Photos and the City

Category: Sotland

Bye Hirta – St Kilda

Back down in the village, our time on Hirta was almost over. I met some of the others and the rangers in front of the Manse and we spent the time chatting. The anniversary ladies were telling us more about their work party 50 years ago and the rangers told us about living half the year on Hirta.

The anniversary ladies and ranger Sue

Almost everyone going up the hills had encounters with the bird bullies, but at least we had some stories to tell.

Our time in Hirta was over, we went back to our boat and started a little round around the St Kilda archipelago.

The old pier while I was waiting for my turn to go back to the boat.

The two rangers waved us goodbye and maybe had some fun about our bird encounters. Regarding birds, St Kilda or the cliffs of St Kilda are home to around 1 million sea birds: Puffins, Fulmar, Gannets, Shearwater, Petrel, Kittiwake and Shags – they helped the St Kildians survive and are still breeding there today.

A gannet flying by – more to come..

Looking back on Hirta and village bay.

Soon we were surrounded by big swarms of birds – all the puffins one can imagine.

We were making our way around Hirta.

It was shortly before the end of the breeding season and the birds went back to the sea.

After a day full of calm water and sunshine, the first clouds started to set in. We were warned that the weather could change pretty quickly, we soon should be expiring that.

22/11/2022
The Gap – St Kilda

I´ve already spent quite some time in Village Bay, but I at least wanted to see a bit of St Kilda from above. There wasn´t enough time to walk up the Conachair, so I chose the shorter but quite steep walk up to the Gap, to see some of the impressive cliffs.

View of the cottages from the Factor´s house as I started to make my way up.

Walking through the many many cleits and looking back towards the row of cottages.

The first stop is a kind of plateau in the middle between the village and the cliffs:

An Lag Bho’n Tuath

There are several stone enclosures and buildings on this plateau. In the last few decades, this area of Hirta has been excavated a few times. They found the remains of cairns (burial places) and ritual areas, that were quite complex structures.

See these cleits going up the hill in a straight line, I walked up the cliffs along those.

And suddenly I was on the edge of the Gap where the cliffs drop vertically to the sea for 200 metres. I tried looking down, but didn´t manage at the end – just did a quick little peek over the edge, with a very generous distance to the cliffs.

The Gap

I staid a good 2-3 m afar from the edge, but the views were still amazing. I can´t imagine the St Kildians climbing and walking along and in these cliffs, catching the birds and collecting eggs.

Making my way back down, again along the line of cleits. The ranger had warned us that there are breeding Bonxis, the Great Skuas birds. Big brown birds, also known as bullies as they bully other birds for their food. We were warned that they have their nests in this area and might get angry if we come too close. But as I didn´t have any problems going up I felt pretty safe. Until a group of them started circling around me…

I slowly started to walk back up again but that seemed to make it worse – suddenly I had one of these big guys flying on eye level about 2 metres in front of me – we started a bit of a staring contest. But I remembered Sue’s tip and put my arms up and it finally flew over me – were close to my fingers.

Sue, later on, told us, that she once wanted to see what happens if you don´t put your hands up, and got quite the slap.

I now made my way back down to the other side of the hill – like a few of the others, somehow we all had a run-in with the Bonxies.

No more staring contests with big brown birds and I arrived safely back in the village.

01/11/2022
The Village – St Kilda

The first four or five cottages have been renovated and scientists or work parties live in them while working in St. Kilda. The scientists watch and record the local sheep, for example, all the sheep living in Kilda are wild, don´t get fed and are called Soay sheep.

They are pretty tiny and curious like all sheep are. Find here more about “The Soay Sheep Project”

One of the cottages houses a small museum, showing how the cottages used to look and some artefacts and memorabilia.

Signs tell us who used to live in a cottage.

It was fun walking through the village, meeting the anniversary ladies and it felt somehow like discovering three different timelines – the 1930ies – fifty years ago, hearing the stories the ladies tell about their time in Hirta in the 70ies – and then today.

A lot of the cottages still have the remains of the old blackhouses next to them.

The village as we see it today was laid out by the Reverend Neil Mackenzie in the 1830s and consists of a crescent of houses with associated cultivation plots, all within a head dyke. The houses built in the 1830s were typical Hebridean blackhouses – single-roomed, with the cattle being accommodated inside them in winter. In the 1860s new houses were built. These were of a standard Hebridean design with an entrance lobby, small closet behind, and two main rooms. (National Trust for Scotland)

Every morning the men of St Kilda met and held “parliament”, meaning they talked about what had to be done and who would do it. Have a look at this photo here, showing the men of St. Kilda.

The people of St Kilda, a Gaelic-speaking population, lived under their own form of democracy with an informal meeting held every weekday morning in the village street. It was known as the ‘St Kilda Parliament’ and consisted of all the adult males on the island. There were no set rules, no chairman and the ‘members’ arrived in their own time. Once assembled the ‘parliament’ considered the work to be done that day according to each family’s abilities and divided up the resources according to their needs. Everything was done for the common good. Women had their own informal meeting. (ambaile)

Village Life

The Kildians worked the land, but the main staple of their diet was seabirds. Fulmars, gannets and puffins were being eaten for most daily meals – even breakfast! Every part of the bird was used, including the meat, oil and feathers. Fish was rarely eaten even though the sea around the islands are full of them, but the Kildians preferred the birds and disliked the taste of fish.

The St Kildan had developed a unique existence, based entirely around what was available to them in and around Hirta. Each life-giving element in this subsistence lifestyle provided a crucial link, supporting a delicate balance of survival, with each part giving strength to the next. Ultimately, what these well-meaning incomers did, was unravel an age-old system of living. (Shetland with Laurie)

From the 19th century, St Kilda was visited by tourists in the summer months. The islanders offered their tweeds and also bird eggs for sale.

cementery

25/10/2022