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The UK consists of many islands, and we've proved to be as tenacious as barnacles when it comes to inhabiting them. At the absolute extreme lies the eight small islands and stacks that make up St Kilda.
These islands are so remote and obscure that they are rarely shown on British maps. They lie out in the Atlantic, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides in one of the stormiest seas on the planet. The largest island in the group is Hirta, with a surface area of just under two square miles. They are the most forbidding islands I've ever seen- despite their tiny size they have the highest sea-cliffs in Britain, soaring up to 1400 feet dead vertically from the sea. This trend reaches it's peak in the astonishingly vertical island of Boreray, which boasts cliffs 1000 feet high despite having a surface area of less than 190 acres.
It's also one of the windiest places on the planet, with westerlies frequently hitting 130mph. Combined with the cliffs and poor natural harbours, the islands are totally inaccessible for months on end. Put bluntly, if they'd ever been used as a penal colony they'd have made Devil's Island look like Monaco.
Yet despite all this, St Kilda was continuously inhabited for 5000 years. Nominally part of Scotland, it was a strange little self-contained world that very occasionally made contact with it's bigger neighbours to the west. The largest known population was 180 on Hirta (the only inhabited island) in 1697. None spoke English- all were Gaelic-speakers- and they scratched a living from their homes. They had sheep, which they grazed on all the island. The sheep beggar belief- they are incredibly wild long-legged creatures with long horns, as sure-footed as mountain goats. Zoologists say they are practically unchanged from the sheep of Neolithic times, and they still roam the islands today.
They also had millions of seabirds. St Kildans lived on a diet of seabirds, young seabirds, and seabird's eggs, dried or smoked. Only occasionally would they have mutton or fish. Hunting their food up and down the immense cliffs made the St Kildans the most renowned climbers in Britain. Each young man seeking a wife had to prove he could feed her. To do so he had to climb 850 feet to the Lover's Stone, a small and terrifying sloping platform. Once there, he had to stand on one foot, holding his other foot in his hand. If he survived, he could marry.
Twice a year, the St Kildans would pay their rent. This meant taking a small, 2-man rowing boat and rowing across 40 miles of ocean, negotiating the whirlpools around the Hebrides, and rowing across the stormy 40 miles of The Minch to Skye. Then rowing all the way back. It's said that no St Kildan ever died in bed- they either fell or drowned.
Life on St Kilda was hard. It had the highest recorded rate of infant mortality in the entire world- 80% of babies died within 7 days of birth due to tetanus (caused by the tradition of smearing the navel in a mixture of dung and oil extracted from the crops of Fulmars).
None of the events I've described here are accounts of immense antiquity- all these practices continued through into the 19th century. However the encoachment of the modern world brought upheaval to St Kilda. At first it was benign- in 1877 the islanders were astonished by their first sight of an apple brought ashore by a sailor. By this time steamers had started visiting St Kilda, bringing tourists to gawp at the funny primitives.
War came to St Kilda for the only time in 1918 when a Royal Navy detachment was stationed there. A german U-Boat fired 72 shells at it's radio aerial, destroying the Kirk and several houses. However the real damage was done in trickles- a young man or several leaving to go to the mainland, or Australia very few years.
By 1930, only 36 St Kildans remained on Hirta, and the community could no longer support itself. The distraught and half-starved islanders were evacuated on HMS Harebell in a traumatic severance since celebrated in songs and poems. Every islander left a pile of oats and a Bible in their deserted houses, in the hope they would one day return.
They never did. Just their houses and their sheep remain to commemorate one of the most moving accounts of human endurance at the very edge of the world.
These islands are so remote and obscure that they are rarely shown on British maps. They lie out in the Atlantic, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides in one of the stormiest seas on the planet. The largest island in the group is Hirta, with a surface area of just under two square miles. They are the most forbidding islands I've ever seen- despite their tiny size they have the highest sea-cliffs in Britain, soaring up to 1400 feet dead vertically from the sea. This trend reaches it's peak in the astonishingly vertical island of Boreray, which boasts cliffs 1000 feet high despite having a surface area of less than 190 acres.
It's also one of the windiest places on the planet, with westerlies frequently hitting 130mph. Combined with the cliffs and poor natural harbours, the islands are totally inaccessible for months on end. Put bluntly, if they'd ever been used as a penal colony they'd have made Devil's Island look like Monaco.
Yet despite all this, St Kilda was continuously inhabited for 5000 years. Nominally part of Scotland, it was a strange little self-contained world that very occasionally made contact with it's bigger neighbours to the west. The largest known population was 180 on Hirta (the only inhabited island) in 1697. None spoke English- all were Gaelic-speakers- and they scratched a living from their homes. They had sheep, which they grazed on all the island. The sheep beggar belief- they are incredibly wild long-legged creatures with long horns, as sure-footed as mountain goats. Zoologists say they are practically unchanged from the sheep of Neolithic times, and they still roam the islands today.
They also had millions of seabirds. St Kildans lived on a diet of seabirds, young seabirds, and seabird's eggs, dried or smoked. Only occasionally would they have mutton or fish. Hunting their food up and down the immense cliffs made the St Kildans the most renowned climbers in Britain. Each young man seeking a wife had to prove he could feed her. To do so he had to climb 850 feet to the Lover's Stone, a small and terrifying sloping platform. Once there, he had to stand on one foot, holding his other foot in his hand. If he survived, he could marry.
Twice a year, the St Kildans would pay their rent. This meant taking a small, 2-man rowing boat and rowing across 40 miles of ocean, negotiating the whirlpools around the Hebrides, and rowing across the stormy 40 miles of The Minch to Skye. Then rowing all the way back. It's said that no St Kildan ever died in bed- they either fell or drowned.
Life on St Kilda was hard. It had the highest recorded rate of infant mortality in the entire world- 80% of babies died within 7 days of birth due to tetanus (caused by the tradition of smearing the navel in a mixture of dung and oil extracted from the crops of Fulmars).
None of the events I've described here are accounts of immense antiquity- all these practices continued through into the 19th century. However the encoachment of the modern world brought upheaval to St Kilda. At first it was benign- in 1877 the islanders were astonished by their first sight of an apple brought ashore by a sailor. By this time steamers had started visiting St Kilda, bringing tourists to gawp at the funny primitives.
War came to St Kilda for the only time in 1918 when a Royal Navy detachment was stationed there. A german U-Boat fired 72 shells at it's radio aerial, destroying the Kirk and several houses. However the real damage was done in trickles- a young man or several leaving to go to the mainland, or Australia very few years.
By 1930, only 36 St Kildans remained on Hirta, and the community could no longer support itself. The distraught and half-starved islanders were evacuated on HMS Harebell in a traumatic severance since celebrated in songs and poems. Every islander left a pile of oats and a Bible in their deserted houses, in the hope they would one day return.
They never did. Just their houses and their sheep remain to commemorate one of the most moving accounts of human endurance at the very edge of the world.
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