Arts diary: Transplant for St Kilda from 'that bitch, the Atlantic ocean' to a capital gallery

Among the illustrious crew aboard a 42-foot charter yacht were the novelist and commentator Will Self, who was hoping to write an article about St Kilda for Playboy magazine, and the sculptor Antony Gormley, in search of inspiration.

They were joined by Donald Murray, a Shetland-based writer and schoolteacher, and Mark Daniels, creative director of the Inspace Gallery in Edinburgh. It was Daniels who told the Diary about their ordeal with the body of water he now refers to as "that bitch, the Atlantic Ocean".

In the end, the weather was so severe that it was deemed too dangerous to attempt a landing, so, just a few miles from their destination, the artists were forced to turn around and head for home.

Had their boat gone down, the loss to the world of culture would have been considerable; fortunately, however, they all made it back to dry land in one piece - albeit somewhat green around the gills - and are now planning a return visit.

Daniels has had enough of boats for the time being - he says if he goes back to St Kilda it will be by helicopter on a calm day. He needs to return soon, because he's putting together show for Inspace for the autumn inspired by the island.

To coincide with a forthcoming Unesco conference entitled I Know Where I'm Going - Remote Access to World Heritage Sites, scheduled to take place from 23-24 November this year, Inspace will attempt to create a "virtual" St Kilda experience for visitors - a very worthwhile service, given the access issues already described. Details of the exhibition are yet to be hammered out, but given Inspace's focus on informatics and new media, the end product is sure to be impressively hi-tech. For more information, see inspace.mediascot.org

Potter in the garden

IN THE spring of 2008, the Diary had the pleasure of visiting sculptor Lotte Glob at her home on the western shore of Loch Eriboll, a few miles outside Durness. Her distinctive, architect-designed house and adjoining studio sit in the middle of a windswept 14-acre plot that slopes gently down to the water's edge, and the large picture window in her living room is a great place from which to observe Atlantic storm clouds blowing across the loch in the direction of Ben Hope.

When Glob first moved to Loch Eriboll in 1999, the parcel of land she had purchased was populated with little more than rocks and heather, but now, after more than a decade of toil, she has planted it with over 4,000 trees, filled it with her quirky clay creations, and is poised to open it to the public.

It's a garden with sculptures in it, but don't even think about calling it a sculpture garden. "It is more a 'sculpture croft'," she says. "Small tracks created by sheep and deer over many years were its starting point. Now one can walk for miles… and get nowhere."

"There is no map of the croft - no directions - maybe just a little surprise here and there or a place to lie down and contemplate the clouds."

Glob was born in Denmark in 1944. Her father was an archaeologist, and from a young age she remembers the thrill of going with him to "scrape the moss off things". As a child she hated school, but one day when she was 12 the teacher got the class working with clay and she was instantly hooked. Her parents bought her a kick wheel for her 14th birthday, and shortly after that she left school to dedicate herself to ceramics.

From 1959 until 1962 she studied under the renowned potter Gutte Eriksen. Then, in 1968, after brief spells in Scotland, France and Ireland, she moved to the abandoned early warning station at Balnakyle, which was becoming something of an artists' colony.

From 1985 to 1995 she installed strange, organic-looking sculptures in over 75 locations throughout the Highlands - a project she dubbed The Ultimate Rock Garden - and when I visited her in 2008, she was putting the finishing touches to her Floating Stones, in which she launched hollow clay spheres into 111 different lochans.

Earlier this year, Glob had her first major solo show in Scotland for many years at Glasgow School of Art, but her works are so deeply rooted in the landscape you really can't beat seeing them in situ.

Lotte Glob's croft will be open from 25 June until 18 July, from noon until 5pm every day. For more information, visit www.lotteglob.co.uk Hidden talents

And finally, the award for dreaming up this year's most unlikely music venue goes to… the RSPB, for inviting the Kate Doubleday Trio to tour bird hides up and down the UK.

For what's being billed as a "Hide-Away" tour, Wales-based singer-songwriter Doubleday will be joined by Trevor Lines on bass and ukulele and Dan Wilkins on guitar and kora. Whether any birds will join in remains to be seen. The group are scheduled to play hides near Aviemore, Kinross and Lochwinnoch on 15, 16 and 17 July. For details, visit www.rspb.org.uk