History of St. Kilda

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Elise Schokker

St. Kilda is an archipelago in the Atlantic ocean; a group of small island about 60 km west of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, of which the most important are Hirta, Soay, Dun en Boreray. The archipelago is of vulcanic origin.

The archipelago

The location of St. Kilda 

St. Kilda is being managed by the National Trust of Scotland, the Scots Natural heritage and the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Hirta is the largest island. On Hirta is a radarstation of the army. 

map of "Village Bay" on Hirta, from: Buildings of St. Kilda

Nowadays, St. Kilda is a birdsanctuary and has got the status of UNESCO Worldheritage, as well because of its cultural as of its natural value. 

Earliest inhabitants

Possibly St. Kilda was already inhabitat about 4000 to 5000 years ago in the Neolitic era. 

Later Celtic groups came to the islands and also the Vikings visited the islands and left their marks. The language on St.Kilda was Scottish-Gaelic with Nordic influence.

Sources about life on St. Kilda

The earliest accounts about life on St. Kilda date from the middle of the 16th century. 
In the 18th and 19th century, the island was visited by missionaries, clergy and schoolmasters. They described the life of the inhabitants of the isles.
The isolation of the inhabitants from the rest of the world was extreme, not only in a physical sense, but also in knowledge about the rest of the world.

Cottage on the Outer Hebrides (not on St. Kilda)

The familie MacLeod of Dunvegan on Skye was the owner of the islands. This MacLeod visited the islands every year to bring seed corn and salt. The inhabitants of St. Kilda paid with birdfeathers and woven flannel; a fabric of wool.

Way of life

People on Hirta had some cows and a lot of sheep. The sheep on Hirta were held for their milk and meat. The Soaysheep on the isle of Soay is a small primitive sheep, possibly brought to Soay by the Norsemen. The St. Kildans only used them for their wool. 

Farmgrounds on St. Kilda were separated in strips; "rigs" of "rips". Every year the distribution of these rigs changed among the peasants. This system is known as "runrig" in Scotland, and aims for a more fair allocation of the best farminggrounds among the peasants. 

The most grown crop on Hirta was barley, and sometimes oat. Despite the fertile grounds on Hirta there were many crop failures, due to the bad weather on St. Kilda. 

But the reason why people succeeded to survive on St. Kilda for a few thousand year is due to the huge amount of birds on the rocks of the archipelago. 

Gannet

The four most important birdspecies for the survival of the inhabitants of St. Kilda are the Gannet, the fulmar, the puffin and the guillemot. 

All species were eaten, exept for the eggs of the fulmar (they only lay once in the season), all eggs were gathered and eaten. Young Gannets were plucked for dow and feathers and cooked for the fat that was used as fuel. Fulmars also provided oil for lamps and ointments for various ailments. The bones of the birds were used for pipes.

The end of habitation on St. Kilda

Since the 19th century small numbers of tourists started to visit St. Kilda. The extreme isolation of the population was being broken and the St. Kildans became aware of a (better) live elsewhere.
The population on St. Kilda had always hovered around 80 souls, but from 1920 on the number of people decreased. Eventually in 1930 the remaining 39 inhabitants of the islands left the islands.

The family MacLeod sold the islands in 1932 to an ornithologist, who left it after his death to the National Trust van Schotland.