I knew before I left Killantringan that I was going to Sule Skerry. I enjoy surprises and like to make the most of how things are, so I never asked any of the Keepers at killantringan what Sule Skerry was like. I did trace my journey on a map and I knew that the island was pretty remote, the advice given in my travel documents was to be sure and take enough personal gear to last a month. It so happens that Sule Skerry is the most remote lighthouse in Britain about 40 kilometers from the nearest habitation.
Nearly all of the more remote lighthouses were what was classed as Rock Stations and the Keepers there would served 4 weeks on 4 weeks off. There were three Rock Stations in the Pentland Firth ( the Channel that flows between Orkney and the Mainland) and they werte all relieved on the same day. The Keepers families lived in Stromness on Orkney and the reliefs were made by helicopter from there. The lighthouse board chartered a Balkow helicopter from Bond helicopters at Peterhead, it even had NLB livery with the Lighthouse emblazoned on it. The flight took about twenty five minutes but it seemed an age before the lighthouse was in sight. My jaw did drop a bit when I saw the size of the island, it was not much more than a couple of football pitches in length and width and siiting square in the middle was the Lighthouse.
In the old days there were less buildings and the tower housed everything apart from the engoine room and that would give it the same kind of status as the pillar rock stations like Bell Rock and Skerryvore. The Lighthouse was undergoing automation and the darlin light was already installed and under test. There was no foghorn on Sule Skerry so that left very little for the keepers to do. It was still encumbant upon us to put the light on at night and switch it off in the morning. Just to give us something to do besides look after the generator, Sule Skerry was also a major weather reporting station; so every three hours we would take readings and pass the information onto the Met Office. Like the Bell Rock, Sule Skerry too had mention in the old Shipping forcasts.
Sule Skerry gets its name from the old Norse for gannet a sea bird closely related to your booby. There were none on the island but they did have a colony on a nearby stack. A stack is a small rock or rocky column whereas a Skerry is a larger island. We did have a colony of puffins nessting on the island while I was out there, and at night the young used to come out of their burrows making it hazardous when we went to get our readings.
The lighthouse had a pretty good library and I read quite a few before my month was over.
The light was powered by an acetylene derivative and the bottles were stored in the basement of the tower. I could just imagine the towe being struck by lightning and whoevere was in the tower at the time would be the first Britain in space.
While all the work was going on in the tower for automation, there shipped out some temporary accomodation for the keepers. It was the artificers that slept in the triple tiered bunks in the tower. Drinking water was at a premium on the island and had to be brought in so all ablutions were made with rainwater. It was soft so it did not matter.
I had mhy first taste of Rock Station life and I was not put off in anyway. One of the major benfits was not having to pay anything for food.
Each man was given a rock allowance for food which was pooled by all the Keepers, that way we could all enjoy having three cooked meals a day.
How good they were was dependant on the culinary skills of the Keeper on cooks duty. I was a fair to middling cook before and only got better as the month wore on as I was detailed in the Kitchen during my entire month. It only meant cleaning up and cooking lunch, breakfast and tea were cokked by the keeper on watch.
My month went fast but I was not sad to leave Sule skerry because I had the notion that the more lighthouses I went to the sooner I would be promoted Assistant Lighthouse Keeper.

I've been trying to keep up. Great stuff !!!