St Kilda, Scotland

This article is about the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda. For other uses, see Saint Kilda (disambiguation).

Scottish Island of St Kilda
Location
OS grid reference:	NF095995
Names
Gaelic or Celtic name:	Hirta or Hiort
Norse name:	possibly Skildir
Meaning of name:	possibly Gaelic for 'westland'.
Area and Summit
Area:	854.6 ha
Area rank if >40 ha:	64 (Hirta only at 670 ha)
Highest elevation:	Conachair 430 m
Population
Population:	Uninhabited since 1930
Population rank:	0 out of 89
Main settlement:	The Village
Administrative Groupings
Local Authority:	Na h-Eileanan Siar
Former county:	Inverness-shire
Scottish Parliament:	Western Isles
UK Parliament:	Na h-Eileanan an Iar
Police force:	Northern Constabulary
Lieutenancy:	Western Isles
Constituent country:	Scotland
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
File:McdonaldBoat.jpg
References:

57°49′N 8°34′W

St Kilda (Scottish Gaelic: Hirta or Hiort) is an isolated archipelago situated 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. The largest island is Hirta whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom. The Gaelic-speaking population probably never exceeded 180 in number and was never more than 100 after 1851. Although St Kilda was permanently inhabited for at least two millennia and had a unique way of life, the local population was evacuated in 1930. The islands continue to be administratively a part of the Western Isles of Scotland.

They are a breeding ground for many important seabird species including Northern Gannets, Leach's Petrels, Atlantic Puffins, and Northern Fulmars. The St Kilda Wren and St Kilda Field Mouse are endemic sub-species.

The entire archipelago is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and became one of Scotland's four World Heritage Sites in 1986, and is one of the few in the world to hold joint status for its 'natural', 'marine' and 'cultural' qualities.

Parties of volunteers work on the islands in the summer months to restore the numerous and unique ruined buildings the native St Kildans left behind. They share the island with a small military base which was created in 1957.

Origin of names

There is no known saint by the name of Kilda, and various theories have been proposed for the word's origin. Martin Martin, who visited in 1697, believed that the name "is taken from one Kilder, who lived here; and from him the large well Toubir-Kilda has also its name". Maclean (1972) suggests it may come from a corruption of the Old Norse name for the spring on Hirta, Tobar Childa, and states that a 1588 map identifies the archipelago as Kilda. He also speculates that it may be a corruption of Culdee the name for anchorites who may (or may not) have brought Christianity to the island, or a corruption of the Gaelic name, the islanders tending to pronounce ‘r’ as ‘l’ and thus habitually referring to the island as Hilta. Steel (1988) further suggests that the islanders pronounced the 'H' with a "somewhat guttural quality" making the sound they used for 'Hirta' "almost" 'Kilta'.

Haswell-Smith (2004) notes that the full name St Kilda first appears on a Dutch map of 1666 and that it may have been derived from Old Norse sunt kelda meaning sweet wellwater or from the Dutch assuming that Tobar Childa (Scots Gaelic; well of childa) was dedicated to a saint. Maclean also suggests that the Dutch may have simply made a cartographical error and confused Hirta with Skildar, the old name for an island much nearer the west coast of the Outer Hebrides.

Quine (2000) suggests that it is derived from a series of cartographical errors commencing with the use of the Old Icelandic Skildir meaning 'shields' and appearing as 'Skildar' on a map by Nicholas de Nicolay published in 1583. This, so the theory goes, was then transcribed in error by Lucas J. Waghenear in his 1592 charts without the trailing 'r' and with a period after the 'S', so creating 'S.Kilda' This was then in turn assumed to stand for a saint by others, so creating the form that has been in use for several centuries, 'St Kilda'.

The origin of 'Hirta' is similarly open to interpretation. Martin (1703) avers that "Hirta is taken from the Irish Ier, which in that language signifies west". Maclean offers several options including an (unspecified) Celtic word meaning gloom or death, or the Scots Gaelic h-Iar-Tir meaning westland. Drawing on an Icelandic saga describing an early 13th century voyage to Ireland which mentions a visit to the islands of Hirtir, he also speculates that the shape of Hirta resembles a stag, Hirtir being the Old Norse for stags. Steel (1998) quotes the belief of Reverend Neil Mackenzie who lived there from 1829 to 1844 that the name derived from the Gaelic I-Ard (English: 'high island') and a further possibility that it is from the Old Norse Hirt, meaning 'shepherd'. In a similar vein Murray (1966) speculates that the Norse Hirdö, pronounced 'Hirtha' and meaning 'herd island' may be the origin.

