World’s junk washes up on deserted Scots island
It is the most remote place in Britain, a cluster of storm-lashed islands surrounded by the turbulent waters of the north Atlantic. Yet even St Kilda, 40 miles and several hours by boat from the Western Isles of Scotland, is not immune to the rising tide of rubbish polluting the world’s oceans.
Discarded plastic containers that once held Brazilian mustard, Japanese detergent, Dutch yoghurt and French shower gel, as well as 149 mostly unidentified bottles were among more than 500 pieces of rubbish collected from the archipelago’s only beach, Village Bay, on the main island of Hirta.
Staff from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), which manages the islands, a World Heritage site that is home to a million seabirds and just 17 humans, filled 13 bin bags from the 450-metre stretch of shingle during the two-day survey at the end of last month.
‘Whatever he studies, the future observer of St Kilda will be haunted the rest of his life by the place, and tantalised by the impossibility of describing it, to those who have not seen it.’ – James Fisher, naturalist, written in 1947
Here’s an article I wrote in 2004 about St. Kilda:
“Up ahead, a dark mass looms through the mist As it gains definition, we can see dramatic rock faces and stacks, shrouded in cloud. Spooky. It’s Boreray and Stac an Armin, steep masses of eroded volcanic rock rising high above the ocean. We sail past Stac an Armin and Stac Lee – another sinister looking monolith. The dolphins are still with us, as are several gannets – weird, skinny white birds with yellow beaks and black wingtips.”
Read A Visit to St Kilda
(during 2004 Greenpeace trip)
Photographs of St. Kilda
