Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1018705
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018705
The St Kilda archipelago consists of the four islands of Hirta, Dun, Soay and Boreray, with associated stacks and islets; it belongs to the National Trust for Scotland and is leased to the Nature Conservancy Council as a National Nature Reserve. A small portion of Hirta is sub-let to the Ministry of Defence.
The date of the earliest settlement of the islands is not known, but it is clear from documentary evidence that there was a community living there by medieval times. There are very few structures which can definitely be attributed to any period earlier than the 19th century, and it is the village complex laid out in the 1830s which immediately impresses the visitor upon entering Village Bay. The resident minister at that time, offended by the squalid habitations of his parishioners, persuaded them to build new homes. The arable land, which had until then been divided into numerous strips that were re-allocated every three years, was pennanently apportioned in a pattern of strips radiating from the curve of the shore; the new houses were built along a street curving behind the shore and the whole was surrounded by a head-dyke. The small houses were of the blackhouse type, with the family living at one end and the cattle in the byre at the other end. In the 1860s these houses were given over entirely to cattle and storage, the families moving into new mortared buildings, which were more spacious, although in some ways less practical, for they faced the bay and therefore the worst of the weather; they also had thin walls and zinc roofs, which caused severe condensation, but after the roofs blew off tarred felt was found to be more satisfactory.
Near the rocks which were used as a landing place is a two-storey building used to store the commodities accumulated to pay the rent: tweed, oil, fish, and feathers. A little further along the shore is the manse and church, built in 1828 to plans by Robert Stevenson; a schoolroom was built onto the church in 1900. Another two-storey building was the house where the factor stayed during his annual visit to collect the rent, and in the late 19th century this house was also used by teachers and various visitors, and in this century by the district nurse. Just behind the village street is an oval walled graveyard. There is now no trace of Christ's Church, which stood here in medieval times, although a stone with a cross cut into it, presumably of medieval date, is built into the front wall of Cottage 16 at the west end of the street, and another cross fonns part of the ceiling of a cleit behind the village.
Not far from the burial ground is a short underground passage or souterrain, similar to some found in the Western Isles and on the mainland. Sherds of iron-age pottery have been found in this structure.
Behind the village and outside the head-dyke are several beehive-shaped structures. There is evidence that smaller cells were built adjacent to these, with a connecting passage. These buildings may include elements of the houses in use before 1830.
Scattered within the village and over large areas of the surrounding hills are many drystone buildings called cleits. These have parallel walls enclosing a narrow space, rounded ends, and a door at the end facing uphill or occasionally on one side. The rooflintels are covered with stones capped with earth and turf. The thick roof prevents the rain penetrating, but the air circulated between the walls, drying anything inside. These buildings were used for storage; in the village area they contained a variety of things-birds, fish, hay and turf; on the hills many still contain pieces of turf cut for fuel. Throughout their recorded history, the islanders depended to a great extent for their food on the sea birds which thronged the cliffs and slopes; the large populations of puffins, gannets and fulmars were harvested on a scale unknown elsewhere in Britain.
On the north side of the island in Gleann Mor another type of building is found-a small walled court with two or three small adjoining cells; low walls fonn a funnel-like entrance to the court There are about twenty of these structures in the floor of the Glen. Latterly they were used as shielings, although it is possible that they were originally built for another purpose. Also in Gleann Mor is the Amazon's House, a complex beehive construction, now very dilapidated. It is referred to by Martin Martin, who visited the islands in 1697, as the House of the Female Warrior-reputed to have been a princess from Hams. There are more cleits and bothies on Boreray, Soay and Stac an Armin, but it is difficult to land on these islands, and, while there was seasonal occupation on Boreray, it is very doubtful if they were ever pennanently inhabited.
The maximum recorded population was 180 at the end of the 17th century, when the islands supported a thriving community. Disease and emigration reduced the numbers until in the early 20th century there was no longer a viable population, and the islanders asked for Government assistance to be resettled. They were evacuated from the island in August 1930. Twenty seven years later the islands were given to the National Trust for Scotland, and the Ministry of Defence established a base on Hirta to track missiles fired from the rocket testing-station in South Uist and to ensure safety in the range area during firing.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Argyll and the Western Isles’, (1985).
