Ern Stack

Raining this morning, but dried up.  Mostly cloudy, calm but a brighter evening. 

It's been a fairly busy day in the museum.  There's been a cruise ship in Lerwick.  I also was kept busy setting up for a talk tonight.  The talk is about the last of the Shetland white tailed sea eagles, shame I've had to miss it.  A dash to the pub after tea.  It's also been a fairly busy evening, but finished early.  Walkies with Sammy, and then feet up.

The talk today gave me inspiration for a lunchtime walk.  Looking down to the Ern Stack, the last breeding ground the ern (sea eagle) in the Cunningsburgh parish, there was 3 breeding pairs in this area.  The erns had a poor time over the years, starting in 1615.  The Shetland Law Court gave cash awards for the heads each year in August, at the Scalloway castle.  This continued until 1835.  In the later 1800s, they were killed for homely displays, and also their eggs.  The eagles were a rare sight come the 1890s, almost gone by 1900, and the last one in the UK shot dead in 1914 by local man, Robbie Cooper, at the Sneuli, Northmavine.  They reintroduced them in the 1960s, but the maalies (fulmars) destroyed their wings with their vomit.  They are spotted now and again on the isles, just not breeding yet.  I only saw black back gulls and bonxies when I was here.  The word Ern comes from old Norse name, ørn, a Scandinavian name for an eagle, so this stack was probably named over 1000 years ago.  Taken at the north end of Fladdabister, Cunningsburgh parish.