The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Bothies may be used to accommodate visitors on uninhabited islands
Two bothies have been proposed as visitor accommodation on the Shiants, a small group of uninhabited islands off Lewis.
Wildlife enthusiasts are drawn to the isles because of its birds, which include razorbills, Manx shearwaters, puffins, storm petrels and sea eagles.
Visitors stay in tents and often use an existing 150-year-old bothy for cooking meals.
The new shelters would accommodate a maximum of four people each.
The scheme will also involve upgrading the existing old bothy.
Tom Nicolson, the islands’ owner, said the bothies would help to keep the Shiants open to wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists for the next 50 years.
The isles lie about four miles off Lewis in the Minch, a stretch of water separating the Western Isles from Skye and the mainland.
During the visitor season, only six to eight people are usually on the islands at any one time and tend to stay for about a week.
The Shiants’ last inhabitants left in 1905 and there are no amenities, such as running water.
Part of the idea for the new bothies came from the use of temporary portable accommodation put on the islands for use by volunteers during conservation work to eradicate black rats.
The rodents were not native to the isles and were thought to be the descendants of rats that came ashore from shipwrecks in the 1900s.
The rats ate the eggs of ground-nesting birds, leading to some seabird species being plunged into serious declines.
Following several years of extermination work, conservationists declared the islands rat-free in March 2018 after none were spotted for two years. While the portable accommodation was unsightly, volunteers said it offered greater comforts and privacy than a tent on a “windy, rainy night”.
Mr Nicolson has proposed erecting two small bothies of a design “sympathetic to the landscape”.
Bothy Stores, a social enterprise involving Edinburgh-based artist Bobby Niven and architect Iain MacLeod, is working on the plans.
Mr Nicolson is to launch a £100,000 crowdfunding campaign in May with the hope of having the accommodation available by next summer to those who donate funds.
He said staying on the Shiants was not for everyone and the islands’ visitors were usually people looking to experience “life on the edge, seclusion and wildlife”.
Katie Tunn chose three years ago to be marooned on the Shiants.
Alone apart from a colony of seabirds and surviving on rations bulked out with foraged nettles and seaweed, Miss Tunn struggled to keep dry amid the driving rain and salt spray during her stay in 2018.
The then 32-year-old has spoken about the physical challenges of life on an uninhabited island – but also about the extraordinary beauty and freedom. She reconnected with herself and found peace.
Only a mile-and-a-half long and half-a-mile at its widest point, the island has been uninhabited since the last residents quit in the 18th Century, leaving just ruins and memories.
With only a sleeping bag and tarp, a notepad and pen and a few essentials such as rice, oats and flour, Miss Tunn wanted to find out just how little she really needed to survive.