Solfach hide

Step 5 - Painted & ready for watching. Now about that topping out ceremony . . .

Step 4 - Carpentry completed.

Step 3 - Fitting the new skin.

Step 2 - Hide stripped & recycled floor joists in place.

Step 1 - Stripping off the old skin & seeing what can be salvaged.

One of first jobs we have undertaken has been the refurbishment of the hide on Solfach. We started a couple of weeks ago and have been working on it most days, weather permitting. Jim had calculated what materials and tools we would need on a trip we made to Bardsey in August, and quite a large amount of what arrived with us in October was lined up for this and other jobs we plan to carry out through the winter

Any of you who have visited the island recently will have seen the state of the hide; there wasn’t much left standing. So the first job was to clear what could not be re-used and get back to basics, which turned out to be roof and the posts which had been concreted in and were sturdy and reusable.

Our large sheets of 18mm and 12mm plywood were soon being man-handled down the slope, at one point I’m sure Jim and I nearly took off in the wind, and being measured and cut up on the beach with the use of a generator and lots of muscle power.

Initial progress was quite rapid and dramatic; doing the base was a tour de force with so many angles, none of them square, to be measured, marked and cut; the sides, too, made a vast difference.

Once it was all constructed the finishing off tasks seemed to take quite a while; fitting the doors and windows, the bench and the all important foot rest all required a great deal of fiddling and, in one case, beach combing to find just the right piece of driftwood.

Then painting, a couple of coats to keep the rain out, and it was open for business. Already some good bird watching & photography has taken place, and we hope that a great many people will enjoy the hide for many years to come.

Elaine