ST Kilda and Other Hebridean Outliers - Francis Thompson

ST.
KllDA
AND OTHER HEBRIDEAN OUTLIERS
ST. Kl LDA
AND OTHER HEBRIDEAN
OUTLIERS
by FRANCIS THOMPSON
<D�
PRAEGER PUBLISHERS
New York · Washington

BOOKS THAT MATTER
Published in the United States of America m 1970

by Praeger Publishers, Inc., Ill Fourth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10003
© 1970 in London, England, by Francis Thompson
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo
copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the Copyright owner.
Library of Con gress Catalog Card N u m b e r : 76-112024
Printed in Great Britain

To
Rona, Ewan, Fay and Eilidh,

who will one day visit these islands
CONTENTS
Page
In traduction 11
1 St Kilda: Island and Society 19

2 St Kilda : Island Economy 70
3 St Kilda: Island History 99
4 North Rona 121
5 Sulasgeir 151
6 The Flannan Isles 161
7 The Monach Isles and Heisgeir Rocks 175
Appendixes
A. Nat ural History of the Hebridean Outliers 185
B. Island Placenames . 196
Bibliography 201
Acknowledgments 213
Index 215
7
IllUSTRATIONS
Page
The village of St Kilda c 1890 (G. W. Wilson) . 17
St Kilda today (National Trust for Scotland) 17
Families in Main Street, St Kilda c 1890 (G. W. Wilson) 18
Dividing the catch of fulmars (G. W. Wilson) . 18
The day before evacuation of St Kilda (Glasgow Herald) 35
Farewell to the island home (Glasgow Herald) 35
The cliffs of Boreray, St Kilda (]as MacGeoch) . 36
St Kilda today, with Hirt and Dun (National Trust for
Scotland) 36
Stac Lee, St Kilda (]as MacGeoch) . 53
Landing stores on North Rona (]as MacGeoch) 53
Remains of dwelling-house on North Rona (F. Thompson) 54
The Church entrance, North Rona (F. Thompson) 54
Fianuis, North Rona (F. Thompson) . 71
The west cliffs, North Rona (]as MacGeoch) 71
The west cliffs, North Rona (]as MacGeoch) . 72
Guillemots on North Rona (]as MacGeoch) 72
North Rona, seal in sea pool (Jas MacGeochJ . 89
Young gannets on Sulasgeir (]as MacGeoch) 89
Approaching Sulasgeir from the west (F. Thompson) 90
Landing stores at Sulasgeir (F. Thompson) 90
Gannet hunters' bothy on Sulasgeir (]as MacGeoch) 107
Men of Ness (]as MacGeoch) 107
Plucking a gannet on Sulasgeir (]as MacGeoch) . 108
Stacking guga for the relief boat (]as AfacGeoch) 108
The south-east cliffs, Sulasgeir (]as MacGeoch) 125
The West Landing, Flannan Isles (W. R. Aldebert) . 125
8
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Eilean Mor, Flannan Isles (W. R. Aldcbert) . 126

Some of the workmen employed on the construction of the
lighthouse on Eilean Mor (Mrs A. Turner) 126
The western cliffs of the Flannan Isles 143
T aking blackface sheep off Eilean Mor (]as MacGeoch) 143
Port Roy, Ceann Ear, Monach Isles 144
Schoolhouse and cottage, Ceann Ear 144

Ferrying cattle from Heisgeir Island, North Uist (Mrs F.
MacDonald) 144
IN TEXT
Sketch map of the Outer Hebrides, showing the positions

of the Hebridean outliers 10
Sketch map of St Kilda and its satellite islands 20
The sun setting over Boreray as seen from the west coast
of Harris 23
Graph showing the St Kilda population 27
Typical layout of an old St Kilda cottage c 1850 33
Facsimile of a letter from Lady Grange from her St Kilda
pnson 105
Sketch map of North Rona 122
Artist's impression of the church ruins on North Rona 147
Sketch map of Sulasgeir 152
Sketch map of the Flannan Isles 162
Sketch map of the Monach Isles 176
Sketch map of Heisgeir 181
Outlines of Heisgeir Eagach and Heisgeir Island 182
Island plants 188
9
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0 5 10 15 20 25 30milcs North
6-FrEt-=-=bose-« L--=--""' I Rona
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A T L A N T I c
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0 c £ A N
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Sketch map of the Outer Hebrides, showing the positions of the Hebridean
outliers
INTRODUCTION
I
SLANDS form both a particular and a peculiar element in
the topography of Scotland. Though an accurate total has
never been arrived at, it is estimated that there are some 790
islands, of which under 200 have ever been inhabited. Today
only about fifty are populated.
In the eighteenth century, some eight per cent of Scots lived
on islands. Today the figure is less than two per cent. Even so,
the population living on islands in the Highlands and Islands
region is some thirty per cent (about 90,000) of the total High
lands population. Thus island-living is still significant to many
people in Scotland today.
Most of Scotland's islands are found in her three archipelago
groups : Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides. Of these, perhaps
only the latter has witnessed a rich and full course of history from
ancient times to the present day. During the last two centuries, the
Hebridean islands have seen considerable social changes, and de
clined as an area of importance to the Scottish nation as a whole.
Today, Scotland's islands, both large and small, are faced with
many problems : serious depopulation through migration; the
highest rate of unemployment in Britain; and an unfair remote
ness aspect imposed on them because the central government has
concentrated an inordinate proportion of the nation's resources
on developing areas with dense urban populations rather than
those areas which still support essentially rural societies. The
islands of Scotland are an exceptional problem within the British
Isles. In particular, the populations on the presently-inhabited
islands live at a low level compared with the degree of social well
being accepted by the rest of the country.
It was in 1861 that a census report first offered a definition of
an island. 'An island,' it stated, 'is any piece of solid land
surrounded by water, which affords sufficient vegetation to
11
INTRODUCTION
support one or more sheep, or which is inhabited by man.' This

definition excluded 'all mere rocks which are the resort of wild
fowl', unless the same were of sufficient extent to afford pasture
to one or more sheep, when they were considered as islands. The
1861 census also said : 'Some of the uninhabited islands are of
great extent and afford pasturage to from 300 to 400 sheep, and
others again are very small-so small as only to admit of one
sheep being left there at once, which is removed when fattened,
and its place supplied by a leaner member of the flock.'
The islands which are the subject of this book were, with
two exceptions, populated at one time in their history; some
until as recently as thirty years ago. With the exception of Sulas
geir and the Flannans, men have found them eminently accept
able places on which to establish themselves, their homes, and
their families, and to build up a community. They gave oppor
tunity for a fulfihnent of life which is denied the urban or even
the rural dweller. They are, for the most part, sub-oceanic
islands, placed deep in the Atlantic, yet reasonably accessible to
the mainland of the nearest island-mass. Three of the islands,
and island-groups, are, even today, capable of supporting small
yet numerically and socially significant populations which could
be largely self-supporting economically by reason of the natural
resources of either the land itself or the surrounding seas. Given
the necessary communication-and therefore social-links, these
islands could become a homeplace again.
The islands were chosen for three reasons : first because they lie ,
for the most part, outside the main associated Hebridean group;
secondly because, as Hebridean outliers, they display particular
characteristics relevant to wild life today; and thirdly because
their story is that of many other larger islands around the Scottish
coast which have become depopulated.
An analysis of the factors leading to the ultimate desertion of
an island by its population will reveal a number of reasons, social,
economic and psychological.
From the social viewpoint it can be argued that the provision
of adequate social services is as much a right of an island com
munity as it is of an urban one. But in many ways island-living
causes conflict in remote centres of administration among those
12
INTRODUCTION
who must on the one hand satisfy the dictates of an economically

