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T he T rusty S ervant
2018 Wykeham Patrons’ trip to the Hebrides:
In the steps of Sir Jamie Stormonth Darling
Alex Roe reports:
Sir Jamie Stormonth Darling (C, 31-37)
was Director of the National Trust for
Scotland in its formative years and
many of the most beautiful and remote
Scottish islands managed by the NTS
were acquired under his leadership.
In early June, 50 Wykeham Patrons
embarked on Hebridean Princess, once
the workaday Caledonian MacBrayne
Oban-Mull car ferry but now
transformed into a small cruise ship. The
aim was to visit many of the properties
owned by the NTS, to learn something
about the man himself and above all to
view the wonderful flora and fauna. We
were faultlessly guided by Alexander
Bennett, previously NTS General
Manager for the Islands, and by Nick
Baker, the Duncan Louis Stewart Fellow
Nick Baker, Naturalist, relaxing
in Natural History at Win Coll. To
soothe the intrepid explorers in the long
summer evenings at those high latitudes,
we were entertained by the singing of
Katie Mackenzie, accompanied by her
gaelic harp or clàrsach.
No doubt we were benefiting from a
bout of Scottish global warning, but for
the five days of our cruise the Minches,
generally among the most treacherous
of UK coastal waters, were like a mill
pond and the Dramamine was left
undisturbed in the medicine cabinet.
One by one, our targets were ticked off:
the Island of Canna, with its population
of 20; Inverewe Gardens, the Oasis of
the North, and its accompanying midges,
who also followed us to the neighbouring
dramatic Corrieshalloch Gorge; an
evening cruise past the Shiants, much
publicised in owner Adam Nicolson’s
television programmes; and our last
port of call, Iona, with its abbey and
community.
But for most the highpoint was landing
on St Kilda, a UNESCO Triple Heritage
Site - the ‘land on the edge of the
world’ 40 miles out into the Atlantic
from North Uist. The population was
evacuated in 1930 at their own request
and the current inhabitants consist of
a few NTS summer volunteers and a
handful of MOD radar operators. Sailing
around the nearby Boreray and its
neighbouring stacs, we were privileged to
view hordes of seabirds whirling around
the precipitous cliffs - no wonder that the
St Kilda Archipelago is home to nearly a
million seabirds, the largest colony of its
kind this side of the Atlantic.
For me, perhaps the most memorable
point was the visit to Staffa and
Fingal’s Cave, with the inevitable
Mendelssohn booming out from rather
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