Geography

A cleit above Village Bay

The geology of the islands is comprised of Tertiary igneous formations of granites and gabbro, heavily weathered by the elements. The archipelago represents the remnants of a long extinct ring volcano rising from a seabed plateau approximately 40 m below sea level. Hirta is the largest island in the group, followed by Soay, (English: sheep island) half a kilometre (0.3 mi) northwest of Hirta; and Boreray, (the fortified isle) six kilometres (3.6 mi) northeast of Hirta. There are several smaller islets and stacks including Stac an Armin (warrior's stack), Stac Lee (blue stack) and Levenish (stream or torrent). The island of Dùn (fort), which protects Village Bay from the prevailing south-westerly winds, was at one time joined to Hirta by a natural arch. MacLean (1972) suggests that the arch was broken when struck by a galleon fleeing the defeat of the Armada, but other sources, such as Mitchell (1992), provide the more credible (if less romantic) explanation that the arch was simply swept away by one of the many fierce storms which batter the islands every winter.

The highest point in the archipelago is on Hirta - Conachair (the beacon) at 430 metres (1,400 ft), which lies immediately north of the village. In the south east is Oiseval (east fell) which reaches 290 metres (950 ft), and Mullach Mor (big hill summit) 361 metres (1,185 ft) is due west of Conachair. Ruival (red fell) 137 metres (449 ft) and Mullach Bi (pillar summit) 358 metres (1,192 ft) dominate the western cliffs. Boreray reaches 384 metres (1,260 ft) and Soay 378 metres (1,240 ft). The extraordinary Stac an Armin reaches 196 metres (643 ft), and Stac Lee, 172 metres (564 ft) making them the highest sea stacks in Britain.

In modern times St Kilda's only settlement was at Village Bay (Scottish Gaelic: Bàgh a' Bhaile) on Hirta, although Gleann Mor on the north coast of Hirta and Boreray also contain the remains of earlier habitations. The sea approach to Hirta into Village Bay suggests a small settlement flanked by high rolling hills in a semi-circle behind it. This is however misleading. The whole north face of Conachair is a vertical cliff up to 427 metres (1,400 ft) high, falling sheer into the sea, and these constitute the highest sea cliffs in the UK.

Indeed, the archipelago is the site of what many consider the most spectacular sea cliffs in the British Isles, one writer suggesting that St Kilda:

is a mad, imperfect God's hoard of all unnecessary lavish landscape luxuries he ever devised in his madness. These he has scattered at random in Atlantic isolation 100 miles from the corrupting influences of the mainland, 40 miles west of the westmost Western Isles. He has kept for himself only the best pieces and woven around them a plot as evidence of his madness.

Although 64 km (40 miles) from the nearest land, St Kilda is visible from as far away as the summit ridges of the Skye Cuillin, some 129 km (80 miles) distant.

The climate is oceanic with high levels of rainfall (1,400 mm or 55 in) and humidity. Temperatures are generally cool averaging 5.6°C in January and 11.8°C in July. The prevailing winds, which are especially strong in winter, are southerly and south-westerly. Wind speeds average 13 kph (7 knots) for approximately 85% of the time and over 24 kph (17 knots) for more than 30% of the time. Gale force winds occur for under 2% of the total time in any one year, but gusts of 185 kph (115 mph) and more regularly occur on the high tops. The tidal range is 2.9 m (9.5 ft) and ocean swells of 5 m (16.4 ft) frequently occur, which can make landings difficult or impossible at any time of year.

Fauna and flora

Soay sheep on St Kilda

St. Kilda is a breeding ground for many important seabird species including Northern Gannets, of which it has the world's largest colony, with 30,000 pairs, amounting to 24% of the world population. There are 49,000 breeding pairs of Leach's Petrels, which is up to 90% of the European population. There are 136,000 pairs of Atlantic Puffins, about 30% of the UK total breeding population, and there are 67,000 Northern Fulmar pairs, about 13% of the UK total. The small island of Dùn is home to the largest colony of fulmars in Britain. Prior to 1828 St Kilda was their only UK breeding ground but they have since spread and established colonies elsewhere such as at Fowlsheugh. The last Great Auk seen in Britain was killed on Stac an Armin in July 1840.

