What are they up to?

I am sure some of you might wonder what we get up to when the island is shut to visitors. Well we have cleaned all the buildings, scrubbed all the ovens, moved all benches and anything that can be blown off by a storm under cover, taken all the bedding to North Haven to store in our dry library and...

... done lots of footpath maintenance and widening and...

...painted our brand new bird hides which the Friends of Skokholm and Skomer built for us and...

...at the moment we are working on replacing the ply wood on our sales point with recycled plastic to  make it last the next 100 years.

And we have got more planned for next year: We are going to paint our boat shed, which should also last for a very long time!

Celtic Sustainables have very kindly donated high quality, environmentally friendly paint for our boat shed. To be honest before looking into this I never new that there are such big differences in paint but the one we were given sounds absolutely amazing.

This is what Celtic Sustainables says about the paint:

Silicate mineral paints are a fantastic alternative to conventional masonry paints; they are tough, long lasting and highly breathable whilst being environmentally friendly. There are a few manufacturers of these paints such as Earthborn and Keim.

These paints are especially suited for use over mineral based substrates; they become chemically bonded to the substrate when applied which makes them especially tough and long lasting. The high breathability of these paints makes them especially suited for use on older properties making them a great alternative to conventional methods such as limewash.

Extreme climactic conditions such as the exposed coastal conditions that Skomer endures year round are a challenging proposition for any exterior masonry paint, which is why Keim Royalan was a suggested solution for the boathouse on Skomer Island as it is specifically formulated for use where climates are particularly extreme, this paint should last well over a decade even with the harsh conditions whilst being an environmentally friendly product.

I was amazed to hear that the restaurant Weißer Adler in Stein am Rhein (Schwitzerland), close to were I grew up, received its coat of mineral paint in 1891 and hasn't been painted since. I do admit that our boat shed isn't quite as grand but none the less we will give you an update once we have painted the shed next spring. And do look at our blog again in spring 2117 to hear how the paint has done over time.

Bee
(Skomer Warden)

PS: A massive thank you goes out to Celtic Sustainables for their support!