Fowling

As you might expect from my post of january 28th; I love birds. St. Kildans also loved birds; but in a slightly different way.
There is only one reason why  people managed to survive on St. Kilda for more than 4000 years, and that is the great number of birds on the isles.

There were four species of birds that were especially important for the survival of St. Kilda's inhabitants: gannets, northern fulmar, puffins and guillemot. All species were eaten, as well as their eggs. Except the eggs of the northern fulmar, because fulmars only lay eggs once per season. Gannets and fulmars also provided grease that was used as fuel and feathers and down for mattresses.
The fulmar was the most important bird for the St. Kildans. This bird provided very energizing meat, grease, feathers and down, as well as oil for lamps and ointments. These products were not only used by the St. Kildans, but they were also exported to the mainland until the end of the nineteenth century when alternatives for these products were found.

Consequently, fowling was an important activity on St. Kilda. Only the men were fowlers. A boy on St. Kilda would start to learn to climb on walls and rocks by the age of three or four. When he would be 10 or 11, he would start to work with the men on the cliffs, and when he was about 16 years old, he would be a professional fowler.
Of course this was a very dangerous occupation, and there must have been many fatalities.