Three months before leaving!

I am still very excited with the news from February 18th that I'm selected for a Work Party on St. Kilda! But there are still three months to go before my departure. So, what have I been doing since?

The first thing I did when I heard the news was a tweet and a post on Facebook, with the link to my blog. Many people visited my blog since. I got a lot of -mainly positive- reactions to my plans as well as to my blog, but I also got some questions about St. Kilda to which I can't give an answer …. yet.

For example; one colleague asked me about St. Kilda's toilets! She made me promise to make a picture of a typical example.
Another was interested in the local whiskey brand. I'm not sure if St. Kildans brewed whiskey, but I promised him to find out. And now I sincerely hope they did!

February 19th I confirmed my participation by sending the acceptance form back to the committee.
I reserved a holiday from my work starting the end of May until 22nd of June and I booked  a flight to Stornoway on the 30th of May, so I have a few days on Harris before leaving.
I downloaded the public transport app of Scotland and found out that I can take a bus from Stornoway to Leverburgh, which will take me about three hours.

So now I'm going to find out what to do those few days on Harris before leaving for St. Kilda.
Any tips?

I am going!

I'm so excited! My application is accepted and I am allocated a place on the St Kilda Work Party departing on 4th of June!

Fowling

As you might expect from my post of january 28th; I love birds. St. Kildans also loved birds; but in a slightly different way.
There is only one reason why  people managed to survive on St. Kilda for more than 4000 years, and that is the great number of birds on the isles.

There were four species of birds that were especially important for the survival of St. Kilda's inhabitants: gannets, northern fulmar, puffins and guillemot. All species were eaten, as well as their eggs. Except the eggs of the northern fulmar, because fulmars only lay eggs once per season. Gannets and fulmars also provided grease that was used as fuel and feathers and down for mattresses.
The fulmar was the most important bird for the St. Kildans. This bird provided very energizing meat, grease, feathers and down, as well as oil for lamps and ointments. These products were not only used by the St. Kildans, but they were also exported to the mainland until the end of the nineteenth century when alternatives for these products were found.

Consequently, fowling was an important activity on St. Kilda. Only the men were fowlers. A boy on St. Kilda would start to learn to climb on walls and rocks by the age of three or four. When he would be 10 or 11, he would start to work with the men on the cliffs, and when he was about 16 years old, he would be a professional fowler.
Of course this was a very dangerous occupation, and there must have been many fatalities.