oriented society through its elected government and, on the other
hand, the wishes of a community which elects to remain in old,
well-tried and well-established environments. In addition there is,
particularly in the economically minded governments of our in
dustrialised and urbanised society, the attitude that island popula
tions do not contribute anything real to the nation's economic
and social well-being. In fact, it is generally considered that people
who take it on themselves to live on islands, remote from civilisa
tion, have to make their own living as best they can and not look
to other taxpayers' money to subsidise their 'escapism'. While
the economist may have the last say, particularly in Britain, in
other countries the decision of the political economist is tem
pered with a realisation that social and moral obligations are
part and parcel of government and that the wishes of remote
island communities must be respected.
From a psychological point of view, the failure of Scotland's
island population to maintain its numbers (163,000 in 1861;
90,000 in 1961) and to develop the resources of its islands and
the seas around them can be attributed largely to the control of a
remote administrative centre. In other parts of the world, as in
the Faroes, similar island groups have been offered and granted
independence, or at least such a strong measure of devolution that
the islands can work out their own salvation with only themselves
to account to for any subsequent failure. Devolution or a measure
of self-determination is necessary for an island-group to establish
a·n identity to which the islanders can owe their primary allegi
ance. Failure to identify oneself as part of a definite pattern leads
to an inferiority complex which, sooner or later, results in an
effort to disassociate oneself physically by emigration from the
image imposed by central government.
Remoteness, often given as the main factor in island depopula
tion, is an artificial one. Methods of transport are available today
which bring remote areas in Canada very close to the larger
centres of population. That the helicopter is ignored while ships
are still used in dangerous waters to give islands reasonable com
munication links is evidence that the political administrator has
hardly considered the potential viability of islands in this country.
13
INTRODUCTION
His counterpart in many European and Scandinavian countries

has played a much more significant role in the maintenance and
enhancement of island communities. Smallness of an island is
sometimes said to be the ultimate reason for depopulation. Yet
there are large islands in the Hebridean, Shetland and Orkney
groups which are suffering from depopulation at an alarming
rate which, if continued, will mean their complete desertion by
the end of this century. It is in the end the nation which stands
to lose from this process which obliterates the deep-down burning
desire of islanders to keep and care for their islands for coming
generations.
Of the islands in this book perhaps St Kilda best tells the
message for those island communities who, in response to a deep
inborn instinct, are opposed to the desertion of their island homes.
Roland Svensson, author of Lonely Isles has this to say:
The assistance given to outlying islands and isolated com

munities should be far bigger and more far-sighted. Take
Britain for example. The population rises yearly. The need
for arable land, canning factories, freezing plants and fishing
vessels will be of paramount importance. People ask: 'who will
pay?' Well, I will give you a drastic example. Look at St Kilda,
lying about fifty miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The people
were evacuated in 1930, partly because they were unable to
maintain communications with the mainland. About eight years
ago (in 1957) I saw the Forces move into that island. They
brought bulldozers, tractors, big lorries, diesel generators, heli
copters and so on, and regular communications were established
with the mainland. But if an island woman of Foula in Shet
land, or Fair Isle, or Canna in the Inner Hebrides is to give
birth to a child, there will be no helicopter to bring her to
a mainland hospital. Who paid for all these wonderful modern
implements, tractors and lorries? The British paid for them.
And we ought to be able to invest the far smaller sum neces
sary to assist island populations, building what would be of
lasting importance.
Today, in Scotland, more than one hundred islands, once in

habited, stand deserted. Their desertion, however, has not meant
that they have become derelict, useless hulks l yi ng like anchored
14
INTRODUCTION
flotsam in the fertile ocean. They still retain much of their in
herent potential. I\1any islands have played an increasingly signifi
cant agricultural role subsequent to their depopulation. They
offer valuable pasturage which can be improved without the
problem of over-grazing which rendered them marginal when
they were inhabited. Although of course fewer persons stand to
benefit from this cycle of desertion and pastoral re-colonisation,
they still make an important contribution to the income of the
owner or tenant. Deserted islands offer additional advantages :
for livestock, they provide ideal escape-proof pens and folds,
protected from disturbance and disease, with their mild maritime
climate allowing out-wintering. These factors considered, islands
can, and often do, make a significant contribution to the crofting
economy as it is developing in the Highlands and Islands today.
It may well be that our deserted islands, however unsuited they
are for present day settlement, could offer an invaluable increment
to the national store of productive land in an age when farming
land is being swallowed up by sites for industry and housing.
It is of course when people arc considered that the emotive
word 'tragedy' tends to intrude in a final assessment of Scotland's
isl ands and their future. This human aspect of the island problem
is of particular interest to the sociologist. Desertion is often inter
preted as man's failure to grapple with the hostile environment
of the island. This an over-simplification. An anlysis of contempor
ary trends in island depopulation in other parts of the world reveals
that, rather than simple failure, desertion reflects a balancing up of
population with basic resources in the light of new opportunities
and accelerated by the desire to maintain a reasonable degree of
social participation with nearby large communities. It is often the
very small islands-supporting only a family or two--which are
deserted first. Isolation rather than insularity is often the main
cause of desertion : this is as evident in the Outer Hebrides, in
Orkney or the Shetland Islands as it is in islands in other parts of
the world.
Even so, islands still offer a special kind of environment, appeal
ing to people who are willing to work hard for the rewards which
come from a basic desire to mark out their own lives. Far from
being society drop-outs, there are many who prefer the oppor-
15
INTRODUCTION
tunities for personal fulfilment which only an island environment

can offer. Electing, as they do, to keep far corners of a nation's
land store alive, rather than let them revert to nature, island
communities play a special role in their country's social and
economic welfare.
16
Page 17; (above) St Kilda c 1890 showing the village; (below) general
view of St Kilda as it is at present. Far background: village street; centre
foreground; the church and manse (white house); extreme left: the ruins
of 'The Store' used to contain the wool and tweeds awaiting collection by
the steamer. The old cannon can be seen at the gable end of the ruin.
" .
tf "
' ..... :·
!.
' ..
� !
Page 18 : (above) Families outside the houses in Main Street, St Kilda

c 1890; (below) dividing the catch of fulmars on St Kilda c 1890
l ST KILDA: ISLAND AND SOCIETY
THE ISLANDS
General Description
HE island group of St Kilda lies about 34 miles WNW
T of the western extreme of North Uist in the Hebrides.

