As a desolate granite outcrop in the North Atlantic, Rockall is unlikely to challenge the Great Pyramids or Grand Canyon as a tourist mecca.
Nevertheless, the wave-lashed lump of rock will this year receive its first tourists taking part in an unusual charter trip. Andy Strangeway, a Yorkshireman, is offering eight people the chance to join him on the seven-day trip at a cost of €2,480 each. Two places have already been booked for the voyage, which will take place between May and August.
The earliest recorded landing on Rockall was in 1810 but its ownership has been disputed for centuries, with Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, the UK and most recently, Scotland, laying claim to the outcrop that sits on vast oil and gas reserves worth billions of euro. Strangeway intends to spend a night on the uninhabited 70ft high and 89ft wide rock. There will be room for two more to join him while the rest enjoy the relative luxury of a night aboard a 67ft yacht he has chartered.
He plans to join the rock’s only other permanent inhabitants such as periwinkles and marine molluscs by sleeping on a narrow shelf known as Hall’s ledge. However, he will be exposed to the harsh North Atlantic weather as it is impossible to erect a tent.
“The plan is to spend the night on Rockall, weather permitting, but we will have to play it by ear and decide at the time if we can land with supplies,” said Strangeway. “If it’s stronger than gale force three, I won’t attempt it.”
Rockall is the summit of the eroded core of an extinct volcano that is believed to be 40 million years old.
Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive
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News From the Afloat.ie Archive
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