St Kilda

Today's the day ......................... to get a postcard

I can't tell you how excited I was to get the above in the post today.

It was sent by my good friend Ed when he was on St Kilda, part of a National Trust for Scotland Work Party that spent several weeks on this very remote island off the northwest coast of Scotland, repairing and renovating the abandoned cottages there.  The thing was that he sent it by St Kilda Mailboat on 1st July, 2015 - so it has actually taken just over eight years to get to me.  

Mailboats are an old St Kilda tradition where the islanders launched their mail into the sea in tiny waterproof boats in the hope that they would be picked up by passing ships or make it to more populated places and be sent on.  My postcard eventually made it to Senja, an island off the extreme northwest of Norway where it was picked up by Yacob Lochen.  

He sent it on, by standard mail, to the address that Ed had for me in 2015.  But, course, we moved to our present house in 2018 - so it was just as well that we are still in touch with the nice people who bought our Kendal house.  They sent it on here and it arrived this morning.

I've done a quick Google Maps search between St Kilda and Senja Island and I reckon that my postcard has travelled somewhere in the region of 1,780 kms (1,107 miles).  No wonder it took eight years.  And what a wonderful thing that it did actually arrive - pretty much none the worse for wear ............................!