The latitude is 57°
consists of three main islands:
49'; longitude is 8° 34'. The group
St Kilda or Hirt, Soay, and
Boreray; together with an islet, Dun, lying close off St Kilda.
There are three large and almost inaccessible rocks: Stac
Levenish, Stac Lee and Stac an Armin.
Rising sheer out of the sea, when viewed from the Uist shore,
the islands appear as great dull-coloured pillars on the horizon.
Conachair on St Kilda rises skywards as the highest and most
awe-inspiring cliff in the British Isles. Being completely exposed
to the Atlantic Ocean the islands show in their configuration
what wind, rain, sea and storm have worked during the passage
of countless milleniums. What must have been gentle sloping
coastlines are now steep, sheer cliff-faces, eroded and honey
combed with large caves, many of which extend for over 300ft
underground.
St Kilda, also known as Hirt, is 1,575 acres in extent and
reaches its peak at the summit of Conachair (1,397ft). Soay
island extends to 244acres,and is 1,225 ft at its highest point. The
figures for the other masses in the group are: Boreray, 189 acres,
1,245 ft at the summit; Dun, 79acres, 576ft high; Stac an Armin,
1 3acres, 627ft high; Stac Levenish, 6 acres,185 ft high; and Stac
Lee, 6acres, 544ft high.
The islands are formed of tertiary igneous rocks which display
suggestions of glacial erosion. These volcanic rocks arc estimated
to be the same age as those of the volcanic series found in the
Inner Hebrides: Skye, Rhum, l'Vfull and Ardnamurchan. John
MacCulloch, the nineteenth-century geologist who thoroughly
investigated the islands, indicated specifically gabbro and granite.
n 19
ST KILDA: ISLAND AND SOCIETY
STAC AN ARMIN
Rudh Briste Q'
D
argo
Gob no Tornor-och
draclete
60RERA
Crrog0<1 no
STAC LEE.-.
...,.... Rubho'9 Bona
c>
Sgorbhstoc
Rudha
Bhrengodol
GeoRuodh
SoayStoc
• � '
Geo Cholum M Mhurich
tt4 � Geo no h'Air.X
Phurson
r;;,'t..c:f.
Sgeir � Rlcjl L.ochloin
t
ST KILDA
(HARRIS PARISH)
Sketch map of St Kilda and its satellite islands
20
THE ISLANDS
The granite was the first rock to be erupted; this was followed by
the gabbros in the third stage of volcanic activity of the tertiary
period. Thus the basic rocks of the island group are: gabbros,
composed of diallage, plagioclase felspar, olivine, and magnetite;
dolerites; and basalts. The eastern part of St Kilda island is
chiefly granite and of a light colour. The dark crags and eroded
pinnacles of other parts of the main island, and of the other
islands and islets, are of gabbro. Some of the St Kilda rock is
strongly magnetic.
St Kilda� Dun, Stac Levenish

St Kilda, the largest island of the group, is approached for
landing purposes only from the western or eastern sides. On the
western side is Glen Bay, whose landward parts at some time in
the island's obscure history supported a settlement which was
later supposedly abandoned for the eastern Village Bay where the
present, now-deserted, settlement still remains. Though an
occasional landing can be made at some of the island's caves, the
risks are often too great for this to be done at any other time but
in an emergency. Approaching St Kilda from the eastern side,
into Village Bay, one immediately becomes aware of the stage
like appearance of this the island's second settlement. Like an
amphitheatre, the semi-circular bay has on each side steep and
fast-rising slopes. At low water, a good sandy beach is exposed
which gives way to some shelving rocks and a storm beach.
Above this, the grassy ground runs up to the village and be
yond.
The two hills which overlook the bay are Oseval and Cona
chair. They are of cream-coloured granite, weathered into rough
blocks which have, in another time, rolled down to the sea
margin, forming a rough talus in the crevices of which grows a
coarse vegetation. This forms the arable land. The soil supports
a good turf and it has been suggested that had it been allowed to
evolve, instead of being continually skimmed by generations of
islanders for fuel, it would have been extremely useful agricultural
land able to yield a wide variety of produce. The hills arc grassy
to their summits. A conspicuous gully, containing a stream, runs
down the western side of Conachair. Glen Bay is a smaller inden-
21
t atio n , from the head of which a straight valley runs south

eastward bet ween the hills; there is a stream which falls into the
ba y waters. Apart from the two bays, the coastline of St Kilda is
ext remel y rugged.
With his accustomed eloquence, Geikie described Conachair:
Nowhere among the Inner Hebrides, not even on the south

western side of Rum, is there any such display of the capacity
of the youngest granite to assume the most rugged and
picturesque forms. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the
variety of outline assumed by the rock as it yields along its
system of joints to the influence of a tempestuous climate. It
has been carved into huge projecting buttresses and deep
alcoves, the naked stone glowing with tints of orange and fawn
colour, veiled here and there with patches of bright green
slope, or edged with fringes of sea-pink and camomile. Every
outstanding bastion is rent with chasms and split into blocks,
which accumulate on the ledges like piles of ruined walls. To
one who boats underneath these cliffs the scene of ceaseless
destruction which they present is vividly impressive.
The islet of Dun is a remarkable ro cky ridge which at one

time was connected to St Kild a, but is now separated by a
narrow, rock-strewn channel. It lies off the south-eastern end of
St Kilda. The ridge is precipitous on both sides. The contour of
Biod a l\Jor , the highest peak, is serrated in a fantastic manner.
The so u th wester n coast is m u ch indented while the north-eastern
-
side is steep, green and grassy. Dun is penetr ated by a natural

tunnel , thro ugh which the sea flows Tho ugh the islet is separated
.
fr o m St Kilda only by 100 yd or so, landing is extremely diffi cult

and requires a smooth sea. A slithery crossing can be effected at
very low tides. Dun is about 1 mile long and varies in width
from 100-200 ft.
Stac Levenish lies 1 mile to the east of Dun and is a high rock
in the shape of a p yramid.
Boreray, Stac Lee, Stac an Armin

Boreray lies some 3t miles NE of St K ilda . It is an island of
pre cipices and is t he most difficult to land on, even in good
22
THE ISLANDS
weather. The coast-line consists of high, black cliffs, many of

them rising into curious peaks from 300-1,000 ft high. On the east
side of the island there is a grassy slope of some 40° steepness;
the west side is sheer cliff. Landing is effective only near the
southern end of the island close to Sgarbhstac, a low-lying, sea
washed rock.
Boreray is impmiant for an unusual reason. Recent investiga
tions, carried out on the megalithic sites in Britain to discover the
reasons for their origins, have resulted in a strong theory that the
island's summit was used as a calendar marker in association with
menhirs erected c BC 1790 on the Outer Hebrides. These stand-
The sun setting over Boreray as seen from the west coast of
Harris. The large monolith, Clach Mhic Leoid (MacLeod's
Stone), points out to Boreray, and is so aligned that the autumn
equinox can be calculated. Three other stones on the Harris
coast use Boreray as a sighting point. On the day of the
equinox, the sun sets directly behind the summit of the island
ing stones are An Carra, on South Uist; an oriented stone o n

Benbecula; Clach an t-Sagairt, on North Uist; and Clach Mhic
Leoid, on Harris. With the sun setting behind Boreray, all these
stones give primary calendar declinations. The last three stone
slabs are all oriented on Boreray with an accuracy that can only
be described as deliberate. The island summit was used as an
accurate foresight to give the same date in the evening as the
sun set.
Lying close to Boreray are Stac Lee and Stac an Armin. Stac
Lee has been described by Sir Julian Huxley as 'the most majestic
23
sea rock in existence'. It lies about 600 yd west of Boreray. It is

a curious rock. Its long axis lies NW and SE and it is steeper at
the ends than at the sides. Both ends overhang and it has been
estimated that the height of the rock is double the least measure
ment across the base.
Stac an Armin lies about 300 yd off Boreray's north-west face.
Rising to over 600 ft it offers, as does its sister stac, a home for
nesting gannets. It has been estimated that about one-quarter of
the world's gannet stock nests on these two stacks or on neigh
bouring Boreray.
Soay
This island is separated from St Kilda by a strait some 500 yd
wide. Cliff-girt all round, it is flattish on top and wears a green
turf cap which is used for grazing the primitive breed of Soay
sheep. The only safe landing place on Soay is at the south-eastern
end. Stac na Biorrach and Stac Dona are two pinnacles of rock
lying in the channel between Soay and St Kilda. The former was
the subject of a rock-climb in 1698 by Sir Robert Moray. His
subsequent description of the venture is said to be the earliest of
any climb in Britain .
. . . After they landed, a man having room but for one of his
feet, he must climb up 12 or 16 fathoms high. Then he comes
to a place where, having but room for his left foot and left
hand, he must leap from thence to another place before him,
which if he hit right the rest of the ascent is casie, and with a
small cord which he carries with him he hales up a rope where
by all the rest come up. But if he misseth that footstep (as often
times they do) he falls into the sea, and the company takes him
in by the small cord and he sits still until he is a little refreshed
and then he tries it again; for everyone there is not able for
that sport.
The Present Day

