Cleit 85, Village. View of door.

Description Cleit 85, Village. View of door.

Date 1986 to 1986

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number B 11165

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 793993

Scope and Content Doorway of Cleit 85, St Kilda Village, Western Isles This is the doorway of one of the drystone cellular buildings known as 'cleitean' or 'cleits'. The door is made of wood, possibly driftwood as St Kilda is treeless. The door is attached to a piece of wood, which is itself attached to wood which has been fixed into the stone wall. There is a wooden bar to hold the door shut. There was no tradition of farm buildings near the dwelling houses in St Kilda, and that was why cleitean were required for storage. Until the 1860s, the cattle shared the dwelling houses with humans, the two sections of the house being divided by a low wall. The St Kilda group of islands consists of Hirte (often known as St Kilda), Soay, Dun and Boreray. The islands are situated 64km to the west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, and are one of the remotest areas in Britain. The largest island, Hirte, is approximately 1,575 acres in extent. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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