Danny Green - The Seven Hunters, Scotland II

The first part of my mission for Wild Wonders of Europe was the remote island archipelago of St Kilda, the logistics in getting to this group of islands was tough and we hit many problems regarding the weather which incurred long delays. My second mission on paper looked even harder and all thoughts of an easy ride quickly went out of the window.

The Flannan islands are another remote island archipelago which is 20 miles of the west coast of Lewis. The Flannans or The Seven Hunters which is another well used name for this small island chain have a mysterious past. In 1900 three light house keepers disappeared and no bodies were ever found, speculation grew and rumours were branded around such as that one keeper had murdered the other two and then thrown himself into the sea in a fit of remorse, that a sea serpent (or giant seabird) had carried the men away, that they had been abducted by foreign spies, or that they had met their fate through the malevolent presence of a boat filled with ghosts. The official explanation was a natural disaster in the form of a bad storm and a freak wave that cost the lives of the three lighthouse keepers, although many details are still left unexplained. So either way after I had read all this it was either ghosts or bad weather that was going to get me I really can pick them.

Trying to get to St Kilda had prepared me in advance for a long wait on Lewis, waiting for a window of opportunity in the weather conditions but as soon as I got on Lewis the phone rang and that opportunity was sooner rather than later. In fact it was straight away as the forecast was good for the next couple of days and more importantly the wind was in the right direction.
My form of transport to get to the Flannans was not as glamorous as the nice shiny cruiser that took me to St Kilda but a lobster fishing vessel that was well, a well used lobster fishing vessel that was skippered by a great guy called Neil McCauley, I will come back to Neil. I have to say boats and myself just don’t get on, it’s a kind of a love hate relationship that I have to conquer to halt the dreaded signs of sea sickness and as this was going to be a six hour journey, I just knew it was going to be a tough six hours.

Even though the weather was good the swell was still heavy and that meant for me anyway the whole Journey on my back, lying down the only way I can deal with it, much to the amusement of the rest of the crew. Anyway we eventually got to the Flannans much to my relief but this is where the fun starts, the swell was still bad and it looked difficult to attempt a landing on Eilean Mòr, the largest of the seven islands. At one stage the discussion was to let the swell die down and try the next morning which for me anyway was a nightmare because it is even worse when the boat is stationary.

This is where Neil comes in and with over thirty five years of experience in these waters he saw it as a challenge to get us on land. I have never seen anyone handle a Zodiac as well as Neil can and true to his word he got us and all our kit from the boat to the Island. Our base for the next few days was Eilean Mòr because if the weather conditions turned it would at least offer us some security and protection but my main objective was to get onto the outlying Island of Roaireim which supports a small Gannet colony.

I had seen old pictures of this Gannet colony on Roaireim and was immediately struck by the beauty of this small isolated colony. Over the years the buffeting of the Atlantic Ocean has produced a wonderful Natural Arch and the Gannets nest on top of this formation. I achieved the resulting pictures from the zodiac as Neil skilfully manoeuvred between the rocks and the archway, I wish he was with me when we attempted to land on Boreray, his skill is amazing. The weather was perfect for the rest of my stay and I managed to record many aspects of Gannet behaviour during my time on this remotest Gannet colony in the UK, although it doesn’t match the size and scale of Boreray it has a magical charm and is one of the finest places I have visited in the UK. My next stop is Bass Rock one of the greatest wonders of Europe.

Danny Green / Wild Wonders of Europe

Please note that blogs reflect our photographers' opinions and not necessarily those of the directors of Wild Wonders of Europe.