The whole St Kilda group is in the care and keeping of the
National Trust for Scotland and is leased to the Nature Conserv
ancy. The Trust annually organises working parties which
endeavour to maintain the more important buildings in a reason-
24
THE ISLANDS
able state of preservation; in this respect St Kilda is an interesting

social museum. Cottages, cleits and other structures are kept in
good repair so that visitors can taste at least some of the atmos
phere of St Kilda as it was before the evacuation of 1930. The
Trust also runs big-ship cruises which take in all the Hebridean
outliers and the main islands in the Outer and Inner Hebridean
chain. Landings are made on St Kilda, when the weather permits,
though the cruise-parties must content themselves with close-up
views of Sulasgeir, North Rona, and the Flannans.
The Nature Conservancy is at present engaged in carrying out
an ecological survey on St Kilda. The results of this will be more
than interesting in that it will assess the extent of the changes
brought about by some four decades of man's disappearance from
the island.
In 195 7, the government announced the acquisition of an
area in South Uist in the Hebrides for a rocket-firing base. A small
section of Hirt, the main island in the St Kilda group, is now
leased to the Ministry of Defence to accommodate the military
personnel together with a few Hebridean civilians employed
in tracing guided-missiles fired from South Uist.
In 1969, some £500,000 was spent in lengthening the pier in
Village Bay and in erecting new buildings at the military camp.
The camp site has electricity and cinemas, living quarters with
efficient heating systems, a signals centre, radar station, offices,
workshops, stores, an oil installation and a small power station.
There is helicopter communication with the Scottish main
land.
Perhaps as an indication of how St Kilda is part of the present,
one might mention that in 1969 the BBC, for the first time in its
history, had a request for a Gaelic song from St Kilda, from
some Uistmen who were working on the building of the new
pier.
St Kilda is a sad monument to one of the world's small human
tragedies, in which man and not nature played the leading role.
At the time of the evacuation l\1acLeod of MacLeod received
over 400 requests from people who wanted to take up where the
islanders left off, but they were refused permission. At the present
there are signs that islands in general are being regarded as useful
25
bases on which to found new communities and we may well see

St Kilda with a non-military resident population again.
THE ISLANDERS
Island Society
The St Kildan society was one in whose evolutionary process
remoteness played an important part. The result, however, was not
a true sub-species of homo sapien s for the reason that the island
society was latterly not wholly the same as that which had existed
on the island some two thousand years ago. Island tradition indi
cates that on at least two possible occasions during its early history
the society was all but obliterated: once during the changeover (if
this did take place at all) from the settlement in Gleann Mor to
that in Village Bay; and, secondly, when two St Kilda men,
Duigan and Fearchar, committed all their fellow islanders to the
flames inside the island's church-all save the old woman survivor
who escaped to tell the tale.
Nor, from Martin's time (1697) to the island's evacuation (1930)
can the St Kildan society be said to be a complete survival or
take-over from the earliest centuries. In many ways, the manner
in which the island society organised itself and created its own
environment was similar to that of the communities on the nearby
Hebrides. Because the island society was, however, effectively
insulated from many of the wider external sophisticating in
fluences, it retained certain aspects which were peculiar to St
Kilda and to nowhere else.
Population
The highest population recorded on the island was 180 in 1697,
when Martin Martin visited the island. When the island was
evacuated in 1930, 36 people left the shores of Village Bay. At
various times from the year of Martin's visit the population
figures were recorded and show, over a period of about 230 years,
a gradual decline. The population curve shows both erratic
fluctuations (smallpox and cholera epidemics, and the 1856
migration when 36 people left the island) and small increases
(the slight increases of births over deaths and the small additive
immigrant stock settling on the island).
26
J
/
\
\
"
r-- /
� "'
0
"'I'--.. �
.>
<"
\ c::
.�
....
� �
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1\ 8:
CIS
;:g
...
I'- -
-- � ::4
....
r-- -- !:::
tl)
f.--p:.
�
- -1-- -s
-f-- 1--� bO
.s
1---� 8 �
!:::: 0
r--r
\
"'
..r=
\ I ..r=
l:l.
\i
\
CIS
....
(,!)
\ �
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
I
\ I
I
Q
0
r-
0
..0
0
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0
::!:
0
n
0
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0 8 0
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27
The following figures show the decline in the St Kildan popu-

lation:
1697 180 1838 92 1884 77 1928 37

1730 30 1851 110 1906 78 1930 36
1758 88 1861 78 1910 77
1799 100 1866 77 1911 80
1810 clOO 1871 71 1920 73
1822 108 1877 76 1921 73
The smallpox epidemic in 1730 reduced the population to

thirty people and the community had to be restocked from Harris,
whence many of the later surnames might have come. Subsequent
intermarriage probably erased any characteristics in the indigen
ous populatio·n which had smvived till then.
The sex differentiation, so far as can be ascertained, was largely
non-existent, except when a disaster at sea, c 1865, caused the
loss of eight men and resulted in a sexual imbalance.
Ancestry
St Kildan tradition tells us that it was an Irish rover, one Mac
Quin, who first landed on the main island to found a colony .
The surname MacQueen has always been popular in St Kilda,
as in the neighbouring island of North Uist. The name in Gaelic
is Mac Chuinn (son of Conn) a figure who looms large in Irish
mythology.
Another island legend has it that St Kilda was won in a race
between the people of Harris and Uist, both of whom wanted to
own the island group. The factions agreed that two boats were
to be crewed with equal numbers of men an d whichever crew was
the first to lay a hand on St Kilda would own it in perpetuity.
The two boats set off and the race proved to be extremely close.
As both boats came hard by St Kilda, one of the men in the
Harris (MacLeod) crew, Colla MacLeod, cut off his hand and
threw it onto the shore, thus cheating the Uist crew of an un
doubted prize. This deed is recorded by a red hand in the Mac
Leod coat of arms. One might compare this story with the race
for the possession of North Rona (page 127).
Tradition also refers to the 'first MacDonald'. He is supposed
28
THE ISLANDERS
to be Archibald (Gillespie) Dhu, who murdered his two legitimate

