Scotland Beyond the Bagpipes by Helen Ochyra

Author:Helen Ochyra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Book Guild
Published: 2020-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

North Uist is said to have the best views of another group of islands, one that sits some forty-five miles off the outer coast of the Outer Hebrides, deserted but far from forgotten. St Kilda is a near-mythical place in the minds of many Scots, a small group of islands where life became so untenable for the dwindling local population that in 1930 they asked the government to evacuate them. This archipelago of ragged mountaintops and volcanic sea stacks now sits brooding in the Atlantic, tempting hardy souls to visit.

A few years ago I was tempted to take on the three-day steam out from Oban with Hebrides Cruises. Not normally one to get seasick, even I was concerned about the epic crossing I had heard about. There would be a pleasant first day’s sail to Tobermory on Mull, but after that would follow two full days heading due west, crossing first the Minch to reach the Outer Hebrides and then that swathe of Atlantic to finally drop anchor in Village Bay on the main island of Hirta.

I spent those two days battling myself. I wanted to be out on deck or reading the library of books on St Kildan history, geology and wildlife; instead I sat with my feet up and my head against the wall, watching the horizon move several metres up in the air before swinging back downwards, seemingly beneath my feet, again.

Because it is so difficult to reach the islands, the community on St Kilda had to be entirely self-sufficient. Often cut off from the mainland for months at a time, it was almost a year before the people here found out that they had been praying for the wrong monarch when Queen Victoria took the throne, and when the first steamship of tourists landed here in 1838 the villagers ran to the reverend to tell him a ship was on fire in the bay.

St Kilda might have been extremely isolated, but it was also extremely well ordered. Each morning the able-bodied men would meet to decide on the work of the day, and each person, from the newborn to the elderly, was provided for by the community. Fuel was provided by the island’s turf; food by its substantial bird population.

Boys were taught to scale the island’s sheer, high cliffs as soon as they were old enough and grew up to be stocky and agile. Nature saw to it that they had a different bone structure: thicker ankles and wider feet than the mainland male, perfect for climbing Conachair, the island’s highest point, which has the highest sea cliffs in Britain at 376 metres.

For almost nine months of every year, the St Kildans hunted birds. These isolated islands are home to the oldest and largest population of fulmars in Britain and the world’s largest gannet colony, and these formed the basis of the islanders’ diet. In the 1690s, Scottish writer Martin Martin (yep, really) visited St Kilda to write his A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.

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