St Kilda, Scotland
St Kilda is a remote archipelago situated west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom; three other islands were also used for grazing and seabird hunting. The islands are administratively a part of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar local authority area.
The origin of the name St Kilda is a matter of conjecture. The islands' human heritage includes unique architectural features from the historic and prehistoric periods, although the earliest written records of island life date from the Late Middle Ages. The medieval village on Hirta was rebuilt in the 19th century, but illnesses brought by increased external contacts through tourism, and the upheaval of the First World War, contributed to the island's evacuation. Permanent habitation on the islands possibly extends back two millennia, the population probably never exceeding 180; its peak was in the late 17th century. The population waxed and waned, eventually dropping to 36 in 1930, when the remaining population was evacuated. Currently, the only year-round residents are military personnel; a variety of conservation workers, volunteers and scientists spend time there in the summer months. The entire archipelago is owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
A cleit is a stone storage hut or bothy unique to St Kilda; there are known to be 1,260 cleitean on Hirta and a further 170 on the other group islands. Two different early sheep types have survived on these remote islands: the Soay, a Neolithic type, and the Boreray, an Iron Age type. The islands are a breeding ground for many important seabird species including northern gannets, Atlantic puffins, and northern fulmars. The St Kilda wren and St Kilda field mouse are endemic subspecies.
It became one of Scotland's seven World Heritage Sites in 1986, and is one of the few in the world to hold joint status for both its natural and cultural qualities.
Origin of names
The name St Kilda, which is not used in Gaelic, is of obscure origin, as there is no saint by the name Kilda. It occurs for the first time in Thresoor der Zeevaert, a pilot book published by Lucas Waghenaer in 1592. A. B. Taylor suggests that it originated as a copying error for Skilda, a name that appears on Nicolas de Nicolay's 1583 map of Scotland, which Waghenaer used as a source. On Nicolay's map, the name denotes an island group closer to Lewis and Harris than St Kilda, possibly Haskeir, Gasker or Haskeir Eagach. Taylor notes that the latter two groups could be compared to shields lying flat upon the water, and gives the Norse word skildir as the etymon.According to another theory, advanced by William J. Watson and others, the name derives from Tobar Childa, an important well on Hirta. Childa is in fact a descendant of kelda, the Norse word for a well, but it is possible that visitors to the island mistook it as the name of a local saint. A number of other theories have been suggested in both the past and in modern times.
The origins of Hiort, and its anglicized form Hirta, which long pre-date St Kilda, are similarly obscure. Watson derives it from the Gaelic word irt, meaning "death", noting that although Alexander MacBain suggested "that the ancient Celts fancied this sunset isle to be the gate to their earthly paradise" the connection was more likely to be to the dangers of living on St Kilda, which "in the Hebrides is regarded as a penitentiary rather than a gate to paradise". It has also been said to mean "the western land", from the Gaelic h-iartìre although this theory presents difficulties. It may not be Gaelic in origin at all, but rather Norse. Taylor derives it from the Norse word hirtir, meaning "stags", on account of the islands' "jagged outlines". In support of this theory, he notes that Hirtir appears in the 13th-century Guðmundar saga biskups as a name for an island group in the Hebrides.
As with St Kilda, a number of other theories have been offered. All the names of and on the islands are discussed by Richard Coates.
Geography
The islands are composed of Tertiary igneous formations of granites and gabbro, heavily weathered by the elements. The archipelago represents the remnants of a long-extinct ring volcano rising from a seabed plateau approximately below sea level.At in extent, Hirta is the largest island in the group and comprises more than 78% of the land area of the archipelago. Next in size are Soay at and Boreray, which measures. Soay is northwest of Hirta, Boreray northeast. Smaller islets and stacks in the group include Stac an Armin, Stac Lee and Stac Levenish. The island of Dùn, which protects Village Bay from the prevailing southwesterly winds, was at one time joined to Hirta by a natural arch. MacLean suggests that the arch was broken when struck by a galleon fleeing the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but other sources, such as Mitchell and Fleming, suggest that the arch was simply swept away by one of the many fierce storms that batter the islands every winter.
The highest point in the archipelago, Conachair at, is on Hirta, immediately north of the village. In the southeast is Oiseval, which reaches, and Mullach Mòr 361 metres is due west of Conachair. Ruival and Mullach Bi dominate the western cliffs. Boreray reaches and Soay . The extraordinary Stac an Armin reaches, and Stac Lee,, making them the highest sea stacks in Britain.
In modern times, St Kilda's only settlement was at Village Bay on the east side of Hirta. Gleann Mòr on the north coast of Hirta and Boreray also contain the remains of earlier habitations. The sea approach to Hirta into Village Bay suggests a small settlement flanked by high rolling hills in a semicircle behind it. This is misleading. The whole north face of Conachair is a vertical cliff up to high, falling sheer into the sea and constituting the highest sea cliff in the UK.
