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St Kilda
What is it that makes so many people want to visit St Kilda? Hirta
The village sheltering in the bay.
The famous "Main Street"
Soay sheep feed and live amongst the area around the village and are quite tame - they keep separate from the wilder soay population on the island.
There is still a considerable amount of
investigation going on by by
the archaeologists from the NTS as they find more artefacts amongst the houses.
The work goes on every summer - discovering new information not only about recent times but also the ancient history of the islands. Here working with Dun in the background, a work party excavates what was thought to be an early chapel. Recent research tend to indicate that it is more likely to be the remains of a farm dwelling!!
Walking around the island can start with a steep stroll up Conachair - the highest hill. Here Boreray can be seen in the distance.
On the way up you may come across more modern remains such as this propeller left after a crash onto the hillside during World War II
One of the characteristics of the west coast of Scotland and the islands in particular is the speed at which the weather can change. On this morning a beautiful day in village bay became cold and damp within the hour!
Walking over the hills to see the rest of the island and the plummeting cliffs needs time and hopefully good weather but is very much worth the time and effort.
Looking across across towards Dun you get a view of the almost vertical cliffs and the surging seas down below.
Further on it gets more difficult to walk along
the steep slopes, but eventually you end up at the north west corner
of Hirta - a place known as the Cambir.
From The Cambir you can look across the gap between Hirta and Soay while looking down on the stacs - seen here from the west. We pass through the passage on the far right side between the island
Boreray
Uninhabited, it was to Boreray that the St Kildans' went to get their essential catch of "Guggas" or young gannets without which life on the island would fail. This is a view of Boreray from Hirta similar to that which the wives and daughters would have had as they waited anxiously for the safe return of their menfolk. They may not have had such a lovely day! We make sure we get to sail around Boreray, with the magnificent stacs and the wonderful gannets. We try to give ourselves enough time to really take in the atmosphere and enjoy the place and of course sometimes we return for a second look on another day.
The cliffs of Boreray can appear to be almost
prehistoric - you almost expect to see Pterodactyls flying around,
but in fact there are just hundreds of thousands of Gannets!
The two stacs can be seen here on the left - Stac Lee being the nearer with Stac an Armin behind it.
Here again we have Stac Lee on the left and Stac an Armin on the right - very different looking pieces of rock but both enormous lumps rising out of the sea!
Still adding pictures - please come back shortly!! Return to St Kilda Introduction
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Behind the Main Street are a collection of cleats -
these are scattered all over the island and were used for storage.
To the right is one with Dun in the distance.
There
are also many stories of the "Lovers Stone" a slip of rock which
projects out over a drop of many hundreds of feet. Here
prospective bridegrooms would stand on the edge, hovering on one
foot, to prove their manhood and ability to stand the exposure of
the cliffs in their struggle to make a living.