There are also two animal taxa which are unique to St Kilda: a subspecies of wren, Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis, and a subspecies of mouse known as the St Kilda Field Mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis. The third taxon endemic for St Kilda, a subspecies of mouse - Mus musculus muralis vanished completely after the evacuation of human inhabitants, as it was strictly associated with settlements and buildings.

The St Kildans kept up to 2,000 sheep which were removed at the time of the evacuation, but a herd of 107 indigenous Soay sheep were transferred onto Hirta from Soay and now live wild. Numbers now vary from 600 to 1,700 on Hirta and 200 remain on Soay. The sheep remaining on Boreray are a Blackface/Old Scottish Shortwool cross with no wool on the face or lower legs but a thicker fleece than the Soay breed.

The archipelago's isolation has also resulted in a lack of bio-diversity. Only 58 species of butterfly and moth occur on the islands compared to 367 recorded on the Western Isles. Plant life is heavily influenced by the salt spray, strong winds and acidic peaty soils. There are no trees at all, although there are more than 130 different flowering plants, 162 species of fungi, 160 bryophytes and several rarities amongst the 194 lichen species. Kelp thrives in the surrounding seas, which also contain a diversity of unusual marine invertebrates.

Way of life

The predominant theme of life on St Kilda was isolation. When Martin Martin visited the islands in 1697, the only means of making the journey was by open longboat, which could take several days and nights of rowing and sailing across the open ocean and was all but impossible outside of the spring and summer months. In all seasons forty foot waves lashed the beach of Village Bay and even on calmer days landings onto the slippery rocks could be hazardous. To provide but one example, after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, it was rumoured that Prince Charles Edward Stuart and some of his senior Jacobite aides had escaped to St Kilda. An expedition was launched and in due course British soldiers were ferried ashore to Hirta. They found a deserted village as the St Kildans, fearing pirates, had fled to caves in the slopes to the west. When they were persuaded to come down the soldiers discovered that not only were the natives ignorant as to the existence of the Young Pretender, but that they had never previously heard of King George either.

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica). Seabirds were the mainstay of the St Kildan diet

Even in the late nineteenth century the only methods the islanders had of communicating with the rest of the world in an emergency were by lighting a bonfire on the summit of Conachair, and hoping a passing ship might see it, or by the St Kilda mailboat. This idea was the invention of John Sands who was visiting in 1877. During his stay a shipwreck left nine Austrian sailors marooned there and by February supplies were running low. Sands attached a message to a lifebuoy salvaged form the Peti Dubrovacki and threw it into the sea. Nine days later it was picked up on the Orkney island of Birsay and a rescue was duly arranged. The St Kildans built on this idea and fashioned a piece of wood into the shape of a boat and placed a small bottle or tin containing a message within it. It was launched when the wind came from the northwest and two thirds of the messages were later found on the west coast of Scotland or, less conveniently, in Norway.

Another significant feature of St Kildan life was the diet. The islanders kept sheep and a few cattle, and were able to grow a limited amount of food crops such as barley, corn and potatoes on the better drained land in Village Bay. They eschewed fishing due to the heavy seas and unpredictable weather. The mainstay of their food supplies was the profusion of island birds, especially gannet and fulmar. These they harvested as eggs and young birds and ate both fresh and cured. Adult puffins were also caught by the use of fowling rods. However, this feature of island life came at a price. When Henry Brougham visited in 1799 he noted that "the air is infected by a stench almost insupportable - a compound of rotten fish, filth of all sorts and stinking sea-fowl". An excavation of the Taigh an T-Sithiche (see below) in 1877 by Sands unearthed the remains of gannet, sheep, cattle and limpets amidst various stone tools. The building is between 1,700 and 2,500 years old, which suggests that the St Kildan diet had changed little over the millennia. Indeed the tools were recognised by the St Kildans, who could put names to them as similar devices were still in use.

These fowling activities involved considerable skills in climbing, especially on the precipitous sea stacks. An important island tradition involved the 'Mistress Stone', a door- shaped opening in the rocks north-west of Ruival over-hanging a gully. Young men of the island had to undertake a ritual there to prove themselves on the crags and worthy of taking a wife.

