St Kilda
 

The 80th anniversary of the evacuation of St Kilda has just taken place. I don't for a moment blame the inhabitants for giving up on such a marginal existence - they had to live on seabirds and whatever crops they could grow.

As a soldier I had a couple of spells out there and it really is something else. The main island has cliffs of 1300 feet and I've stood at the top and thrown a largish rock which I've lost sight of long before it hit the sea below. And on the west side of Village Bay is a spine of rock averaging about 250 feet and peaking at 720 feet. In a good westerly I've seen the spray, coming from waves building up all the way across the Atlantic, coming clear over the top!

We once had a Spanish fisherman dumped on us for an injured hand who then comitted suicide by jumping off an 850 foot cliff from an overhanging rock which used to be a test for young St Kildans to stand on and bend and touch their toes to prove they were capable of hanging on ropes and netting seabirds for a living. I went down with the RAF Mountain Rescue Team which we called in to recover him. He'd made a very large dent in the turf when he hit it and the gulls/ravens had already had their share of him. I didn't have a lot of breakfast that morning...

The National Trust, in those days, used to run a small cruise ship up the west coast of Scotland once a year visiting various gardens/estates and with ultimate jewel, a call in at St Kilda. In my time, the soldiers caught a couple of dozen St Kilda mice (bigger and tamer than our normal UK house mice) and dipped their feet in cochineal. The National Trust visitors were enthralled photographing pink-footed St Kilda mice as a totally unique species. The National Trust were not amused!

But be assured, St Kilda, 40 miles out further into the north Atlantic than all the rest of UK, is big stern country, not to be messed with or romanticised. And in those days did they ever even have a bath? The mind boggles!

Tony.

Looks as rugged as you describe it. Maybe that's a reason primitive settlements survive there (no development).

Have you ever been to Skara Brae? They have impressive settlements over 5000 yrs old surviving there

Oh Dear! Is this perhaps the most boring thread that's ever been posted on the site? Quite a few views but only one response (from the ever-faithful Jack). I'm obviously a good bit out of touch with today's world - but I can promise you all that even a brief spell in an environment such as Kilda would clarify a lot of modern minds, spoiled by a land of plenty ...

Tony.

It sounds very isolated.
I for one have had a very isolated life even in the midst of a city.
It's all relative.

Sounds a tad chilly too!

I can't 'do' cold, rugged and lonely. Not because I'm 'spoiled', but because my body isn't built for such things. I guess people that lived there kind of evolved to cope with it better though. If it was survival of the fittest, I wouldn't have lasted long...

I definitely think you hit the nail on the head when you said it shouldn't be romanticised. My knowledge of St Kilda and its inhabitants isn't great, but they lived an incredibly harsh life there. The thought if that existence actually makes me feel quite sad.

Tony you ever see this tidal power device being set up in Eday, Orkney?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-10942856