Sea Caves of St Kilda and North Rona
- Location
- St Kilda and North Rona, Scotland
- Year
- 2015
- Role
- Photographer and survey diver
- Partners
- Heriot-Watt University, Scottish Natural Heritage
In the summer of 2015 I joined photographer Richard Shucksmith and a team from Heriot-Watt University on a three week expedition to St Kilda and North Rona, two of Britain’s most remote island groups.
Submerged sea caves are a protected habitat in Europe, but few have ever been surveyed, because getting to them is so hard. There were scattered records from St Kilda and nothing published for North Rona. Scottish Natural Heritage asked Heriot-Watt to set up a monitoring program that would give future surveys a baseline.
Bad weather sent us first to the sea lochs of the Scottish mainland, where we refined the survey methods. When the weather cleared, we crossed to St Kilda and surveyed three full cave systems. Their entrances were packed with kelp and jewel anemones, giving way to animal turf as the light faded deeper inside. Swimming back out, every cave ended in a window of clear Atlantic blue.