brothers about 1506. Gregory, in his History of Scotland, says
that this man joined a band of pirates and, while he harboured
on St Kilda, founded a family there. This story, however, is not
borne out by other traditions, one of which indicates that the
St Kilda NiacDonalds claimed kinship with Clanranald of South
Uist.
The two clans which can claim to be the oldest on the island
are, firstly, Mac Ille Mhoirre (l\1ac Ghille Mhuire = son of the
servant of :Mary), rendered Morison, a family of Norse descent
of whom there is a great concentration in the north of Lewis;
and, secondly, Mac Ille Rhiabhich, the translation of which
appears to be 'son of the grizzly man'.The etymology of this
surname has defied investigation but might well refer to Norse
Berserks warriors, or to the furs with which the Norsemen were
clothed during their ascendancy in the Western Isles. Thus, one
might say that the St Kildan of modern times is of Norse/Celtic
descent, with the strains intermingled.
The St Kildan surnames such as MacLeod and MacCrimmon
were obvious imports from the Hebrides, Skye and elsewhere.
In 1843, the order of surnames on St Kilda was MacDonald (most
numerous), NlacLeod, Gillies, Morison, MacQueen, MacKinnon
and MacCrimmon. In 1871, the order had changed: Gillies,
MacDonald, Ferguson, MacKinnon, MacCrimmon, MacQueen
and MacKay (the last two were the minister and the registrar).
It will be noticed that two former families, MacLeods and
Morisons, are not mentioned, they having either died out or
emigrated. About 1889, the MacCrimmons had also gone.
Characteristics
From descriptions of the appearance of St Kildans over the
centuries, the islanders seem to have been well-built with definite
Norse characteristics: ' ... they had rather long aquiline and
pensive cast of feature, with wel1-marked eyebrows. They are
well made and about middle size'.
Inevitably the islanders were simple when they were confronted
with sophisticates. An anecdote is told of the islanders' inability
to think deeply to assess the implications of much of what they
29
were taught. At one time the Rev Neil MacKenzie (minister from
1830-44) told the St Kildans of the other races in the world. They
were particularly interested in the South Sea Islanders with whom
they found a kinship. Shortly aftetwards, a number of ship
wrecked men were found by the St Kildans in a cave. They
hailed them both in English and Gaelic but failed to get any re
sponse from the crew. The minister was informed that a new
race had landed on the island, probably South Sea Islanders.
In fact, the crew were from the wrecked Hispania and responded
to the minster's Quae gens'.
'
On another occasion, a visiting boat had no sooner left the

island when a storm broke and the vessel was in danger of drift
ing onto the island's sharp rocks. To a man, the St Kildans left
their firesides and went to the church where they prayed stead
fastly for several hours until, perhaps by a miracle, the wind
changed and the ship was able to make for the safety of Village
Bay. This charity of the islanders shines above their natural
simplicity which so many visitors took merely, and shallowly, as
something extraordinary to write home about.
That the islanders were hospitable to all visitors is related in
many records. Their moral character has always been high,
probably the result of the self-policing aspects which small com
munities often exhibit. Swearing and theft were unknown in St
Kilda when Martin Martin went there in 1697. In 1 758, when
the Rev MacAulay stayed in St Kilda, he found the people simple,
hospitable, polite and untainted with vice. He saw no cases of
drunkenness, though he did observe that the men were overfond
of tobacco. The first illegitimate birth on the island occurred in
1862; after that only two other cases were recorded.
Martin Martin quotes an amusing account of a visit to Glas
gow by a St Kildan :
He was astonished at the length of the voyage, and of the

great kingdoms, as he thought them, that is isles, by which they
sailed; the largest in his way did not exceed twenty-four miles
in length, but he considered how much they exceed his own
little native country. Upon his arrival at Glasgow, he was like
one that had dropped from the clouds into a new world, whose
language, habits &c., were in all respects new to him; he never
30
THE ISLANDERS
imagined that such big houses of stone were made with hands;
and for the pavements of the streets, he thought it must needs
be altogether natural, for he could not believe that men would
be at the pains to beat stones into the ground to walk upon.
He stood dumb at the door of his lodging, with the greatest
admiration; and when he saw a coach and two horses, he
thought it to be a little house they were drawing at their tail,
with men in it; but he condemned the coachman for a fool to
sit so uneasy, for he thought it safer to sit on the horse's back.
The mechanism of the coach-wheel, and its running about, was
the greatest of all his wonders. When he went through the
streets, he desired to have one to lead him by the hand.
Thomas Ross, a merchant, and others, that took the diversion
to carry him through the town, asked his opinion of the High
Church? He answered that it was a large rock, yet there were
some in St Kilda much higher, but that these were the best
caves he ever saw; for that was the idea which he conceived
of the pillars and arches upon which the church stands. When
they carried him into the church, he was yet more surprised,
and held up his hands with admiration, wondering how it was
possible for men to build such a prodigious fabric, which he
supposed to be the largest in the universe.He could not imagine
what the pews were designed for, and he fancied the people
that wore masks (not knowing whether they were men or
women) had been guilty of some ill things for which they dared
not show their faces. He was amazed at women wearing patches,
and fancied them to have been blisters. Pendants seemed to him
the most ridiculous of all things; he condemned periwigs
mightily, and much more the powder used in them; in fine,
he condemned all things as superfluous he saw not in his own
country. He looked with amazement on everything that was
new to him. When he heard the church-bells ring, he was
under a mighty consternation, as if the fabric of the world had
been in great disorder. He did not think there had been so
many people in the world as in the City of Glasgow; and it was
a great mystery to him to think what they could all design by
living so many in one place ...when he saw big loaves, he
could not tell whether they were bread, stone or wood. He was
amazed to think how they could be provided with ale, for he
never saw any there that drank water.He wondered how they
made them fine clothes, and to see stockings made without
31
first being cut, and afterwards sewn, was no small wonder to

him. He thought it foolish in women to wear thin silks, as
being a very i m pr oper habit for such as pretended to any sort
of employment. When he saw the women's feet, he judged
them to be of another shape than those of the men, because
of the different shap e of their shoes. He did not approve of
the heels of shoes worn by men or women; and when he
observed horses with shoes on their feet, and fastened with
iron nails, he could not forbear laughing, and thought it the
most ridiculous thing that ever fell under his observation. He
longed to see his native country again, and passionatel y wished
it were blessed with ale, brandy, tobacco, a nd ir on, as Glas
gow was .
Speech
Being strengthened by immigrants at intervals during the life
of the community, and particularly after the smallpox epidemic
in 1724, the vocabulary of the St Kildan's native language, Gaelic,
showed very few peculiarities. About 1843, the minister on the
island noted that the only linguistic differences were in the shades
of meaning which the islanders attached to a few words. There
were occasional differences in the manner in which they pro
nounced words in which 'r' occurred; this consonant they
pronounced as '1' (eg ruith = to run, was luith). This may well
have been an importation from some of the Hebridean islands.
:MacAulay (1758) reported that the St Kildans had a very corrupt
dialect of Gaelic, with a slight admixture of Norse, whilst every
native islander had an incorrigible lisp. The increased intercourse
with the Hebrides probably improved the islanders' Gaelic but
failed to eradicate their lisp, which was also noted in 1843.
ll ouses and Store-houses

