donderdag 31 juli 2014
Work Party Two in the Ranger's Diary
Kevin wrote a small but very nice post about our Work party in the Ranger's' Diary on the official
St. Kilda website: Goodbye Work Party Two!
zondag 27 juli 2014
What Kevin told about the history of St. Kilda
Kevin gave us a tour around the village of St. Kilda, showing us interesting places and told us something about it.
The story of the habitation of St. Kilda starts about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
According to Kevin St. Kilda was never as isolated as generally is believed. Even from the Bronze age the inhabitants must have had contact with the other isles of the Outer Hebrides. They cultivated crops and traded with them. One of the oldest artefacts Kevin shows us is an old Celtic cross; one of the oldest in the entire UK. It was found on a stone that is used as pavement near a house and hardly visible. So Christianity also reached the isles in an early stage.
In the Middle Ages the inhabitants lived primarily from the cultivation of oats, barley and rye. The exploitation of the enormous amounts of birds became important in the 19th century, when feathers and down became popular for clothes and pillows.
The stories about the harrowing poverty of the inhabitants of St. Kilda were not exaggerated, but compared with the other isles of the Outer Hebrides the St. Kildans were not bad off. The first better houses were built on St. Kilda, while some people on Harris still lived in Blackhouses until the first half of the twentieth century.
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| An underground cleith, dating from the Iron Age |
According to Kevin St. Kilda was never as isolated as generally is believed. Even from the Bronze age the inhabitants must have had contact with the other isles of the Outer Hebrides. They cultivated crops and traded with them. One of the oldest artefacts Kevin shows us is an old Celtic cross; one of the oldest in the entire UK. It was found on a stone that is used as pavement near a house and hardly visible. So Christianity also reached the isles in an early stage.
In the Middle Ages the inhabitants lived primarily from the cultivation of oats, barley and rye. The exploitation of the enormous amounts of birds became important in the 19th century, when feathers and down became popular for clothes and pillows.
The stories about the harrowing poverty of the inhabitants of St. Kilda were not exaggerated, but compared with the other isles of the Outer Hebrides the St. Kildans were not bad off. The first better houses were built on St. Kilda, while some people on Harris still lived in Blackhouses until the first half of the twentieth century.
zaterdag 19 juli 2014
Day 2; June 5th
As breakfast, morning tea, lunch, midday tea or diner is served, we ring a large bell. It is Thursday and today is our first day of work. The bell rings at eight o'clock for breakfast.
David, the leader of the workparty is responsible for the division of the work to be done.
Kevin the archeologist needs a group of people to repair the roofs of some cleiths with new sods.
Another group will repair the slates on the roof of the church, schoolhouse and the rangers' house.
I'm in the group with Kevin. First we need to remove old sods, dig out new ones and put them on the cleiths. The holes we leave by digging out the new sods need to be refilled with sand.
The weather is nice, the work not to bad and the morning teabreak soon.
After lunch we don't work, but Kevin takes us out for a tour around the old village. He has got a lot to tell in a heavy Glasgow accent and he hardly keeps his mouth shut. But his stories are interesting and they shed a different light on the usual story of St. Kilda. I will tell a bit more about that in another post.
In the meantime it has started to rain and listening to Kevin wears me out.
Evening diner and after diner chat is very nice and sociable. First sips of whiskey.
David, the leader of the workparty is responsible for the division of the work to be done.
Kevin the archeologist needs a group of people to repair the roofs of some cleiths with new sods.
Another group will repair the slates on the roof of the church, schoolhouse and the rangers' house.
I'm in the group with Kevin. First we need to remove old sods, dig out new ones and put them on the cleiths. The holes we leave by digging out the new sods need to be refilled with sand.
The weather is nice, the work not to bad and the morning teabreak soon.
After lunch we don't work, but Kevin takes us out for a tour around the old village. He has got a lot to tell in a heavy Glasgow accent and he hardly keeps his mouth shut. But his stories are interesting and they shed a different light on the usual story of St. Kilda. I will tell a bit more about that in another post.
In the meantime it has started to rain and listening to Kevin wears me out.
Evening diner and after diner chat is very nice and sociable. First sips of whiskey.
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