21 February: Rum day 10

Our work is over. I’m not sure how many of the trees I took out from the main road, this morning, really needed to be eliminated. Will it make a difference to the midge population? Whatever. I have worked my best and will now have two days as a pure tourist. It feels very luxurious.

I finish my wettest shift yet, mid afternoon, by which time the weather has calmed down, and there is even a glimmer of sun. I complete the swimming ritual, getting to 1 minute 15 seconds, this time. And I realise I need to pass beyond mere feat of endurance – to enjoyable acceptance?

Close to the pier is the Rum visitor centre, a cosy whitewashed room with display boards on the social history, geology, flora and fauna. “You should’ve seen the amount of rubbish we cleared out“, says Alex. 

I discover that 60 million years ago, a series of volcanoes erupted along Scotland’s west coast. On Rum, the dome of a super volcano collapsed, creating a massive caldera over the southern half of the island – the mountains of Hallival and Askival are part of the shattered volcano wall.

The dam I saw on the way to Harris was built by the Marquis of Salisbury, who acquired the island in 1845. The intention was to improve the salmon fishing. But it was destroyed by the waters it was designed to keep back – a monument to folly, in keeping with some of the other prominent monuments on the island.

Harris and Kilmory were the largest two villages before the clearances in the 1820s. Both were enclosed with large areas of ground cultivated by hand to produce oats, barley and potatoes. From 1826, 300 men, women and children were moved off the island. Most went to Nova Scotia in Canada, leaving just 50 people on the island. These 50 were then shipped to the New World in 1828 and only one family remained. 

I walk past the ruins on the Otter Hide Trail – east of the jetty, only quarter of a mile, but I haven’t ventured that way since arriving. Swaddled in moss, with piles of wood adjacent, it is as though the buildings are mummified, waiting to be brought back to life. No otters are visible today.

Walking back from the Otter Hide I am treated to spectacular sunset colours, and a clear view of the peaks. What a tease they are. Right at the end of the day.