All that the original settlers of St Kilda considered necessary
was supplied by their own island, together with the facilities
offered by Soay and Boreray, and the intermittent communica
tions link with the Hebridean islands to the east. In many respects,
the St Kildan community was more fortunate in its environment
than was the sister community of North Rona. The island of St
Kilda o r Hirt was large, tho u gh perhaps awkward in that much
32
THE ISLANDERS
of it was sloping ground. It had, however, two fertile glens, fresh

water in many wells and springs, and there were two suitable
landing places, each of which could be chosen according to the
prevailing weather and sea conditions.
The first accommodation provided was in the form most com
monly found in the Hebrides : subterranean dwellings or hypo
gea. These afforded the necessary warmth in the winter seasons.
HEARTH
CHEST
BED
Typical layout of an old St Kilda cottage c 1850
They consisted of stone-walled pits with compartments. The

settlement in Gleann Mor is largely composed of this type of
structure. In the course of time, the walls were increased in height
to rise proud of the ground and the structures took the shape of
the familiar 'black house'.
By 1697, the year of Martin Martin's visit to the island, the
'black house' structure was well in evidence, with a timber roof
thatched with straw, 'the whole secured by ropes of twisted Heath,
the Extremity of which on each side is poised with Stone to
preserve the Thatch from being blown away'. This use of a
wooden ridge-pole and couples permitted a roomier house, for
in the earlier type, with a ceiling of slabs, the breadth had been
33
ST I<ILDA: ISLAND AND SOCIETY
severely limited by the builder's skill in corbelling the walls. Some

structures, which had obviously been hovels in the mid seven
teenth century, had had their gables lifted by additional granite
blocks arranged to take a long timber, perhaps a storm-blown
tree-trunk washed up on the beach, which then supported a
thatched roof.
The corbelling technique, though it became archaic insofar
as domestic structures were concerned, survived in the building
of the cleits or store-houses (see pages 37-8).
In 1838, the houses of St Kilda were described as being:
constructed of rough stones built without any art, or mortar, save

a little earth. The walls are from 5 to 8 feet thick, about 5 feet
high on the outside, and much higher when empty in the inside,
having no windows in the walls, nor doors but one towards the
N. East. Internally they are divided into two compartments by
a partition of loose stones, removable as occasion requires.
The apartment next the door is occupied by the cattle in
winter, and the other by themselves. Into their own apartment
they begin early in summer to gather peat-dust, which they use
with their ashes and moisten by all the foul water used in mak
ing their food, &c. By these means, the floor rises gradually
higher and higher, till it is in the spring as high as the side-wall,
and in some houses higher. By the beginning of summer a
person cannot stand upright in any of their houses, but, must
creep on all fours round the fire.
Another early nineteenth-century description IS contained m
the Notes of the Rev MacKenzie:
Of their most ancient houses several still remain entire.

They are circular, or nearly so, and roughly built. The walls
are 6 or 7 feet thick, with spaces for beds left in them. These
bed spaces are roofed with long slabs, and the entrance from
the interior of the house is about 3 feet by 2 feet. The walls
are not arched but contracted gradually by the overlapping of
the stones to nearly a point. The entrance door is about 3 feet
by 2f. The outside is covered with earth and rubbish and appears
like a green hillock. In some places they are almost entirely
underground . . . The only opening for light was a small
circular opening at one end where the thatch joined the wall,
34
Page 35: ( abo<·e) 1 slanders at tht: pier on the day before evacuation of St
Kilda; (below) the islanders waYe farewell to their island home
Page 36: St Kilda: (above) the cliffs of Boreray; (below) th e island today
showing new buildings and, in the background, the gap between the main
island Hirt and Dun
THE ISLANDliRS
left for the exit of the smoke. The door aperture was near the
end and faced the east.
These houses were built in two rows, abundantly regular
and facing one another, with a tolerable causeway in the
middle, which they call the Street.
Soon after the date of this description, the settlement in Village

Bay moved farther east to the site of the present housing area.
The move was instigated by the Rev MacKenzie himself. An
Englishman, Sir Thomas Ackland, provided a financial incentive.
From 1836-8 twenty-five houses, barns and outbuildings were
built. The style of construction was similar to that found in the
Outer Hebrides: double-thickness walls with earth packed tight
between them. The roof ended at the inner wall and was shap ed
like a large beehive. It was made of wood and was covered first
with turf and then thatched with straw. Thick rop es, made from
straw, were stretched across the thatch and were secured with
the beaks of gannets. These improved houses had a sort of window
with a tiny piece of glass in it. Wooden locks, of native make,
secured the doors. Both the window and lock were innovations
for the island. The fire remained in the middle of the floor, where
it had been for centuries.
The furnishings of the St Kildan dwellings were always simple.
In the mediaeval houses there was a quem, a hollow stone called
aclack soluis filled with oil and a cinder of p eat for a wick the
whole to serve as a lamp , a vessel called a cragan made of badly
burnt clay and used for a pot, a water pitcher and a dish to
drink out of, a rop e made of hide, and some stools. Later, the
furniture included a couple of iron p ots, a chest or two, wooden
dishes, straw baskets, an iron oil-filled lamp called a cruisgean,
and stools. Extras included chairs, dressers, straw mattresses, kettles
and wooden beds. But even in 1875, the minister was the only
p erson on the island to possess a fork.
As the influence of tourists made itself felt, the furnishings
in the island homes took on more contemporary aspects, though
this did not bring with it an incentive to keep a tidy home.
Through the centuries, reports invariably indicate the St Kildan's
penchant for untidiness and domestic chaos.
The cleits, or store-houses, have often created much interest
c 37
as they are literally scattered up the slopes of Conachair and stud

the rising land like large boulders. The cleits show the survival of
the building techniques used on the island many centuries ago.
They are little stone-built cells with high crowned roofs covered
with green turf and vegetation. In the wet climate of the island,
the cleits were of vital importance to the community, as they
offered storage for peat, nets used for fishing, hay, a:nd the birds
caught by the fowlers. Their drystone walls allowed the wind to
seep through, ventilating the stores, while the turf roofs repelled
the heavy rains.
Captain F. W. L. Thomas, the antiquarian who did so much
to record the antiquities of the Hebrides during the last century,
describes one cleit :
Its dimensions inside are only 8 feet by 2! feet by 5 feet; the
enclosing wall is built purposely with wide joints, but the roof
is covered with turf.
Mentioning that this was the construction of 'one of the rudest

cleits', Thomas goes on to describe one of the larger structures :
... it is 16 feet long, 6 feet broad, and 9 feet high internally.
The door, not low, is at one end, and the other end is rounded.
There was no window, but many cuiltean or niches in the walls,
and it had been used as a dairy. The roof was formed by over
lapping. Externally the walls were perpendicular and bare for
5 or 6 feet; they then fell in and were covered with turf. The
aspect externally is that of an elongated pyramid with a green
top; but had it been deserted, and the turf worn off, it would
exactly resemble an old Irish oratory.
Clothing
In the environmental conditions which the island imposed, the
islanders' dress was as functional as was their approach to hygiene
a·nd to living accommodation. In ancient times the inhabitants
wore sheep skins, though this form of dress was not peculiar to
St Kilda. In the nineteenth century they wore short jackets of
their own make; trousers and waistcoats were also made in the
home from the same rough cloth. The shoes were made from the
necks of solan geese, cut from above the eyes. The crown served
for the heel, with the down-side inwards. Others preferred the
38
THE ISLANDERS
simple shoe of folded cow-hide, tanned and softened with native

plants, and held on by a leather thong. Later in the nineteenth
century the clothes of the St Kildans were little different from those
worn in other parts of the Highlands and Islands. The men wore
jackets, vests and trousers of their own making, mostly made
from a coarse thick cloth called blue kelt. The men were also
fond of wearing the Glengarry bonnet. The women's dresses were
also home-made, from cloth made on the island and dyed with
the juices of native plants. The women fancied the wearing of a
plaid of Rob Roy tartan for Sundays; the plaid was fastened by
a brooch. The weekday head-dress of the women was a turkey
red cotton napkin; on Sundays the older females wore the com
mon white muslin cap or mutch. l\1any women and men we·nt
barefoot; the children always did so. With the influence of the
tourists, stockings and boots became common. Personal ornaments
were few among the islanders; most of those worn were made
from copper or silver coins hammered into brooches and pins.
·when John Sands visited the island in 1875 he found that:
The St Kildans are warmly clothed, which probably accounts

