The islands of St Kilda are the remotest part of the British Isles. They lie 41 miles (66km) west of Benbecula and consists of the islands of Hirta (the largest), Soay, Boreray and the Dun. The islanders were self-sufficient, paying rent through producing oats and barley from the land and harvesting seabirds. As St. Kilda had no roads, produce was carried on the islanders' backs and they used small boats to travel back and fore between the islands.
The islanders, who were Gaelic-speaking, lived in a long row of turf-roofed dwellings in what was known as the Street. There were also stone cleits (beehive-type buildings) dotted around the island which were generally used as stores for peat and food. The islanders' diet consisted mainly of seabirds which they ate fresh in season and cured during the rest of the year. Fulmar and gannets were taken before they could fly, while puffins were caught fully-grown with fowling rods or snares. Farming was a secondary occupation as the summers were short and crop returns poor. About two thousand sheep and a small herd of cattle were also kept.
Apart from the annual visit by the factor, communication with the outside world was done by the 'St Kilda mailboat'. This was a hollowed out piece of wood in which the islanders would put a letter, a penny for the stamp, and instructions for the finder to post it. This would be dropped in the sea when the wind was in the north-west and was generally washed up somewhere on the west coast of Scotland.
Contact improved as the 19th century progressed. A church and manse were established for a resident minister early in the century, and a school was built in 1884. From 1877 the SS Dunara Castle began regular visits to St Kilda in the summer months. Periods of food shortage and illness led to a decline in population until, in 1930, the remaining 36 islanders requested evacuation to the mainland.
In 1931 St Kilda was sold to the Marquess of Bute, a keen ornithologist. The islands were then bequeathed by him to The National Trust for Scotland in 1957. In the same year, it was designated a National Nature Reserve by the Nature Conservancy Council (now Scottish Natural Heritage). Also in 1957, a small area of land on Hirta was leased to the Ministry of Defence as a radar tracking station for its missile range on Benbecula. Today, St. Kilda is Europe's most important seabird colony.
Read the text then answer the following questions.
Questions
- Where is St. Kilda?
- What are the small dry-stone buildings in the photo called and what were they used for?
- What did their diet consist of?
- Explain how the St. Kildans delivered their mail?
- Explain why did the islanders request to be evacuated in 1930?
- What is St. Kilda most famous for today?