View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Sunday 29 August 2010

Today 80 years ago

Sixty miles southwest of Lewis, the villagers of St Kilda were packing up their belongings, before leaving the island of their birth forever. Some left a bowl of grain on the table, with the Bible open at the chapter of Exodus. A community, a culture, a way of life was coming to a close after thousands of years. Life on their outpost in the Atlantic had become untenable, to their minds, and the Hiorteachs had requested their own removal. The steamer Harebell took them to the village of Lochaline, on the mainland and on to Glasgow.

A lot has been written about St Kilda, with insights changing as the years and researches progress.  Someone has recently mooted the idea to repopulate the islands with permanent inhabitants - an idea that is as fanciful as it is unrealistic. Even today, with modern, powerful boats, it is not always possible to cross the sea to the islands. In the past, there would be no communication with St Kilda for 8 months of the year, due to the severity of the weather and the ocean. That has not changed.

Work is in progress to establish a St Kilda Centre at Mangersta in Lewis, where culture and history of St Kilda will be remembered. For it is no longer alive.


Image courtesy planetware.com

1 comment:

  1. There has been quite a bit on national TV his weekend about St Kilda..such an isolated place I am sure like you that it is impracticle to ever inhabitate the island again . But perhaps once a year or so relatives of folks who lived there could be allowed to return for a day...There is a village within the Salsbury Plains that had to be evacuated during the war so that it could be used as a place where troops could be trained in arm to arm warfare...The people who lived there can never go back but once a year a service is held in the church and folks are taken "home! for that one day only...
    Love Sybil x

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