I am more than a little bit fascinated with this place. Some more info has come to light today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38450471
Somewhere on the interwebs is a photo of the good womenfolk of St Kilda wading out to sea carrying their fishermen husbands on their backs so that the men could go to sea in dry clothes. My google-fu is denying me today though!
Never been but stood on the West coast of N.Uist on a summer evening looking out at these huge stacks on the horizon - quite a sensation of remoteness.
After several years of trying, I finally made it out to St Kilda in June this year.
We were there on a calm day and the waves were only 4-6m in height on the west side of the island. The sea stacks off boreray are of a staggering scale. A vertical buttress ascending straight out of the sea and continuing an awfy long way up.
The place felt isolated in mid summer on a calm day, you can only imagine what it would be like during a midwinter storm!
An early Michael Powell film, The Edge of the World (1937 IIRC), is an fascinating story about the evacuation of St Kilda, although filmed on Foula because he couldn't get permission to film on St Kilda. Well worth a watch if this interests you.
We forget how recently many places in the UK were still a subsistence lifestyle. My maternal grandfather was born in a black house on the north of Lewis in the late 19th century. One room. People at one end the cow at the other. Peat fire. No electricity or running water. Pretty similar to the St Kilda lifestyle. Part of their diet was then and still is young gannets. Though these days it's a traditional delicacy rather than a major part of the diet.
https://www.virtualheb.co.uk/guga-hunters-of-ness-isle-of-lewis-western-isles/
When he died in 1971 he had been around for the whole history of powered flight from the Wright brothers up to the moon landings.
My mind keeps coming back to this but:
" the document says that they each ate "36 wild fouls eggs and 18 fouls" (seabirds) a day - an overall daily consumption of 3,240 eggs and 1,620 birds."
How many eggs?!?!? How was that sustainable?!? And once they left was there 3,240 extra eggs a day on the island that weren't getting eaten up? Crazy!
How many eggs?!?!? How was that sustainable?!? And once they left was there 3,240 extra eggs a day on the island that weren't getting eaten up? Crazy!
Have you never [i]seen[/i] a gannet colony on TV? They would probably lose more than that through predation by gulls and skuas, as well as eggs and fledglings just going over the edge of a nesting ledge.
Back around the turn of last century, before factory ships hoovered up vast quantities of sand eels and other fish, gannet colonies were vast, St Kilda even now has 20% of the world's gannet population!
As far as I can gather, a rough population figure for the UK is around 128,000 adult birds, with an annual loss of roughly 2800 adult birds/year, a significant number killed by wind farms.
That's what I can glean from a very quick scan through a BOS report.
So numbers taken back then are probably not far off the same percentage of population.
A small part of one of the St Kilda colonies:
Sailed there years ago. An amazing place. Fairly calm and clear afternoon and then these huge walls of rock shrouded in clouds.
Many of the islanders died once evacuated due to societal differences between mainland and island life.
Was on Book of the Week last week:
UK gannet population in 2014 approx 293'00. Nearly 3 times what it was in 1980.
My experience of eating eggs would suggest 36 in a day would leave one pretty blocked up 😐
jambalaya - Member
My experience of eating eggs would suggest 36 in a day would leave one pretty blocked up
That may have been a mercy when you consider how many people lived in one of those little cottages... 🙂
Surely that food consumption quote is a misprint?? If every person had to hunt and kill and prepare that many birds a day that's all they would have time for!!
Man alive that place must have been grim in the winter.
After several years of trying, I finally made it out to St Kilda in June this year.
How did you get there? I'd love to go!! 🙂
We used Seatrek when we went, was the only clear window for a couple of months when we went last year. Not a trip for the queasy.
Or there are cruise ships that stop by too.
Brilliant place, seemed to do well before people tried to help. The ability of the sheep on the neighbouring islands/rocks is impressive.
timber - Member
...Brilliant place, seemed to do well before people tried to help...
The landowner had a deliberate policy of keeping them poor. Their main source of external income was from the tourist boats who used to come and who used to buy their crafts.
He made sure that the prices were kept low so they did not become more independent and remained subservient. (A common tactic by big landowners in the Highlands)
WW1 meant that many of the men saw they did not have to live in bondage like that.
We did some maintenance on the RAF communications mast on st kilda earlier this year (it tracks the bombs from the test firing range on Benbecula) unfortunately I couldn't go as it clashed with me volunteering at fort Wiliam World Cup but will definitely be heading out when we go back next year
We had a 3 week window to get the work done and got superb weather every day, finished in 2 weeks, the lads photographs where amazing
A couple of weeks before we where there the weather station apparently recorded wind speeds approaching 170mph!
A couple of weeks before we where there the weather station apparently recorded wind speeds approaching 170mph!
Make sure you take a kite with you next time!
😉
Iain, was that repair work to the radomes following the storm damage in 2015? The windspeeds then were up to 185mph, the highest recorded in the UK!
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Great place well worth the visit
Iain, was that repair work to the radomes following the storm damage in 2015? The windspeeds then were up to 185mph, the highest recorded in the UK!
No we replaced the stay wires on the mast at the top of the hill in the 2nd photo above
Think the Radomes have already been done
Surely that food consumption quote is a misprint?? If every person had to hunt and kill and prepare that many birds a day that's all they would have time for!!
It's called a subsistence lifestyle for a reason. Id imagine they set snares or such though and the women prepared them whilst the men were digging peat or fishing or whatever. Bear in mind it would be cold out there and you would need a lot of calories to keep going.
Surely that food consumption quote is a misprint??
Or the locals having a laugh when questioned by an outsider. Or a misunderstanding.
I'm not convinced those numbers are accurate. Present days natives of Ness in Lewis eat young gannets. I've eaten it a few times. Typically one gannet will be shared as part of a meal for maybe 4 people. It's a very strong tasting oily meat (probably with a high caloirie content) which is eaten along with boiled potatoes. The St Kildans also grew potatoes.
Young gannets at the point they leave the nest weigh 4kg according to wikipaedia. Even if only 1kg was usable meat and the rest fat, bone, guts etc how many kg of meat are you going to eat a day?
As St Kilda has a huge gannet population why waste time eating many smaller birds when young gannets are easy to catch.
