St Kilda, Scotland

St Kilda (; ) is an archipelago situated 64 kilometres west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. Uninhabited since the local population was evacuated in 1930, the group of islands continues to be administratively a part of Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland. Only Rockall is further away from the Scottish mainland.

The entire archipelago is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The St Kilda World Heritage Site covers a total area of 225 km² including the land and sea. The land area is 8.546 km². It is one of Scotland's four World Heritage Sites, the others being Old Town and New Town of Edinburgh; Skara Brae in Orkney; and New Lanark in South Lanarkshire.

Origin of its name

The name St Kilda is believed to be derived from the Norse word skildir, meaning "shields". One suggestion is that a mark on an early map made the Norse word "Skilda" look like "S.kilda" and a previously unknown saint was created.

Geography

The geography of the islands is the result of a massive volcano explosion. Hirta is the largest island in the group, followed by Soay, two kilometres northwest of Hirta; and Boreray, six kilometres northeast of Hirta. There are several smaller islets including Dun, Levinish, Stac Lee and Stac an Armin. St Kilda's only settlement was Village Bay (Scottish Gaelic: Bàgh a' Bhaile) on Hirta.

The St Kilda archipelago is also the site of what many consider the most spectacular sea cliffs in the British Isles. The highest point in the archipelago is Conachair at 430 metres. The whole north face of Conachair is a vertical cliff over 300 metres high, falling sheer into the sea. Boreray reaches 384 metres and Soay 378 metres. These constitute the highest sea cliffs in the UK.

In addition to these, there are several offshore stacks, vertical pillars of rock. The tallest, Stac An Armin, is 196 metres high; another, Stac Lee, is 172 metres.

History

St Kilda had been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times, but the population dwindled with emigration to the United States and Australia. Moreover, between 1830 and 1843 eighty percent of the children died in infancy from tetanus as a result of bad midwifery practice. Such deaths continued, albeit at a lesser pace, until 1891, by which time the population had declined to such a level that the archipelago's economy collapsed. Food shortages were recorded in 1912 and an outbreak of influenza in 1913. On 29 August 1930, the last 36 inhabitants, most of whom had lived in 'The Village', were evacuated to the Scottish mainland at their own request.

The islands were purchased in 1931 by Lord Dumfries (later 5th Marquess of Bute), who on his death in 1956 bequeathed them to the National Trust for Scotland. The renovation and conservation of the village has continued since 1994 under the auspices of the Trust.

There are no permanent residents today, but the main island of Hirta is occupied all year round by people working in the military base there – now almost all civilians – and by scientists carrying out research on the feral Soay sheep population. The military base is part of the Hebrides missile tracking range based in Benbecula, where test firings and flights are carried out. The Ministry of Defence leases St Kilda from the National Trust for Scotland for a nominal fee.

The archipelago was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and this status was extended to the surrounding marine environment in 2003. In July 2005 it was awarded mixed or dual World Heritage Site Status for both natural and cultural significance. It is a breeding ground for many important seabird species including gannets, of which it has the world's largest colony; puffins; and Leach's Petrels. The small island of Dun is home to the largest colony of fulmars in Britain. There is also a variety of wren, Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis, endemic to St Kilda.

There are at least three WWII aircraft crash sites - one near the "Amazon" settlement and one on the south coast of Soay. Pieces of aluminium buried in the soil regularly surface.

Notes

In 1937, after reading of the St Kilda evacuation, Michael Powell made the film The Edge of the World about the dangers of island depopulation. It was shot, however, not on St Kilda but on Foula, one of the Shetland Islands.

In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, St Kilda was named as the 9th greatest natural wonder in the British Isles.

External links

St Kilda website by the National Trust for Scotland.
St Kilda on culturehebrides.com.
St Kilda on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites, with datasheets wcmc.org.uk, unep-wcmc.org.
Revised Nomination of St Kilda for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List from the Scottish Executive.