Beautiful Scottish Islands

The islands of the Inner and Outer Hebrides were the subject of this month’s talk at our social tea ‘In The Ballroom”. Roger Butler, who has travelled to many of the islands, used some gorgeous photographs to explain the different characters of the isles off Scotland’s west coast.

He explained the geology, the history and the wildlife including the herds of wild goats that live on some of the isles, and the huge seabird colonies on some of the stacks.

Roger’s voyages round the islands over many years ended with a trip to the remote Island of St. Kilda, which had a community that lived entirely on the seabirds, such as gannets, guillemots and puffins, that were trapped on the cliffs, then dried and salted in special stone huts. The people of St. Kilda decided to evacuate the island in 1930.

After the usual tea and cake, Helen gave the answers to her picture quiz which was about British geography, with the winner getting an impressive score of eighteen out of twenty.

The December edition of ‘In The Ballroom’ will be on 14th, with our traditional Christmas Carols afternoon led by Trevor Langley and the Community Choir – but it is Sold Out already. Plans for the monthly gatherings in 2023 will be announced soon.