for the immunity they enjoy from pulmonary and other diseases.
The men make all their own clothes, and also dresses for the
women. The gowns of the latter seem of a very antique fashion.
They are fastened on the breast with a large pin made from a
ling hook. Their plaid is secured with a brooch made from an
old penny. The bill of the sea-pyot or oyster catcher was
formerly used as a pin for the gown and plaid. In warm weather
the women are often to be seen on the cliffs and in the glen
without any clothing but a woollen shirt. The men also strip
to their underclothing when engaged on the cliffs. The brog
tiondadh, or turned shoe, was universal until within a few years.
Specimens are still to be seen. They are made without welts.
Caps of lambskin were also the fashion, but I have only seen
one. A live peat, stuck on the end of a stick, served for a lantern
on a dark night. I have often used it myself.
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
The St Kildan social organisation was similar to that of that

other island society, the North Rona community, in the matter
39
of property, communal work and the preservation of discipline

to prevent serious social disruption. Naturally, with the link which
St Kilda had with the communities on the Hebrides and with
Skye in particular, and as the community evolved from its primi
tive state, elements of sophistication appeared. Naturally, too,
the community's organisation was based on the fact that St Kilda
was a group of small land-masses surrounded by a hostile ocean.
MacLeod Ownership
For many centuries St Kilda was owned by the MacLeods of
Harris and of Dunvegan in Skye. In general, the Chief of Mac
Leod was, through the centuries, fully aware of his social respon
sibility to the islanders. In a report, by Murray of Broughton, in
connection with the social organisation of the Highlands and
Islands in 1746 it was stated: 'Their Chief is their God, their
everything.'
But the chief was not without reward for his concern and over
sight-the island yielded a not insignificant source of economic
return. A steward, usually nominated from a cadet branch of the
:MacLeod family, was placed in charge of the island. His deputy
resided on St Kilda and had free lands, with special privileges
among the islanders. The steward himself paid an annual visit
to the island to collect the rents, which were paid in kind, the
principal items being cloth, feathers, wool, butter, cheese, cows,
horses, fowls, oil a·nd barley. Any surplus in the island's produc
tion was taken by the steward to the Scottish mainland for sale
and translation into the items which the islanders needed, particu
larly salt and seed corn. These he took with him to St Kilda on
the following year's visit. This system was operated for centuries
until it was no longer possible for the chief to accept rents in
kind and a cash economy assumed importance in St Kilda.
Not all the stewards appointed by MacLeod were 'gentlemen
of be·nevolent dispositions, of liberal education and much observa
tion'. Some years before Martin's visit to the island in 1697, one
steward attempted to extract a sheep from every family, but the
islanders refused the demand. A party was armed and sailed for
St Kilda, the intention being to take the sheep by force. But the
St Kildans, armed with daggers and fishing-rods, attacked the
{10
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
invaders with such effect that the latter were forced to return
to the mainland without attaining their object.
In sharp contrast, on another occasion the St Kildans experi
e·nced a few consecutive bad seasons and were unable to meet
the rental demands. In 1780, MacLeod sent out a new boat to
the islanders, assured them that their supply of seed corn and salt
would be continued and allowed them some years' rent to enable
the community to recover itself.
Communal Ownership
The internal organisation of the island community was based
on socialistic principles. Its survival depended on a communal
approach to all matters which affected the islanders as a recognis
able corpus. Apart from the minister and his housekeeper, and
the ground officer or deputy, who himself largely adhered to the
communal code of living, no person on the island was allowed to
assume authority over his neighbours. Even these persons exercised
authority only very rarely when the occasion was serious enough
to warrant an arbitrator and judge.
Primarily, the social regulator in St Kilda was the ensuring
that the rents and dues owed to the owner were always paid. Each
individual, and each family unit, were thus under a strict code
of practice with little room for the exhibition of personal idiosyn
crasies to satisfy any natural egocentric urge. All property on the
island on which the livelihood of the islanders depended was held
in common; this included boats, climbing ropes and fowling gear.
As regards the boats, their maintenance was also on a communis
tic principle : each man was made responsible for the upkeep of
a section of the boat.
Everything on St Kilda existed for the common good. Gifts
brought in by tourists, philanthropists, visitors or the factor, were
divided as equally as possible between the families. If this were not
possible, lots were cast. The island's produce, and in particular
the fulmar, which became the mainstay of the island's economy,
was subjected to equal shares. The island's rocks used by the
fulmars for breeding were divided into the number of families
on the island, in much the same manner as was adopted by the
North Rona community. During the breeding season, each man
41
policed his lot to see that the birds were not molested; sheep
in particular had to be kept from disturbing the birds. From
August, the young birds were killed by the family, with assistance
from the rest of the community as required. After each day's
work, the fulmar harvest was placed in a heap, usually on the
foreshore, and divided according to the number of households
on the island. ln keeping with the character of the St Kildan
society, the sick and aged, who often lived alone, were not for
gotten in the share-out. Until about 1880, the fulmar and the
puffin were the only seabirds subject to this division, because they
were, till that time, the two main sources of commodities for pay
ing the rents.
All the grazing on the island was held in common. Each
islander could keep as many sheep or cattle as he was personally
able to pay rent for. Only on the island of Dun were there any
restrictions on grazing facilities. The grass on Dun was used
mainly for wintering lambs; because of its small acreage, it could
accommodate only a small number of animals from each house
holder.
Social welfare appeared in the shape of insurance, in that
should an islander lose a sheep, the loss was made good by the
rest of the community in proportion to the amount held by each
family. The participation in the bird-harvest of the sick, aged
and infirm has already been mentioned.
Latterly, some fifty years before the evacuation of St Kilda,
the principles which had for so long been the bases of the St
Kildan method of government, began to deteriorate. Robert Con
nell, who visited the island in 1885-6, had this to say:
In fishing, too, the St Kildans are socialists. As a rule, two

boats of six men each go out to the fishing, and here again the
produce is divided among the lucky sixteen (there were 16
crofts on the island). There are strong and willing men outside
the charmed number, but they must stand aside in favour of
the elect ... it appears to be not far from the grossest selfish
ness, and tyranny and oppression of the weak. After fifteen
days' stay on St Kilda I came to the deliberate conclusion that
this nibbling at socialism is responsible for a good deal of the
moral chaos which has so completely engulfed the islander:>.
42
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
It has certainly done not a little to cripple the fishing industry.

