The Forth and Inchcolm Island

If I were to make a horror movie based on my experiences today, I would name it "The Birds: The Sequel", "Nesting Season", or "Killer Gulls". But more on that later.

Today I took a boat trip on the Firth of Forth, the big body of water that Edinburgh is on. It left from South Queensferry, which is outside of Edinburgh and you can't get there with public transportation, so the ferry company has a tour bus that takes people from Edinburgh to the pier. It was nice seeing new towns and hearing new information about those areas. It was a really pretty day, and Queensferry is a nice little town.

The boat was called the Forth Belle. There was a nice commentary and that combined with the pleasant weather and great scenery made for a very nice boat ride. The Forth has been really important in history, particularly in World War II. There are lots of bunkers on all the islands, and apparently there are literally hundreds of sunken ships, submarines, and planes in the water. It would be really cool to go diving there someday.

Here are some scenes from that ride:

South Queensferry:

The Forth bridges:

Bunkers on Inch Garvie:

Seals on a buoy:

Lighthouse:

After about 40 minutes, we got to Inchcolm Island. It's a really picturesque island, with abbey ruins on it. I explored the abbey and it's beautiful! You can go everywhere, and it was just really cool.

Inchcolm Abbey:

Inside the abbey:

There are more pictures on facebook.

After I had seen all of the abbey, I set off to explore the island. The abbey was in the middle of the island, so i decided to go to the west end first. The first thing I saw was this sign:

Well I only saw a few seagulls and who knew if it was even nesting season? So I kept going.

A lovely, peaceful day:

Pretty soon I saw this:

Ok, so seagulls aren't that aggressive right? What could happen? So I kept walking. Below are some scenes that will be in my horror film:

After I filmed those videos they started getting pretty aggressive, like swooping close to my head, so I decided to get out of there fast.

So much for that. On to the other side of the island. Again, at first I didn't see many seagulls:

But then I turned a corner and there they were!

They were more aggressive from the start, so I ducked into a bunker for protection:

Safety:

I actually stayed in there for a few minutes, somewhat afraid to leave... But I had to eventually, because they started swooping in front of the window and kind of dive bombing the shelter. Time to move on.

I hurried back along the path and found a tunnel so I ran in there for shelter from the swooping birds.

It was a really long tunnel, and pretty creepy, but it felt like a playground compared to the demonic beasts waiting outside. I stayed in there planning my next maneuver, then dashed through the tunnel to the other side.

I came out by another bunker, so I jumped in there to survey my surroundings. There were a ton of gulls in that area and I was getting kind of freaked out so I decided to cut my losses and run. I got out of the bunker, went back through the tunnel, and headed back towards the abbey.

Coming out of the tunnel:

More bunkers and seagulls:

Back into the tunnel:

There was still an hour left until the boat came back to pick us up (we had already been there an hour), so I sat on a bench by the abbey in a relatively gull-free zone. I saw lots of things while I waited, including:

Ducks:

Sailboats:

Evil gulls:

My shoe:

And finally, my boat!

Eventually the boat did come, and I was rescued. As I left the island, I saw this:

So that was an epic adventure. The boat ride back was great. We saw some puffins and seals.

Puffin:

Seals:

Seals:

After we got back to the pier I took the tour bus back to Edinburgh. I think I'm going to have nightmares about seagulls tonight.