Arnish Lighthouse

New ticket machines are being installed on the main bus routes in Lewis (see this article on Hebrides News). I am pleased that more advanced technology is being installed on our buses, as outlined. I am just wondering whether this will allow cross-operator ticketing. That is a mouthful which simply means: can I buy one ticket which will pay for my journey from (e.g.) Point to Carloway? At the moment, you have to pay Bus na Comhairle for the section to Stornoway, and Maclennan’s Buses for the onward portion to Carloway. If this is not the case, perhaps this possibility should be at least considered and at best implemented.

As of next Friday, 12 February, postings nor comments will be accepted anymore on any of the blogs on the BBC Island Blogging site. Carol, who has looked after the site since it formally closed in December 2008, has secured another year’s funding for this Island Blogging site (well done and thanks, Carol). I would like to echo Les’s call to nip round to IBHQ on the old IB site before 12 February, and leave a word of thanks as well.

Island Blogging has been in existence since late 2003, initially just for the Argyll Islands, later including the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland as well. This blogger has been part of the IB community since December 2005, and it has been great fun. It is a pity that the BBC could not be bothered to devise a better blogging service for us, but it is good that Les has taken us under his wing up to a point to continue on this platform.

The unseemly squabble over the St Kilda Centre continues, with the supporters of the Cleitreabhal site in North Uist threatening to open their own centre. Meanwhile, the Ionad Hiort working group in Uig has started work towards making the centre at Mangurstadh a reality. A website is to be set up shortly, and I refer to the Comunn Eachdraidh Uige for further updates and details.

Meanwhile, I would also like to recommend for contemplation this letter by a South Uist resident. I agree with each and every point raised.

The bell and plate from the Iolaire in Museum nan Eilean

I was very pleased indeed to note that the BBC has included the bell and plate from HMY Iolaire in its feature “A History of the World - 100 objects“. This is a large project, in which several objects from periods of the last 10,000 years feature to tell the history of the world.

As I have often mentioned on this blog over the past four years, the admiralty ship “Iolaire” had been sent to Kyle of Lochalsh in the last days of 1918 to take sailors and other servicemen home to the Isle of Lewis. The ship foundered on the rocks of the Beasts of Holm, only a few dozen yards from shore. More than 200 perished, only 75 survived. It is one of the key moments in this island’s 20th century history, and in fact of maritime history in that century. As the page on the BBC website rightly points out, the losses from the sinking of the Iolaire were second only to the Titanic as far as British registered vessels were concerned, and second only to the number lost off the Norge. This Scandinavian emigrant ship ran aground at Rockall in 1904, with the loss of about 700.

The sinking of the Iolaire is too little known, and I wholeheartedly endorse the inclusion of this event in this particular project. Read its page on the BBC webpage here.

The image at the top of this post is my own.

The MV Isle of Lewis, which plies the route between Stornoway and Ullapool, went into Garvel Drydock at Greenock today for its annual overhaul. MV Clansman is currently covering the route, but it should be noted that this vessel takes longer to sail from Stornoway to Ullapool and vice versa. Calmac has NOT advised any changes in its timetable, but be prepared for slightly later departure and arrival times through the day. I do not know when the MV Isle of Lewis will return on the route, but two weeks from now is a safe assumption.

MV Clansman at Stornoway, 30 January 2007

A few months ago, I found myself on Bosta Beach, when a group of locals gathered to discuss the installation of a Time and Tide Bell. This device rings in ever changing tones as the tide ebbs and flows around it. Twelve of the bells are to be installed around the coastline of the UK, and sculptor Marcus Vergette is intending to place one on the beach at Bosta.

It is an idea that sits uneasy with many people, and I rank myself among those. Although the sound of the bell is not loud, I do not feel that it would be fitting to place it in the location of Bosta, a secluded beach on the northern end of Great Bernera. Some might find it an intrusion to see an object that is patently not part of the natural scenery, or general environment that one expects to find there.

Bosta Beach

Hebrides News has published an article, outlining the benefits to be bestowed on the community of South Lochs through the construction of the Muaitheabhal Project, better known as the Eishken Windfarm. These benefits will leave South Lochs out of pocket to the tune of £6.9m. Let me explain.

Initial expenditure
Four turbine sites in the windfarm: £0
Four turbine towers: £18.5m
Contribution to Western Isles Council development fund: £11.5m

Total initial expenditure: £30m

Income
1% of income of main windfarm: £8.75m
Revenue of own turbines: £21.6m

I should clarify that it is unclear whether the above two figures are per annum or over the lifetime of the project

Total income: £30.35m

Contribution
Contribution to Western Isles Council Development Fund: £7.2m (1/3 of revenue, as above)

Net income for Muaitheabhal Community Trust
-£6.9m

Apart from the figures quoted above, The Western Isles Community Development fund will receive £4.4m from the main windfarm over the lifetime of the project, which means £26m in total.