The Mistress Stone

In the face of the rock, south from the town, is the famous stone, known by the name of the mistress-stone; it resembles a door exactly; and is in the very front of this rock, which is twenty or thirty fathom perpendicular in height, the figure of it being discernable about the distance of a mile; upon the lintel of this door, every bachelor-wooer is by an ancient custom obliged in honour to give a specimen of his affection for the love of his mistress, and it is thus; he is to stand on his left foot, having the one half of his sole over the rock, and then he draws the right foot further out to the left, and in this posture bowing, he puts both his fists further out to the right foot; and then after he has performed this, he has acquired no small reputation, being always after it accounted worthy of the finest mistress in the world: they firmly believe that this achievement is always attended with the desired success. This being the custom of the place, one of the inhabitants very gravely desired me to let him know the time limited by me for trying of this piece of gallantry before I design’d to leave the place, that he might attend me; I told him this performance would have a quite contrary effect upon me, by robbing me both of my life and mistress at the same moment.

Another important aspect of St Kildan life was the daily 'Parliament'. This was a meeting held in the street every morning after prayers attended by all the adult males during the course of which they would decide upon the day's activities. There was no leader of any kind and all had the right to speak. 'Discussion frequently spread discord, but never in recorded history were feuds so bitter as to bring about a permanent division in the community'.

Whatever the privations, the St Kildans were fortunate in some respects for their isolation spared them some of the evils of life elsewhere. Martin noted in 1697 that the citizens seemed 'happier than the generality of mankind as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty' and in the nineteenth century their health and well being was contrasted favourably with conditions elsewhere in the Hebrides. No resident St Kildan is known to have fought in a war, and in four centuries of history, no crime was recorded there.

History

14th to 17th century

St Kilda was continuously inhabited for two millennia or more, from the Bronze Age to the 20th century. However, little is known of the early history, the first written record of which dates from the late 14th century when John of Fordun mentions 'the isle of Irte, which is agreed to be under the Circius and on the margins of the world'. The islands were historically part of the domain of the MacLeods of Harris whose steward was responsible for the collection of rents in kind and other duties. The first report of a visit to the islands dates from 1549 when Donald Munro suggested that:

The inhabitants thereof ar simple poor people, scarce learnit in aney religion, but M’Cloyd of Herray, his stewart, or he quhom he deputs in sic offfice, sailes anes in the zear ther at midsummer, with some chaplaine to baptize bairnes ther.

The chaplain's best efforts notwithstanding, the islander's isolation and dependence on the bounty of the natural world meant their philosophy bore as much relationship to Druidism as it did to Christianity until the arrival of Rev John MacDonald in 1822. For example, Macauley (1764) reports the existence of five druidic altars including a large circle of stones fixed perpendicularly in the ground, by the Stallir House on Boreray.

At the time of Martin's visit in 1697 the population was 180 and the steward:

elected the most "meagre" among his friends in the neighbouring islands, to that number and took them periodically to St. Kilda to enjoy the nourishing and plentiful, if primitive, fare of the island, and so be restored to their wonted health and strength.

Religion and tourism in the 18th and 19th centuries

However, visiting ships in the 18th century brought cholera and smallpox and in 1727 the loss of life was so high that there were not enough men to man the boats and new families were brought in from Harris to replace them. By 1758 the population had risen to 88 and reached just under 100 by the end of the century. This figure remained fairly constant from the 18th century on until 1851 when 36 islanders emigrated to Australia on board the Priscilla, a loss from which the island never fully recovered.

One factor in the decline was the influence of religion. A missionary called Alexander Buchan came to St Kilda in 1705, but despite a lengthy stay there the idea of organised religion did not seem to take hold. This changed when Rev John MacDonald, the 'Apostle of the North' arrived in 1822. He set about his mission with zeal, preaching thirteen lengthy sermons during his first eleven days there. He returned regularly and fund-raised on behalf of the St Kildans, although privately he was appalled by their lack of religious knowledge. The islanders took to him with enthusiasm and wept when he left for the last time eight years later. His successor, who arrived on 3 July 1830 was Rev Neil Mackenzie, a resident Church of Scotland minister who greatly improved the conditions of the inhabitants. He re-organised island agriculture, was instrumental in the rebuilding of the village (see below) and supervised the building of a new church and manse. With help from the Gaelic School Society, MacKenzie and his wife introduced formal education to Hirta, beginning a daily school to teach reading, writing and arithmetic and a Sunday school for religious education.

Mackenzie left in 1844 and although he had clearly achieved a great deal, the weakness of the St Kildan's dependence on an external authority was exposed in 1865 with the arrival of Rev John Mackay, a minister in the new Free Church of Scotland. Mackay was a religious zealot who may have done more than any single individual to destroy the St Kildan way of life. He introduced a routine of three two to three hour services on Sunday at which attendance was effectively compulsory. One visitor noted in 1875 that:

The Sabbath was a day of intolerable gloom. At the clink of the bell the whole flock hurry to Church with sorrowful looks and eyes bent upon the ground. It is considered sinful to look to the right or to the left.