The archipelago is the site of many of the most spectacular sea cliffs in the British Isles. Baxter and Crumley suggest that St Kilda: "...is a mad, imperfect God's hoard of all unnecessary lavish landscape luxuries he ever devised in his madness. These he has scattered at random in Atlantic isolation from the corrupting influences of the mainland, west of the westmost Western Isles. He has kept for himself only the best pieces and woven around them a plot as evidence of his madness."
Although from the nearest land, St Kilda is visible from as far as the summit ridges of the Skye Cuillin, some distant. The climate is oceanic with high rainfall,, and high humidity. Temperatures are generally cool, averaging in January and in July. The prevailing winds, especially strong in winter, are southerly and southwesterly. Wind speeds average approximately 85 percent of the time and more than more than 30 percent of the time. Gale-force winds occur less than two percent of the time, but gusts of and more occur regularly on the high tops, and speeds of have occasionally been recorded near sea level. The tidal range is, and ocean swells of frequently occur, which can make landings difficult or impossible at any time of year. The oceanic location protects the islands from snow, which lies for only about a dozen days per year.
The archipelago's remote location and oceanic climate are matched in the UK only by a few smaller outlying islands such as the Flannan Isles, North Rona, Sula Sgeir, and the Bishop's Isles at the southern edge of the Outer Hebrides. Administratively, St Kilda was part of the parish of Harris in the traditional county of Inverness-shire. Today it is incorporated in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar unitary authority.
History
Prehistory
It has been known for some time that St Kilda was continuously inhabited for two millennia or more, from the Bronze Age until 1930. In 2015, the first direct evidence of earlier Neolithic settlement emerged, sherds of pottery of the Hebridean ware style, found to the east of the village. The subsequent discovery of a quarry for stone tools on Mullach Sgar above Village Bay led to finds of numerous stone hoe-blades, grinders and Skaill knives in the Village Bay cleitean, unique stone storage buildings. These tools are also probably of Neolithic origin.The potsherds appear to have been made of local material, rather than material brought from other islands in the Hebrides, suggesting that the islands were settled in the 4th millennium BC. Iron Age pottery is also known. Archaeologist Alan Hunter Blair reported that "the eastern end of Village Bay on St Kilda was occupied fairly intensively during the Iron Age period, although no house structures were found".
13th to 18th centuries
The first written record of St Kilda may date from 1202 when an Icelandic cleric wrote of taking shelter on "the islands that are called Hirtir". Early reports mentioned finds of brooches, an iron sword and Danish coins, and the enduring Norse place names indicate a sustained Viking presence on Hirta, but the visible evidence has been lost. In the late 14th century John of Fordun referred to it as "the isle of Irte, which is agreed to be under the Circius and on the margins of the world". The islands were historically part of the domain of the MacLeods of Harris, whose steward was responsible for the collection of rents in kind and other duties. The first detailed report of a visit to the islands dates from 1549, when Donald Munro suggested that: "The inhabitants thereof simple poor people, scarce in religion, but M'Cloyd of Herray, his, or he he in sic office, in the at midsummer, with some chaplaine to baptize."Coll MacDonald of Colonsay raided Hirta in 1615, removing 30 sheep and a quantity of barley. Thereafter, the islands developed a reputation for abundance. At the time of Martin Martin's visit in 1697 the population was 180 and the steward travelled with a "company" of up to 60 persons to which he "elected the most 'meagre' among his friends in the neighbouring islands, to that number and took them periodically to St Kilda to enjoy the nourishing and plentiful, if primitive, fare of the island, and so be restored to their wonted health and strength."
According to Keay and Keay, until the early 19th century the islanders' "close relationship with nature had taken the ritual form of Druidism", whilst their understanding of Christianity shaped their relationships with one another: a combination of "natural devoutness and superstitious character". Macauley claimed the existence of a "druidic" circle of stones fixed perpendicularly in the ground near the Stallar House on Boreray. However, by 1875 all trace of this had gone and according to John Sands “the St Kildans seem never to have heard of it”.
Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange was held on St Kilda from 1734 to 1741. The church minister of Harris, Kenneth Macaulay, visited St Kilda in 1759 on behalf of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, and published in 1764 The History of St Kilda, containing a Description of this Remarkable Island, the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, the Religious and Pagan Antiquities there found, with many other curious and interesting particulars.
Visiting ships brought cholera and smallpox in the 18th century. In 1727, the loss of life was so high that too few residents remained to man the boats, and new families were brought in from Harris to replace them. By 1758 the population had risen to 88, and it had reached just under 100 by the end of the century. This figure remained fairly constant from the 18th century until 1852, when 36 islanders, with the help of the Highland and Island Emigration Society, emigrated to Australia on board the Priscilla; reducing the population to 70. Among the emigrants was Ewen Gillies. The laird of St Kilda, Sir John MacLeod, tried to persuade some of the group to return to the island; when they were unconvinced, he paid for their voyage to Australia. Eighteen of the 36 St Kildans died of sickness on the ship or in quarantine. The island never fully recovered from the population loss. The emigration was in part a response to the laird's closure of the church and manse for several years during the Disruption that created the Free Church of Scotland.