Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

I was game, as I knew rain would arrive in the afternoon and I would be confined to the house. Once we got out into Stenness Bay the water was still. It had a glassy look so it felt like the wee boat was sliding along on a mirror. The area you have to go through to reach Dore from Stenness is shallow. The water is clean and clear. We could see giant seaweed and in some places the bottom. After we left the shallow area the water remained calm until we arrived near Dore itself. There was strong current around the south side of the stack. I had to admit I was a little? frightened. Because of the tide the captain decided it was not a good day to go through the arches. Yes, I said arches. There are actually two large arches. The one you can see from the road, which I call Dore's neck and head. The bigger arch is right in the middle of Dore but hidden from the road. He has a huge hole in his center. Tom said he had been through the center many times and you can actually touch the sides of the stack, as the area is protected and calm. It was too rough for us to attempt entering the hole so I will have to do that next time. I thought Dore was huge when I had walked along the shore by him but when you are in a small boat right beside him he looks like a soaring mountain sticking out of the sea. The top is covered with grass, sea pinks and white flowers that I cannot identify. There were cormorant and razorbills on the top also.

Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

Just as we came around the far side of Dore, Tom said to look away from the stack. When I turned I found puffins had surrounded the boat. Yes, I said puffins. We were so close you could almost reach out and touch them. There were too many to count. It is the most puffins Tom had seen in years. So now we know that a great many puffins fish on the southeast side of Dore I will want to go again and again. The motor scared them so in their clumsy way they flew away. If the current had not been so severe we could have turned the motor off and floated with them. But, if we had done that we would have ended up smashed on Dore's rocks.

We inspected Dore's injury and the stack did loose a significant amount of rock. Tom stayed away from the area as we did not know how much rock was under the water and we could have ended up getting stranded on it.

Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

Leaving Dore and the puffins we headed toward the Eshaness Skerry and Stenness Island in search of seals. We had success again as we found lots of seals. I counted twelve swimming around the boat at one time. We were able to turn off the motor there. The seals were curious about us and came up to give us a good look. They were all sizes and colors. The colors ranged from spots, to gray, to brown, and even a couple of white babies.

The only other major occurrence was we came very close to about 15 eider ducks swimming toward the open sea. I tried to take their picture but they took off so if I got anything I got eider ducks in flight.

I am not sure which I am the most excited about seeing Dore Holm from the water, being in the water with the puffins or playing with the seals. One thing I am sure of it was the most exciting boat ride I have ever taken. I would go again in a minute.

The Sailor

Sharma

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

If you are interested in a video with Sharma and Eshaness Lighthouse on it you can a good one here.

You can find more articles in the archive under Lighthouse Beacons From Scotland.

Book Signing If you order from this web site I will sign my new book for children, Moonbeam Cow, and "Scotland - The Complete Guide and Road Atlas", a beautiful book for which I did the text.