It should be noted that the £18m required to construct the turbines will have to be coughed up by the villagers of South Lochs, whose number stands at a few hundred. Eishken estate owner Nicholas Oppenheimer has set up a loan structure for the South Lochs folks to borrow the money.

I will go so far as to call this “community benefit” a screw-up of monumental proportions. Naturally, if I have misread the article, or if there are clarifications which need to be added to the figures quoted in the article, then I’d be more than pleased to modify this post accordingly.

The Scottish Government has granted approval for 33 windturbines to be constructed for the Muaitheabhal project. Each turbine will stand 450 feet tall, and their combined output (118 megawatts) is reported sufficient to power 55,000 homes. That is several times the number of homes in the Western Isles.

Objections from the John Muir Trust on account of visual impact of the machines have been sidestepped by reducing the number of turbines from 39 to 33. Reactions on BBC Radio Scotland Highlands and Islands this afternoon varied widely. The Scottish Energy Minister stated that this first major windfarm in the Western Isles would grant the islands their place in the renewable energy sector. Others asserted that the decision made a mockery of the recent Local Public Inquiry.

I have made my position on this issue patently clear, as being opposed. This is founded on the visual impact in combination with the effects on wildlife. It also strikes me that the Scottish Government is prejudiced, bearing in mind that one of its advisors on renewable energy is actually a high-ranking official within one of the power companies that will develop this scheme.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has hailed this announcement as a major boost for the Western Isles. In my perspective, they have fallen for the beads and mirrors flashed in front of them by the developers of the Muaitheabhal project. Yes, there will be a few million pounds a year for the Comhairle. But the major winners are the developers and the Eishken landowner.

Anyone who thinks that this will eradicate the islands’ economic woes at a stroke is seriously at variance with reality. Job benefits will only last for the duration of the construction of the windfarm, and I wonder how many islanders will be getting a job out of it. Maintaining the windfarm only requires a handful of people.The islands’ economy could arguably suffer through the windfarm, as it might deter visitors. They come here for an unspoilt wilderness, not to see an industrial estate.

I wonder what the European Union will think of this project, which will have adverse effects on wildlife; on a species of bird that are protected, and any threat to their habitat posed by such a scheme should by default lead to it being turned down. Not so, it would seem.

Once more, big money has spoken. It did so with the Beauly - Denny powerline upgrade, and has done so here. This is not for the benefit of the Western Isles. The Eishken Windfarm is a development to the islands’ detriment.

11 January 2005 is one of those days that everybody who was in the Outer Hebrides at the time will not forget. A deep Atlantic depression moved past our islands, bringing with it winds of force 12 on the Beaufort scale, with gusts in excess of 130 mph. At the time, I was staying in Kershader, 12 miles south of Stornoway as the crow flies - more like 22 miles by road. At 6.22pm, the power went off, not to go back on again for 48 hours. The wind was already howling around the building. Blue flashing lights penetrated the darkness from across Loch Erisort - police cars were stopping traffic on the Stornoway to Tarbert road after a lorry driver reported a sheep flying past his windscreen. The driver of the South Lochs bus that night was mightily relieved to make it home in one piece, he told me later. Trees were downed, roofs taken off, vehicles crushed under trees - and hundreds of them toppled in the Castle Grounds in Stornoway. High tides lapped at the doors of people on Cromwell Street and Bayhead in the town. Boats were torn off their moorings and smashed into the ferry terminal. Slates became like missiles, and pedestrians blown off their feet. Some who sought refuge were denied entry; others were taken inside.

The next morning dawned breezy and bright. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief. That was a bad one, but it’s only damage. By 9.20 am however, reports start to emerge from the Southern Isles. Five people are missing in South Uist, after they fled their home the previous evening at around 7pm. Rising tides had started to approach their home, and pebbles were hurled against walls and windows. They enter two cars and drive from their home at Eochdar towards the causeway, linking South Uist and Benbecula. A fatal decision. That road parallels the stretch of sea that separates the two islands. The southeasterly storm, combined with a springtide from the northwest pushed the waters of Loch Bi up; but on account of the floodtide they could not drain into the sea. The loch flooded a small causeway, sweeping the cars into the water. By morning, the five missing people are found dead. They include a mother and father with two young children and a grandfather.

A notice in the Stornoway Gazette of last week commemorated their loss. This entry is in their memory too.

An expedition to Sandwick Cemetery foundered yesterday on the incredible ice-rink that is the footpath between Lower Sandwick and the Battery, Stornoway. Pavements in that area of the town look like this:

and I have great fun making my way from the turning point at the bottom of Miller Road to the start of the footpath to Sandwick. Once there, I found the length of the path to be like below:

and conditions within the cemetery no better. I did not come bearing skates, so I had to turn back and wait for the Atlantic to whirl some mild weather our way. I think that won’t be very long, bearing in mind that a cargoship with 4,300 tons of roadsalt docked at Stornoway this morning.