The excessive time spent in religious gatherings began to interfere seriously with the practical routines of running the island. Old ladies and children who made a noise in church were lectured at length and warned of the dire punishments they could expect in the afterworld. During a period of food shortages on the island a relief vessel arrived on a Saturday only to be informed by the minister that the islanders had to spend the day preparing for church on the Sabbath and it was Monday before any supplies were landed. Children were forbidden to play games and required to carry a bible wherever they went. The St Kildans endured Mackay for twenty four years.

Stac Lee, St Kilda.

Tourism had a different but similarly de-stabilising impact on St Kilda. During the 19th century steamers began to visit Hirta, enabling the islanders to earn money from the sale of tweeds and bird's eggs but at the expense of their self-esteem as the tourists clearly regarded them as curiosities. The boats also brought other previously unknown diseases, especially tetanus infantum which resulted in infant mortality rates as high as 80% during the late nineteenth century. The cnatan na gall or boat-cough became a regular feature of life.

By the turn of the 20th century formal schooling had become a feature of the islands and in 1906 the church was extended to make a schoolhouse. The children all now learned English in addition to their native Gaelic. Improved midwifery skills, denied to the island by Reverend Mackay, reduced the problems of childhood tetanus. There had been some talk of an evacuation in 1875 during MacKay's period of tenure, but despite occasional food shortages and flu epidemic in 1913 the population was stable at between 75 and 80 and there was no obvious sign that within a few years the millennia old occupation of the island was to end.

World War One

Early in the 'Great War' the Royal Navy erected a signal station on Hirta and daily communications with the mainland were established for the first time in St Kilda's history. In a belated response a German submarine arrived in Village Bay on the morning of 15 May 1918 and after issuing a warning, started shelling the island. Seventy two shells in all were fired and the wireless station was destroyed. The manse, church and jetty storehouse were also damaged but there was no loss of life. One eye-witness recalled

It wasn't what you would call a bad submarine because it could have blowed every house down because they were all in a row there. He only wanted Admiralty property. One lamb was killed… all the cattle ran from one side of the island to the other when they heard the shots.

As a result of this attack a Mark II QF gun was erected on a promontory overlooking Village Bay, but it was never fired in anger. Of greater long-term significance to the islanders was the introduction of regular contact with the outside world and the slow development of a money-based economy, both of which made life easier, but less self-reliant. These were both factors in the evacuation of the island only a little more than a decade later.

Evacuation

Boreray, Stac Lee, and Stac an Armin (left) from the heights of Conachair

There were thus numerous reasons for the evacuation. The islands had existed for centuries with only fleeting contacts with the rest of the world. The advent of tourism and the presence of the military in World War One had enabled the islanders to understand that there were alternatives to the privations they had routinely suffered. Despite the provision of a small jetty in 1902 the islands remained at the mercy of the weather. The authorities were unable to do much to assist them, although reliable radios and other infrastructure denied to the civilian islanders were later to be provided for the military base at a cost of millions of pounds.

After World War one most of the young men left the island and the population fell from 73 in 1920 to 37 in 1928. After the death of four men from influenza in 1926, and a succession of crop failures in the 1920s, the last straw came with the death from appendicitis of a young woman, Mary Gillies, in January 1930. On 29 August 1930, the last 36 inhabitants were evacuated to Morvern on the Scottish mainland at their own request.

The morning of the evacuation promised a perfect day. The sun rose out of a calm and sparkling sea and warmed the impressive cliffs of Oiseval….Observing tradition the islanders left an open Bible and a small pile of oats in each house, locked all the doors and at 7 a.m. boarded the Harebell… They were reported to have stayed cheerful throughout the operation. But as the long antler of Dun fell back onto the horizon and the familiar outline of the island grew faint, the severing of an ancient tie became a reality and the St Kildans gave way to tears.

The islands were purchased in 1931 by Lord Dumfries (later 5th Marquess of Bute), from Sir Reginald MacLeod and for the next twenty six years the island experienced quietude, save for the occasional summer visit from a returning St Kildan family.

