Guardians of St. Kilda Bans Visitors from their Buildings

Despite the fact that this is a National Trust for Scotland Island, and
also that the MOD has a rocket range (paid for by the tax-payers)
NO-ONE - repeat NO-ONE - is now allowed to visit ANY of the
Island's Buildings not even the hospital (even if you are seriously
hurt or dying), the souvenir shop, the pub: the Puff Inn, or even the
toilets.

Oh and since the toilets will be out of bounds you will have to find a
convenient dry stone wall to relieve yourself behind. And hard luck to
any women or anyone wanting to do 'number 2s'.

The reason is not that we are at war with terrorists, or due to any
remnants of the cold war - but purely due to the dictates of the total
jobsworth caretakers who look after the buildings on behalf of the NT
and MOD.

All National Trust members should know this national - no
international - scandal. And should also be a warning to all who intend
to visit the Island and expect to be welcomed when they arrive.

YOU WILL NOT - REPEAT NOT - BE ALLOWED INSIDE ANY OF THE BUILDINGS
ON ST. KILDA.

You will be banned. Shown the door. Refused entrance. And very much
made NOT welcome.

Quite why a World Heritage Site should be blighted in this way is a
moot point.

But then MOD vehicles going backwards and forwards have always blighted
the Island - like they can control suicide bombers in London from 50
miles off the Scottish Coast. Right? Wrong.

As someone on the St. Kilda web site opines:

"QinetiQ, in their wisdom, have banned Boaties / Yachties from having
a drink in the Puff Inn and to take it to their own completion, I'm
afraid you will in fact not even be allowed into the building, even to
sit down to shelter from the rain, at any time of the day. There is now
NO public access to the Puff Inn, the telephones or the toilets. The
one thing that QinetiQ could offer to the public, to whom this World
Heritage Site actually belongs, let us not forget, is a social space to
meet on such a remote island, and a little hospitality. This World
Heritage Site is blighted by the presence and state of the QinetiQ
buildings, no one can deny this, by the constant coming and going of
vehicles at all hours, quite often for health and safety reasons
obviously, bleeping through the night, as essential work for the Rocket
Range is carried out. This is all accepted as part of what happens on
St Kilda in this modern age, but offers something in return. The Puff
Inn is part of the documented cultural heritage of St Kilda; should the
general public really be denied all access to this? It is true that it
has nothing to do with the people on the Base, as "Amazed Too"
says, they would and have in the past helped many visitors out with
various problems, often to their own detriment, so what kind of
position does this put them in? "Oh hello, Skipper of the 'Whatever
Yacht,' haven't seen you since last year. How many years have you
been coming out here now? 20, goodness! Oh and sorry, no you can't
have a drink and would you actually mind leaving the building, you can
sit in the rain on the grass just outside though."

"The Army, MOD, and SERCO, have offered this small indulgence for
very nearly 50YEARS, why should QinetiQ find "public liability
insurance" such an insurmountable problem all of a sudden. Can The
National Trust for Scotland not implement some method of payment for
this insurance such as landing fees of =A31 per person? Or an extra =A31
on joining the club of the Puff Inn? The adverts are always telling us
we can insure a dog for =A35 a month for =A33 million liability, surely
it isn't that difficult to come to some arrangement? It can be
understood in this day and age that precautions have to be taken now
with terrorism etc, yes, apply such rules to the razor wired Army Bases
on the main land, but PLEASE reconsider the social aspects of what you
are doing on St Kilda. Rules are surely made for fools to obey and wise
men to be guided by surely. This is a special case. There is nowhere
else for people off the boats to go. Skippers swap weather news, diving
news, island news, people interact and learn about the islands and
safety and the reasons that QinetiQ are there can be explained face to
face, there are no better ambassadors than the people working on this
island. Please reconsider this QinetiQ, surely everyone needs to pay
attention to Good Public Relations? If people do feel strongly about
this, as a very serious loss of a unique social meeting point on this
extremely remote island, why not make your feeling clear and lets get a
bit of support going on this web site."

See: http://www.kilda.org.uk
http://www.kilda.org.uk/guestbook.asp