled in over 1100 years time?

A Powerful Economy

There are attempts underway - see Shetland News - to make Unst, Yell and Mainland Shetland a hub of the British Hydrogen Economy. With wind and tidal forces available and new techniques devised for storing the current, soon

the local ferries may be similar to the hydrogen-powered one recently built for service in French Polynesia and  fleets of cars will be running on air and water. The functioning turbines are described by Hayley Cutts of BBC Newsround.

Scottish Islands Explorer - runs on ideas appearing in paper form

New Planes Coming

Two new Twin Otter DHC - 400 aircraft (the one pictured above belongs to Winair - Windward Island Airways) have been ordered to fly, from next May, on the routes from Glasgow to Campeltown, Tiree and Barra (below). So there will be spring in the step of some passengers keen to experience new sensations as they land and take off from the beach. See the item in the Stornoway Gazette for more information.

Scottish Islands Explorer - Could there be a Windward Islands Explorer?

Boreray from Boreray

Four things strike me about Boreray, in the Sound of Harris. That the Free Church building (above) still stands, having last been used in the 1920s. That the extensive central feature of Loch Mor was temporarily drained late in the 19th Century and extended by 47 acres the potentially-fertile land on the 489-acre island. That Boreray, in the St Kilda Group, can be seen, on occasions, clearly - the right-hand island on the horizon of the image below. How Marc Calhoun has described and photographed Boreray so effectively in his blog and his book, Exploring the Isles of the West.

Scottish Islands Explorer - also spotted from a distance by enthusiasts

From Sheep to Celebrity

The fifth Shetland Wool Week begins on Saturday 4 October and has been spun to last for nine-days.

The full details of the displays and events are to be found via an item in Shetland News and it serves as

a reminder of how many people are involved - from shepherds to spinners, weavers to wearers.

Scottish Islands Explorer - yearns for a nine-day week