Later military events

The islands took no active part in World War II during which they were completely abandoned, but there are three aircraft crash sites from that period. A Beaufighter LX798 based at Port Ellen on Islay crashed into Conachair within 100 metres of the summit on the night of 3-4 June 1943. A year later, just before midnight on 7 June 1944, the day after D-Day, a Sunderland flying boat was wrecked at the head of Gleann Mor. There is a small plaque in the kirk dedicated to those who lost their lives in this accident. A Wellington bomber crashed on the south coast of Soay at some point in 1943. It was not until 1978 that any formal attempt was made to investigate the wreck, and its identity has not been absolutely determined. Amongst the wreckage a Royal Canadian Air Force cap badge was discovered, which suggests it may have been a flight lost on 28 September 1943.

In 1955 the British government decided to incorporate St Kilda into a missile tracking range based in Benbecula, where test firings and flights are carried out. Thus in 1957 St Kilda became permanently inhabited once again. A variety or new military buildings and masts have since been erected, including the island's first licensed premises, the 'Puff Inn'. The Ministry of Defence leases St Kilda from the National Trust for Scotland for a nominal fee. The main island of Hirta is still occupied all year round by a small number of civilians working in the military base there.

Nature conservation

St. Kilda

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Mixed: iii, v, vii, ix, x
Reference	387
Inscription	1986 (10th Session)
Extensions	2004; 2005

On his death on 14 August 1956 the Marquess of Bute's will bequeathed the archipelago to the National Trust for Scotland, provided they took up the offer within six months of his death. After much soul-searching the Executive Committee agreed to do so in January 1957, and the slow renovation and conservation of the village was begun. Much of this has been undertaken by summer volunteer work parties. There is also on-going research carried out by scientists on the feral Soay sheep population and other aspects of the natural environment. In 1957 the area was designated as a National Nature Reserve.

In 1986 the islands became the first place in Scotland to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was for its terrestrial natural features and subsequently St Kilda achieved a joint 'marine' status in 2004 for the superlative natural features, its habitats for rare and endangered species, and its internationally important population of seabirds. In 2005 St Kilda thus became one of only two-dozen global locations to be awarded World Heritage Status for both 'natural' and 'cultural' significance. The islands share this honour with internationally important sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru, Mount Athos in Greece and the Ukhahlamba/Drakensberg Park in South Africa.

The St Kilda World Heritage Site covers a total area of 24,201.4 ha (93.4 sq mi) including the land and sea. The land area is 854.6 ha (2,111.8 acres).

St Kilda is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument, a National Scenic Area, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and a European Community Special Protection Area. Visiting yachts may find some shelter in Village Bay but those wishing to land should contact the National Trust for Scotland in advance. There is concern about the introduction of non-native animal and plant species into such a fragile environment.

St Kilda's marine environment of underwater caves, arches and chasms also offers a challenging but superlative diving experience. Such is the power of the North Atlantic swell that the effects of the waves can be detected 70 metres below sea level.

Architecture

Prehistoric buildings

Ruins in Gleann Mor

The oldest structures on St Kilda are the most enigmatic. There are large sheep folds inland from the existing village at An Lag Bho'n Tuath (English: the hollow in the north) which contain curious 'boat-shaped' stone rings, or 'settings'. Soil samples suggest a date of 1850 BC but they are unique to St Kilda and their purpose is unknown. In Gleann Mor there are 20 'horned structures'; essentially ruined buildings with a main court measuring about 3 x 3 m, two or more smaller cells and a forecourt formed by two curved or horn-shaped walls. Again, there is nothing like them anywhere else in Britain or Europe and their original use is unknown. Also in Gleann Mor is Tigh na Banaghasgeich, the 'Amazon's House'. As Martin (1703) reported there are numerous St Kilda tales about this female warrior.

This Amazon is famous in their traditions: her house or dairy of stone is yet extant; some of the inhabitants dwell in it all summer, though it be some hundred years old; the whole is built of stone, without any wood, lime, earth, or mortar to cement it, and is built in form of a circle pyramid-wise towards the top, having a vent in it, the fire being always in the centre of the floor; the stones are long and thin, which supplies the defect of wood; the body of this house contains not above nine persons sitting; there are three beds or low vaults that go off the side of the wall, a pillar betwixt each bed, which contains five men apiece; at the entry to one of these low vaults is a stone standing upon one end fix’d; upon this they say she ordinarily laid her helmet; there are two stones on the other side, upon which she is reported to have laid her sword: she is said to have been much addicted to hunting, and that in her time all the space betwixt this isle and that of Harries, was one continued tract of dry land.

