Visiting The Evacuated Scottish Island

This time I am visiting the evacuated Scottish island of St. Kilda. St. Kilda, Scotland was inhabited for centuries, but in 1930, all that changed when the remaining 36 islanders asked to be evacuated and a unique way of life was lost forever.

Getting to St. Kilda can be a bit of a challenge as it's the most remote part of the British Isles and faces extreme weather conditions. St Kilda boat trips which run during the summer months from The Isle of Skye or the Outer Hebrides to Hirta are often cancelled or rescheduled.

The evacuation of St. Kilda is a fascinating story and these days the islands are managed by the National Trust for Scotland. St. Kilda is also a dual-staus UNESCO world heritage site.

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WHO AM I?
If we haven't met before... Hi, I'm Ruth 👋 and I recently bought a campervan to travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years. I’ve hardly seen anything or been anywhere in Scotland and now is the time to change that!

P.S. Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from.

[ruthaisling]

Let me know what you think of St. Kilda and would you visit this island?

[christopherbrearley]

I was on St Kilda for about 6 or 7 months while in the military back in the late 1970's, and spent many hours walking the island and taking pictures. During the summer months, the national trust for Scotland would have groups of people who would come over and stay in the village cottages for one or two weeks at a time to do renovations around the village. During the winter months, it would only be the military that was on the island, even the warden would leave for the winter. When the weather was bad, if the resupply ships or helicopters couldn't get into Kilda, they would do 'airdrops', this would be where food, mail and other urgent supplies would be packed into bags and dropped out of a plane which would fly low over the island. Occasionally a bag would go over the cliffs into the ocean all the supplies in that bag would be lost, I can remember at least 3 or 4 bags being lost this way.

[andrewmE]

My ancestors are the Gillies and Fergusons of St Kilda.
If I was there and couldn't leave for a few days because the boat didn't turn up, I'd be thinking..AWESOME🤩👍

[iamcarbonandotherbits.]

When I was posted to Benbecula, Outer Hebrides for 5 years with the MT section. We used to do a 6 to 8 week stint on St kilda, housed in Herta Bay. We were nearly always choppered in, I went once by LCL, and for a while we were followed by a pod of small white whales, not sure of the type of whale they were. My time on kilda was amazing, driving up to the radar station with the operators was something of a ride, because near the top of the track there's a nearly vertical bend to the left that you could only manage in 4 wheel drive, low ratio, 1st gear til you got to the level track of the caldera again, then it was a straight run to the radar building. Once one of our lads was coming back down along the top of the ridge when a gust of wind blew his land-rover off the edge, he jumped out in time, but the rover was just a lump of scrap metal by the time it stopped rolling and crashing to the bottom of the volcano. Another time we went fishing in the island's dinghy and I had my fish stolen off my hook by a seal, whilst my mate caught a ruddy big conga eel, the camp chef cooked it up in butter and it was lovely, my first and last conga dish so far. At the radar station is a visitors book, my names 3rd down from princess Anne's, infact I've signed it 4 times once for each visit. Oh' and i carved out a wooden boat placed my name rank, number and address into it, sealed it in candle wax, and threw it into the ocean from lovers leap, which is about a 1000 foot drop. I could go on about the puffins and all the other land and sea animals out there, the huge force 10 and 11 storms that had us battened down for days sometimes, but I think you've heard enough from me, time to give someone else a say.🤗

[colibri]

I've piloted a helicopter several times, landing on St Kilda to bring personnel and supplies for the military. It was a privilege to visit where most people don't get the opportunity. When strong winds blow over the surrounding tops of high ground, the turbulence can make flight into the bay quite dangerous. I've walked up to the abandoned houses.

[duncankilburn]

It's just not Sunday evening without Ruth's adventures. 😃

[ginabiter-mundt]

Greetings Ruth from Northern California, USA. I love to find these hiking and travel videos and when I came across your You Tube channel, it touched my heart. I feel as though I'm on the hike with you, learning the folklore and experiencing the true way of life in a remote and isolated place where few live. You bring that part of the world alive for me. I have always wanted to travel to Scotland and unfortunately I will never be able to hike the paths you travel, but you give me the feeling of being there.
I have been a wheelchair user since I was a teenager, but that never stopped me. I always had the want to travel and explore and I did my best to travel to places I never thought I'd experience. I am a mature, wise woman and now travel vicariously through adventurous souls like you. Thank you for giving me the chance to explore and camp with you.

[fraserthomson]

Oh well, there's a cozy tent and plenty of birds to eat. Tune in next week to see Ruth slide down the cliffs using horse hair rope to gather provisions until the boat returns..

[skst]

As a Norwegian, I follow your travels and great reports from Scotland. What a wonderful country. A very good and informative video

[martincannon]

You have a lot of GUMPTION Ruth. I like that word for you! The way you run your site, the sponsors you take on, the subjects you choose. I am in total admiration.
Bravo from Lyon, France.

[PaulLedsham]

HI Ruth - I'm the mouse that visited you during the night. Humble apologies if I scared you, but I just came to say 'hello' and to see if you had a Mars Bar to spare. We don't get much chocolate on this remote island unfortunately. My cousin Eric who lives in Peebles often has a Flake for breakfast, or the remains of one anyway. Life is so unfair. Anyway, I hope you come to see us again on Kilda, and if you do please bring something tasty for me to eat (I'm getting tired of eating grass). Yours truly - Angelico (eek, I know - but it was my mum's name choice). PS - any chance of a cheese cracker before you go? 😊😊

[sparkplug]

Every time I see the rock walls, sheep pens, “cleats(?)”, and other rock structures of the British Isles, I can’t help but think of the human effort, and probably generations of time, it took to build all that. And it makes my back hurt just thinking of picking up all those stones and stacking them. Truly a testament to human determination and the eventual outcome of doing a seemingly insurmountable task one step at a time.

[Earthstein]

Ruth, You are probably already familiar with the beautiful music that a young (22yo) Felix Mendelssohn wrote after a his visit to Scotland in 1829; Die Hebriden (The Hebrides). I fell under the spell of this music in the early 1960's. If you have not heard it, you are going to love love love it.

[stickaround]

I read the book 'The Life and Death of St. Kilda' by Tom Steel and it was such a fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more.

[jimcaveman]

Hello Ruth, You mention in the video that the island was once owned by the Macleod clan of the Isle of Skye. Some members of the clan moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, USA in the 1800's, changing the spelling of their surname to McCloud. My son married one of them when we lived in Knoxville. They named their daughter Skye! By the way, I've watched many of your videos.
Jim

[RogerRoving]

Been to St Kilda twice on sailing boats, but only been able to land once. Utterly remarkable place.

[Dragonfly]

Ruth, my husband and I(we are in our 40's) watch your videos on the regular. We just love them! We lived in Europe for 6 years and traveled all over. Just before returning to the States 2 years ago we visited Scotland with our teens sons for a short trip and I fell in love. I have been longing to return ever since and your videos are like a salve to my soul. Watching you be so brave reminds me that I can too and that we might get the chance, once again, to travel overseas and I know ALL the places in Scotland I want to visit now thanks to your videos!

[wbbartlett]

Fair play to the chap that donated these islands to the National Trust. The mouse was cute, I would have been feeding him :D

[janettesinclair]

"Stuck on St Kilda with a pet mouse That is real cliff hanger!

[hyperacusiswikipedia]

Ruth, Sterling here in Texas. I “discovered” St. Kilda 9 years ago through a book I bought and I very VERY much appreciate your video and adventure to Hirta. Your storytelling is SO MUCH BETTER than that book. Amazing place. Thanks for sharing.