St Kilda

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Photos (C) R Woodall

St Kilda - an Introduction

St. Kilda lies approximately 40 sea miles west of the Outer Hebrides. It is a small group of islands, Hirta being the biggest. As long as people can remember Hirta has been inhabited by the Celts. In the ancient feudal era the island group was in possession of the clan Macleod of Macloud.

For millennia the Celtic community on St. Kilda had been dependant on whatever the island group had to offer.

At the beginning of the previous century the St. Kildans lived exceptionally primitive compared to the rest of Europe. They lived of a few sheep, the agriculture and especially of bird catching. Annually a ship with necessities such as knifes, needles and yarn came to the island. These goods were exchanged for dried birds and tweed.

Tens of thousands of birds were caught every year, especially Auks, Northern Fulmars and Northern Gannets. For food they would make dangerous expeditions to catch the birds and there eggs on the incredibly steep cliffs; especially on the islands in the north (Boreray, Stack and Stack Armin) which are really no more than steep tall rocks. 
 

Remote Community

One hundred and eighty people lived on the islands towards the end of the 17th century but they only had 16ft boats to get about in. There was not enough timber to build there own craft so these tiny boats crossed the eighty mile passage from the mainland, fancy a try?

The St. Kildans lived in houses with walls made of boulders and roofs made of turf and hay. The earliest houses had no chimneys or windows and they must have been very damp, dark and dingy to live in. In the 1830’s wood and glass were introduced into new dwellings and the old houses became stables and stores. The old feudal Celtic community of St. Kilda was gradually destroyed by the influence the Anglo Saxons from the mainland but the morning “Parliament” persisted. Every morning the men folk would meet on the Village Street and deicide what had to be done that day and who would do it.
Strict Christianity had always been part of life on St Kilda and they also were responsible for the education of the children. At the start of the 20th century stone houses with sanitary facilities were introduced and an attempt was made with charity and tourism to keep the islands going; the main aim of which was to get them enough food to live on. But still the inhabitants were poverty stricken and near to starvation most of the time so that on August 29th 1930 the British government removed the last 39 inhabitants.

In 1957 a military post, which is still there, was built and is now run by Quintec Associates Ltd a defence organisation. The military started out by using bulldozers to destroy most of the old houses.
Also in 1957 the National Trust for Scotland became the owner and made St. Kilda a nature reserve. In 1986 St. Kilda became a Unesco World Heritage Site.
In recent years the National Trust for Scotland has restored some of the houses, the church and the school for accommodation and education on the life of St Kilda. Tourism has been encouraged in so far as it does not conflict with preserving the flora, fauna and wild life of the St Kilda Islands.

St. Kilda Bird Life

Twenty species of birds are breeding at St. Kilda, with over a million birds sitting on about 300.000 nests. A quarter of all the Northern Gannets on the Northern Atlantic, about 60.000 pair, are breeding on Boreray and the Stacks.
Atlantic Puffin are the most common seabird in the archipelago; there were once millions of pairs but a declining fish population has dramatically reduced there number.
St Kilda has its own unique St. Kilda Wren, with a slightly bigger beak and a different song; it is estimated that there are 250 breeding pairs and a major sighting for any ornithologist or amateur bird watchers.