Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 567033
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/567033
ST. KILDA The St. Kilda archipelago - four islands with attendant sea stacs - looms up on the Atlantic horizon 41 miles west of North Uist. Their jagged, volcanic forms and towering cliffs create a backdrop of breathtaking drama for a landscape of exceptional cultural and ecological significance. St. Kilda is the remotest of the outlying Hebridean islands, but it is also the best documented. It has been described in literature, poetry and visitors' accounts for many centuries, and is the subject of considerable research and a unique photographic archive. The islanders lived off fulmars, gannets and puffins, harvesting the seabirds for their oil, flesh, eggs and feathers, and paying the proceeds of their remarkable fowling skills to the Macleod landlords in lieu of rent. Everything was jointly owned and the community governed itself through a 'parliament', which met daily to decide what work was to be done. Archaeological evidence suggests that St. Kilda has been almost continuously occupied for 4,000 years. Early Bronze Age burial mounds, an Iron Age souterrain and house remains, Viking finds, remnants of medieval structures, cultivation and three early chapel sites, have all been recorded. The population reached nearly 200 in the late 17th century, but it was vulnerable to disease brought by visiting ships, such as the smallpox epidemic of 1724 , and after 1850 numbers never exceeded 70. Early on, St. Kilda became a popular curiosity for tourists - the first boatload arrived in 1834 - and the islanders began to rely on outside commodities and communications, and on money paid to them for souvenirs. Increasingly, their independence was threatened and the livelihood of this isolated community became unsustainable; further damage was done to ancient traditions by the puritanical regime imposed by incoming clergymen. The story of the evacuation of St. Kilda in 1930, when the last 36 remaining inhabitants finally departed at their own request, is well known. A year later, the island group was bought by the future 5th Marquess of Bute, who bequeathed it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1957, the year the radar tracking station was established. The archipelago is now, among many other designations, a World Heritage Site and a National Nature Reserve. Indeed, it is probably true to say that Britain's remotest outpost is more strongly protected than any other part of the British Isles.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