Similar stories of a female warrior who hunted the now submerged land between the Outer Hebrides and St Kilda are reported from Harris. The structure's forecourt is also akin to the other 'horned structures' in the immediate area but its original purpose is the stuff of legend rather than archaeological fact.

Much more is known of the unique cleitan (English: cleits) which decorate the archipelago in their hundreds. They are dome-shaped structures constructed of flat boulders with a cap of turf on the top. This enables the wind to pass through the cavities in the wall, but keeps the rain out. They were used for the storage of peat, nets, corn, preserved flesh and eggs, manure, hay and even as a shelter for lambs in winter. The date of origin of this St Kildan invention is unknown but they were in continuous use from prehistoric times until the 1930 evacuation. There are over 1,200 both ruined and intact cleitan on Hirta and a further 170 on the neighbouring islands.

House no. 16 in the modern village has an early Christian stone cross built into the front wall, which may date from the 7th century.

Medieval village

This was located near Tobar Childa about 350 metres (1,150 feet) from the shore, at the foot of the slopes of Connachair. The oldest building is an underground passage with two small annexes called Taigh an T-Sithiche (house of the faeries) which dates to between 500 BC and 300 AD. The St Kildans believed it was a house or hiding place although a more recent theory is that was an ice house.

There are extensive ruins of field walls and clietan and the remnants of a medieval 'house' with a beehive-shaped annexe. Nearby is the 'Bull's House' - a roofless rectangular structure in which the island's bull was kept during winter. Tobar Childa itself is supplied by two springs which lie just outside the Head Wall which was constructed right round the Village to prevent sheep and cattle gaining access to the cultivated areas within its boundary. There were twenty-five to thirty houses altogether. Most were Black houses of typical Hebridean design, but some older buildings were made of corbelled stone and turfed rather than thatched. The turf was used to prevent ingress of wind as well as rain, and the buildings resembled green hillocks rather than houses.

Recent structures

The Village. The Head Wall surrounds the site, with Tobar Childa top left, the nineteenth century Street at centre and the new military base to the right

The Head Wall was built in 1834 when the mediaeval village was abandoned and a new one planned between Tobar Childa and the sea some 200 metres down the slope. This came about as the result of a visit by Sir Thomas Dyke Ackland, the MP for Devon. Appalled by the primitive conditions he made a donation which ultimately resulted in the construction of a completely new settlement of 30 new blackhouses. These were further modified after several of the new dwellings were damaged by a severe gale in October 1860. 16 modern houses were then constructed amidst the blackhouses and a new Factor's house as well.

These houses were of dry stone construction with thick walls and roofed with turf. There was typically only one tiny window and a small aperture for letting out smoke from the peat fire which burnt in the middle of the room. As a result, the interiors were blackened by soot. The cattle occupied one end of the house in winter and once a year the straw from the floor was stripped out and spread on the ground.

One of the more poignant ruins on Hirta is the site of 'Lady Grange's House'. Lady Grange was married to the Jacobite sympathiser James Erskine of Grange for twenty five years, when he decided that she may have over-heard too many of his treasonable plottings. He had her kidnapped and sent to St Kilda whilst he maintained that she had died and arranged her funeral. She lived on Hirta from 1734-42 before being taken to Skye where she died after a failed rescue attempt.

Boswell and Johnson discussed the subject during their 1773 tour of the Hebrides. Boswell wrote:

After dinner to-day, we talked of the extraordinary fact of Lady Grange’s being sent to St Kilda, and confined there for several years, without any means of relief. Dr Johnson said, if M’Leod would let it be known that he had such a place for naughty ladies, he might make it a very profitable island.

In the 1860s unsuccessful attempts were made to improve the landing area by blasting rocks. A small jetty was erected in 1877 but it was washed away in a storm two years later. In 1883 representations to the Napier Commission suggested the building of a replacement but it was 1901 before the Congested Districts Board provided an engineer to enable one to be completed the following year. Nearby on the shore line are some huge boulders which were known throughout the Highlands and Islands in the nineteenth century as Doirneagan Hirt - Hirta's pebbles.

At one time there were three churches on Hirta. Christ Church, in the site of the graveyard at the centre of the Village was in use in 1697 and was the largest, but this thatched-roof structure was too small to hold the entire population, and most of the congregation had to gather in the churchyard during services. St Brendan's church lay a mile away on the slopes of Ruival, and St Columba's at the west end of the Village street, but there is now little left of any of these buildings. A new kirk and manse were erected at the east end of the village in 1830 and a Factor's house in 1860.

