Isle of May

So up fairly early, and Sam came around and we wandered down to Antstruther Harbour, where we met Jade, and all boarded the Princess of May. Sat in the harbour almost fully boarded for at half an hour, chatting to each other and a couple with a boy armed with a bird book. Lorraine, who feels sick standing on a pontoon, leaning heavily on her pills for motion sickness. Sam thumbing through his pocket book of Scottish Birds.  Then The Princess of May bellied out into the blue. A long slow roll in the sea, and the old Scottish bath tub, rolling companionably along with it. Water on the deck every now and then. The journey against the tide was about forty minutes, and May looking very impressive as we neared it. Puffins in the water and flapping rapidly through the air, and Sam pointed out gannets from one of the other islands. The Isle of May has shags, guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills, gulls, eider ducks, cormorants and more. 

The entrance into the harbour was tight and fringed either side by ragged rocks. The sea was heavy and breaking whitely against the rocks, and for a few time we seemed uncomfortably close to them... It seemed to me to be as close as two or three metres at one moment.  But we moored, and we all disembarked. There was a seal lying, unconcerned, on the beach just where we were all getting off. 

The island itself quite magical, once a haunt of Monks and Smugglers is now left to the birds, and bird botherers -- and the eastern part of the island, rona, and north ness, were left entirely to feathered or flippery friends. In total only about half a square kilometre according, but it seemed bigger. Two obsolete foghorns on each end, and an old lighthouse. The turfy rocky land was riddled with puffin holes, which are about an arm length deep, and you were warned to stay on the paths so not to collapse nests. The puffins were assembling at this point, but had not yet taken residence as it has been quite a cold spring.

Took several snaps and wandered narrow paths  The shags particularly pleasing I thought. There is a large lighthouse on the island, now solar powered and unmanned, and the remaining ground floor of a three storied lighthouse built in 1636, which used a fire on top to warn sailors. This has been replaced by a lighthouse built in 1860 and built by Robert Stevenson. 

Home in the bellying Princess of May, a smoother journey, with the swell calmer and pushing us gently back to Anstruther. 

We went back to our digs, and had bit of a sleep, and in the evening we four went to Elie by bus, on which we met Mog and Jerome, and Mog's parents Shiela and Peter off somewhere else. In Elie we had a few drinks, and a meal in the Ship pub. Lorraine and Jade opting for beef pies, which looked excellent, Sam had a vegetable curry, and I drew the short straw with a burger. A cheery evening after a lovely day.

Below sample cliff face, a squeaky entrance, the Princess of May in the harbour, a seal lurking in the harbour, other island scenes, with a wee Jade, and even wee-er Lorraine and Sam by the lighthouse -- and Elie in the evening.