View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 29 October 2009

Thursday 29 October

Overcast with only the odd drop of rain. Although it is only ten past four, it is already getting dark and in a minute, I'll have to put on the lights. The lighthouse across the bay is already working, as is the beacon in the shipping channel beside it. Temperatures are quite acceptable for late October, with the mercury at 14C.

A St Kilda centre is likely to be built in Lewis. A project group has researched three applications, from Leverburgh (Harris), Cleitreval (North Uist) and Mangersta (Lewis), for locations for such a centre. Placing it in St Kilda itself is not practicable, due to the remoteness of the archipelago - 45 miles away in the Atlantic, and more often than not inaccessible as a result of inclement conditions. Mangersta is a small township in the far west of Lewis, 40 miles west of Stornoway. On a clear day, St Kilda is visible from there. The island was evacuated in 1930, at the request of the population. At the centre, to be built at Mangersta, life and culture on St Kilda is to be celebrated.

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