Simon Campbell

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Expeditions

St Kilda August 2008

St Kilda

St Kilda is an archipelago consisting of four main islands, Hirta, Dùn, Soay and Boreray and a number of sea stacs notably Levenish, Stac Lee and Stac an Armin. The islands and stacs we now see were once the rim of a volcano which first erupted 50 to 60 million years ago. They lie in the Atlantic Ocean around 35 nm from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and around 100 nm west from the mainland of the Scotland.

Hirta, the main island of the St Kilda group, is located at 57 49’N 008 35’W. At just over 400m, the sheer rock face of Conachair on Hirta forms the highest sea cliff in the British Isles.

Although the air temperature is stable, featuring mild winters and cool summers with daily temperature range of 6C in summer and 3C in winter, St Kilda is probably the windiest place in Britain and experiences 75 days of gales per year. This is problematic to divers and is the reason why some of the archipelago still remains unsurveyed and uncharted. A team from the British Geological Survey did much work. All these reference documents will be available for consultation during the expedition.

The wildlife and plant life are very special on the islands as they were not affected by the last ice age. As a consequence there are unique species of both flora and fauna to be found.

The islands were visited by humans 3500 years ago and were continuously inhabited for 2000 years prior to the wholesale evacuation of the islands in 1930. The island is now uninhabited, save a number of civilians contracted to the Ministry of Defence to service the radar station; seasonal volunteer workers and a National Trust ranger who needs to be contacted before any landing on the island can take place.

St Kilda is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and has been designated a world heritage site; the nature reserve is managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. There is a pub known as the ‘Puff Inn’ within the confines of the former military base at Village Bay.

The diving

St Kilda is a challenging location, each dive being an adventure in itself.

Sheer rock faces which slice into the Atlantic are a feature throughout the archipelago providing world class wall dives. Sheer cuts into the rock extending below the surface also provide spectacular cavern diving.

The underwater topography and architecture is what you are going to see in St Kilda. As in all British diving and even avoiding the early season plankton bloom, visibility cannot guaranteed. It can be breathtaking: horizontally somewhere between 30-50m! Water depths outside the eight mile diameter bank where the archipelago sits drop off to around 150m. Within the area of the islands and stacs depth of around 60-70m are found; locations directly adjacent to these being 40-50m.

Every inch of the underwater environment is encrusted with all types of marine life. Due to the awesome visibility, the profusion of life extends to below 50m. Being so far offshore, there are pelagic fish in the area, but by their nature are not often seen by divers. There are not many benthic fish to be seen, but plenty of grey seals; probably the reason for the former!! It’s a sub-aqua photographer’s paradise.

So the expedition will be about: world class scenic boulder / wall diving and awesome underwater cavern diving.

The expedition

In August 2008, I have organised an expedition to explore some new diving sites and revisit some established ones. There are a total of 24 divers booked on over the two weeks, 12 per week. Myself and the mighty O-Ring king will be on both weeks! The first week has a very experienced team and will be about new exploration. The second week will have a generally less experienced team - with a few notable exceptions!!

It is currently full with two waiting to see if there are any last minute vacancies! To view some of the photos from my first visit go to Flickr account.

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