Buildings on other islands

Dun from Ruaival with Stac Levenish in the background at left.

Dun means 'fort' and there is but a single ruined wall of a structure said to have been built in the far-distant past by the Fir Bolg. The only 'habitation' is Sean Tigh (old house) a natural cavern sometimes used as a shelter by the St Kildans when they were tending the sheep or catching birds.

Soay has a primitive hut known as Tigh Dugan (Dugan's house). This is little more than an excavated hole under a huge stone with two rude walls on the sides. The story of its creation relates to two sheep-stealing brothers from Lewis who came to St Kilda only to cause further trouble. Dugan was exiled to Soay where he died, the other, called Fearchar Mor, to Stac an Armin where he found life so intolerable he cast himself into the sea.

Boreray boasts the Cleitean McPhaidein - a 'cleit village' and three small bothies which were used on a regular basis during fowling expeditions. There is also the ruins of Tigh Stallar (the steward's house) which was similar to the Amazon's house in Gleann Mor although somewhat larger and had six bed spaces. The local tradition was that it was built by the 'Man of the Rocks' who led a rebellion against the landlord's steward.

There are no fewer than 78 storage cleitan on Stac an Armin and a small bothy. As a result of a smallpox outbreak on Hirta in 1727 three men and eight boys were marooned here until the following May. Incredibly, there is a small bothy on the precipitous Stac Lee too, also used by fowlers.

Miscellany

Stac an Armin with Boreray to the left and Stac Lee beyond at right

In 1937, after reading of the St Kilda evacuation, Michael Powell made the film The Edge of the World about the dangers of island depopulation. It was shot, however, not on St Kilda but on Foula, one of the Shetland Islands.

In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, St Kilda was named as the 9th greatest natural wonder in the British Isles.

In 2007 an opera in Scots Gaelic called St Kilda - A European Opera about the story of the islands received funding from the Scottish Executive. It is due to be enacted over the summer solstice of 2007.

See also

• World Heritage Sites in Scotland
• Mingulay - the “near St Kilda”.

Main references

• Baxter, Colin and Crumley, Jim St Kilda: A portrait of Britain's remotest island landscape, Biggar, Colin Baxter Photography, 1988
• Haswell-Smith, Hamish The Scottish Islands, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2004.
• Keay, J. & Keay, J. Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, London, HarperCollins, 1994
• MacLean, Charles Island on the Edge of the World: the Story of St. Kilda, Canongate, 1977
• Martin, Martin - A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland and St. Kilda - Birlinn, 1994 (reissue of first written account of St. Kilda from 1697).
• Murray, W.H. The Hebrides, London, Heinemann, 1966
• Quine, David St. Kilda, Grantown-on-Spey, Colin Baxter Island Guides, 2000
• Steel, Tom The Life and Death of St. Kilda, London, Fontana, 1988

Further reading

• Buchanan, Margaret St Kilda: a Photographic Album, W. Blackwood, 1983
• Charnley, Bob Last Greetings of St. Kilda, Richard Stenlake, 1989
• Coates, Richard The Place-Names of St. Kilda, Edwin Mellen Press, 1990
• Fleming, Andrew St. Kilda and the Wider World: Tales of an Iconic Island, Windgather Press, 2005
• Gilbert, O. The Lichen Hunters. St Kilda: Lichens at the Edge of the World, The Book Guild Ltd., England, 2004
• Harman, Mary An Isle Called Hirte: History and Culture of St. Kilda to 1930, MacLean Press, 1996
• McCutcheon, Campbell St. Kilda: a Journey to the End of the World, Tempus, 2002
• Stell, Geoffrey P. & Mary Harman Buildings of St Kilda, RCAHMS, 1988

External links

• St Kilda website by the National Trust for Scotland.
• St Kilda on culturehebrides.com.
• St Kilda on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites, with datasheets wcmc.org.uk, unep-wcmc.org.
• Revised Nomination of St Kilda for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List from the Scottish Executive.
• StKilda Yahoogroup - Email list.

Photographs

• flickr.com
• Greenpeace
• webshots.com
• The Gallery at bullersofbuchan.me.uk
• Geograph British Isles
• BSAC Travel Club - St Kilda: The Holy Grail of UK Diving?
• [5] - Kearton, Richard "With Nature and a Camera." Contains photos of the island and its inhabitants in the late 19th century.