After breakfast we picked up our packed lunch from the bar and drove to Hermaness. On the way we stopped to look at about 100 great skuas bathing at the end of the freshwater Loch of Cliff. We drove down a bumpy track to get a better view. At Hermaness we parked and followed the trail up the hill. The ground was peaty, cut through with streams and dotted with dark pools. Underfoot was cottongrass, moss and tormentil and in one spot we found insect-eating sundew growing.
When we got higher up, we began to come across large brown great skuas (bonxies) sitting on the ground as on nests. We watched one drinking from a pool.
At the top the heather and peat gave way to short-cropped grass, grazed by many sheep. The cliffs were spectacular, teeming with gannets.
After about three miles we reached the end and had good views of Muckle Flugga lighthouse.
Muckle Flugga is the most northerly point in the UK. No one was ahead of us, so we were at this point the most northerly people in the UK. R had the most northerly pee in the UK.
We walked up to the top of the hill towards the ruins of an earlier lighthouse, and were dive-bombed by bonxies.
We drove across to Norwick on the east coast and parked overlooking a small bay to eat our sandwiches.
After a coffee in Victoria’s teashop in Haroldswick we had a look in a reconstructed Viking longhouse and longboat.
We went to the Unst Heritage Centre and learned about lacemaking and crofting and lighthouse life. The woman there said that the Baltasound shop would know about local traditional music events – there might be something on Wednesday.
Back in Baltasound we went to the shop and bought bread and crisps for lunch tomorrow, and J asked about traditional music. The woman in the shop phoned a friend who worked at the school and played in the band to find out when the next dance at the Baltasound Hall would be. Apparently it’s tomorrow, Wednesday, 7:30pm, tea and cakes and a raffle.
We drove to a couple of places to look for otters. We didn’t see any. A man outside the Skibhoul stores said there was a great northern diver around in the Voe. He said you might find otters anywhere, but a good place was Westing, where we’re heading tomorrow.