St Kilda is over 40 miles west of the westerly point of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. It was evacuated in 1930. Bizarrely most of the men were found jobs with the Forestry Commission. Prior to 1912 when a wireless transmitter was installed, they had relied on the westerly winds and the Gulf Stream to ask for help, by sending messages in small wooden boats (as seen in Uig museum, Harris (don’t confuse with Uig, Skye)), or in inflated sheeps’ bladders.
There is an MOD presence on the island, a missile tracking station, and is now owned by the National Trust of Scotland. You can join working parties and stay there for a fortnight. It is not quite so inaccessible these days as there is a newish pier, a helipad and the boats these days are quicker and more manoeuverable. It also has its own power station now.
Apart from simple crofting, the St Kildans harvested sea birds – for feahers, food (salted and dried) and fulmar oil was used for lighting, a fulmar produces half a pint of oil. Yearly harvest: 5,000 gannets, 20,000 puffins, 9,000 fulmars. Entrails used as manure.
The volcanic archipeligo has very high and steep cliffs and stacks (some over 1,000 ft) and catching the birds was a dangerous business. They used rods with nooses on the end to noose the birds. The men climbed in their bare feet – they didn’t have shoes. They developed thick strong ankles and prehensile toes
Macleod owned the islands and the rent was paid in tweed, feathers, wool, dairy produce, sea bird oil and grain. The islanders had common ownership so each day they had a parliament to decide what they were going to do that day.
8 out of 10 children died of tetanus infantus (8 day sickness) which was accepted as God’s will. The Rev Fiddes came to the islands in the 1890’s having studied midwifery. Until then the umbilical cords were sealed with fulmar oil and dung.
St Kilda has its own breed of sheep – very small and not very woolly
wren, larger than the normal wren
and a field mouse, also larger than the normal field mouse (didn’t see a mouse).
Lots and lots of birds and different birds nest there – something like 37% of the gannet and 50% puffin population
Three hours later (and it was a fast boat):
Boreray and Stac Lee – tops not visible.
There was low cloud which didn’t lift. No wind.
Entering Village Bay, looking north west
Black spots (middle left) =sheep
Village Bay, Hirta (the main island) – Canachair, at the back, 1397 ft, is not visible. The road was built by the MOD to access the tracking station. The helipad is to the left of the slipway
The pier and the power station
The resident warden lives in the white building which was the manse. The kirk is to the right and the school behind it.
The village is in the foreground, the buildings behind are either much older dwellings or dry stone turf roofed cleits (storage for the dried and salted sea birds and/or peats). It is reckoned the islands were inhabited for 2,000 years. Arable land was always enclosed by dykes.
The island of Levenish is in the distance. In the middle is the island of Dun which is
Coastguard Rescue were called out to airlift someone who came on the rib. This takes 1.5 hours to get to St Kilda i.e goes twice as fast as our boat. You have to wear dry suits and sit in fixed position – a bit like being on a modern roller coaster. This chap had a spinal impact as a result of his crossing to St Kilda…..
Sadly the cloud never lifted. The classic photo of the village is taken from up the hill at the back looking down at it. The tracking station is at the top of the hill, never saw it.
We then toured around Stac Lee, Stac an Armin and Boreray.
Stac an Armin – 622 ft tallest monolith in British Isles. A group of St Kildan men had to live on this island for 9 months – there was sickness in the village after they had been landed on the island, something like smallpox, which meant that they were unable to come back to pick them up. It was only when the Landlord’s factor came to St Kilda to collect the annual rent when they were rescued.
Boreray is 189 acres and the highest point is 1245 ft
Right hand side of the picture is one of the two landing places on Boreray.
Up on the green bit of the hillside are the “sheilings” where the men stayed when they were catching the birds. As well as the birds wild black faced sheep live on Boreray.
Three hours later i.e @ 8.15 pm:
Prang with his new badge, from St Kilda. So far he has North and West, just East and South to collect.
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