The four presentation boats which the islanders now possess
are simply going to wreck in their hands, and one apparent
reason is that they are common property. What is everybody's
business is nobody's business, and so the boats are allowed to lie
and rot uncared for on the beach . When next a begging letter
comes for another boat the subscribing public should impose
certain conditions with their gift. If a boat is ever given again
it should be presented not to the community but to half-a
dozen of the most deserving members.
Island Laws
The islanders' body of customary law was largely based on the
1vfosaic code. In fact, so closely did it resemble its Mosaic counter
part that in 1758 11acAulay thought that missionaries had
brought it to the island at an early date. Essentially a republic,
the St Kildan community was governed by what came to be
known as the 'St Kilda Parliament'. This body comprised all the
adult males on the island and had power over all the actions of
the whole community. No chairman was appointed 'and when
differences of opinion arise as to the suitability of the work
proposed for the day, the thread of debate is often lost in
noise'.
The Parliament met each weekday morning to consider the
work to be done for that day. No rules governed the conduct at
these daily meetings. Each man arrived in his own time. Once
convened the assembly would consider the type of work to be
done: fishing, bird-catching, or visiting the neighbouring islands.
John Ross, schoolmaster on St Kilda wrote in 1889 that the
Parliament 'very much resembles our Honourable British Parlia
ment in being able to waste any amount of precious time over a
very small matter while on the other hand they can pass a Bill
before it is well introduced'. But while the assembly wasted time
on days when matters of little urgency required attention, it was
quick to realise that time was important in the island's economy
and could not be frittered away on talking. The weather, tides
and seasons required prompt attention and quick action, and
usually received it. Such an assembly, however, also generated
gossip and many inter-family feuds resulted which, though their
43
heat was temporarily dissipated during the communal work to be

done, often survived for generations.
RELIGION AND INSTITUTIONS
Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles, visited the islands of

the Hebrides in 1549 and he mentioned St Kilda in his record.
He tells of MacLeod of Harris , who sent his steward to the island
every midsummer, with a chaplain to baptise the children. He
further observes that the inhabitants were 'a simple and poor
people and scarce learnt in any religion'. However, it can be
taken that the basic elements of the Christian religion were intro
duced to the island at a very ear ly date. But the passage of time
altered the original form of belief. After his visit in 1838, Lachlan
MacLean wrote :
The religion of St Kilda for several centuries was, as we may

suppose, a mixture of popery and druidism. Without teacher
or taught, what could we expect? In the year 1641 a well
known leader of the clan MacDonald, Colla Ciotach, ie left
handed Coll, from having lost his right hand in battle, fled for
his life to St Kilda. Here during a banishment of three
quarters of a year, he employed himself in teaching the natives
the Lord's prayer, the Decalogue, and the Creed, in the popish
style.
In the year 1697, Mr Martin visited them, for three weeks.
He was to them another Knox, in throwing down their altars
and scourging their will-worship. The Highlander, inerudite
as he may be, has, however, about him some good points not
unworthy the imitation of the citizen : even in Martin's time
they assembled in the church-yard on the Lord's day in the
morning, there they said the Lord's prayer, Creed, and Ten
Commandments. They dropped work on Saturday at 12 o'clock
noon, and would work at nothing till Monday. When a death
took place in the island, all work was at a stand till after the in
terment. They believed in God the Father, the Son, and Holy
Ghost, as also in Flathinnis, the island of the brave, and Ii
bhr oin, the region of sorrow. They rose in the morning and
commenced their labour by invoking the name of God, and
swearing was not known amongst them.
44
During the autumn of 1705 the General Assembly of the

Church of Scotland, commiserating the deplorable state of St
Kilda, sent Mr Alexander Buchan to the island as a catechist.
Buchan lived among the islanders for four years spending his time
bringing his flock to an acceptable level of belief. His success
caught the attention of the new-formed Society in Scotland for
propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), which was just be
ginning its eventful career in the Highlands. The Society ordained
Mr Buchan and sent him back to St Kilda to continue the spiritual
nourishment of its islanders. This he did until his death in 1730.
During his ministry, on a stipend of 300 merks (£16 13 4d
£ 16·66), he constructed the first manse, started the first library
and raised the islanders to the level of thinking beings. His wife
was responsible for teaching the island women how to knit.
In 1758 the Rev Kenneth MacAulay was sent as missionary;
he published a history of St Kilda in 1764. A succession of minis
ters followed including the Rev John MacDonald who first visited
St Kilda in 1822. He found neither an organised Church nor
strong Calvinist religion. The manse had fallen into a ruinous
state and the people assembled in a bam for their services. Mac
:Qonald laid the foundations of a highly organised, strictly puri
tanical and harsh religion. For his similar work in the Highlands
he was given the title of 'Apostle of the North'. He said on his first
visit to St Kilda :
Swearing is too prevalent among them and its common

expressions, such as by the soul, by Mary, by the book ...and
what is worse, by the sacred name seem to be quite familiar
with them on every occasion ... It grieves me to say and I took
pains to ascertain the truth that among the whole body I did
not find a single individual who could be truly called a
decidedly religious person; that is one who has felt the influence
of the truth on his soul, and who exhibits that influence in his
life and conversation.
To put matters right he paid another visit in 1824, and two

further visits before he finally left the island in the care of the
Rev Neil MacKenzie in 1830. The Rev MacKenzie's fourteen
year tenure of office as resident minister was noted for his atten-
45
tion, not only to the spiritual needs of the islanders, but also to
their moral and physical wants. If the spiritual level had been
raised by MacDonald, MacKenzie raised the standard of living.
It was through his efforts that the island's housing was improved.
He went to Glasgow and returned with beds, chairs, stools, and
glass windows.
The old church was in such a state of ruin that a new building
had to be erected with a neat one-storey slated manse at the end
of it. The cost of the work was £600.
When MacKenzie left St Kilda in 1844, to take up a new
charge in Argyll, his departure marked the end of what might
be called an era of franchise in religious belief. The Disruption,
which took place in Edinburgh in 1843, took a year to reach St
Kilda. The islanders were quickly won over to the dogmas of the
Free Church and remained faithful to them until the evacuation
in 1930. For the decade 1853-63, the St Kildans were under the
charge of a catechist, Duncan Kennedy. He was succeeded by
the Rev Cameron who, after two years' stay, handed over the
ministry to the Rev John MacKay. MacKay was at one time
a schoolmaster and was ordained to the ministry only with the
view to his being sent to St Kilda.
MacKay's term of office lasted for twenty-four years, until a
dispute occurred among the islanders; he was pensioned off and
his place taken by a younger licenciate, Angus Fiddes. In Mac
Kay's charge, the islanders allowed their religious beliefs to rule
their entire way of life. In a less harsh environment, the com
munity might have survived better than it did; other communities
with a more professed adherence to religious belief have survived
until the present day. But St Kilda a century ago was not the
place nor the time for lives to be governed by strict religious
dogma. MacKay pressed the islanders hard, so much so that the
result came under the attack of two of St Kilda's most famous
writers, John Sands and Robert Connell. Both men concentrated
on the debilitating effects of MacKay's over-strict rule of the
islanders and his position as uncrowned king, with his unmarried
housekeeper as a 'dominating queen'. When, in 1877, George
Seton took a supply of innocuous children's books to the island,
MacKay immediately imposed his censorship on them and the
46
island children went without their books. "Vrote Sands of Mac

Kay:
The weak-minded pope and p rime minister rolled into one

who rules the destinies of the island has reduced religion into
a mere hypocritical formalism, finding no place in his creed
for self-reliance or any of the manlier virtues ... It is nothing
to Mr MacKay whether the poor people starve their crofts
or neglect the fishing so long as his own silly fads are observed.
The islanders, however, seemed happy with their spiritual lot,

though they realised that the demands made on them to tread
the narrow path defined by :rviacKay would eventually bring
their island economy to a critical state with complete evacuation
as the only alternative. It has been said that life on St Kilda was
in itself a religion of sorts. Certainly, towards the end of the
island's history of human inhabitation, amid a world full of
material benefits, it required a strong faith to remain on St Kilda.
This faith was inherent in the St Kildan make-up, the legacy
of many generations, and fitted in extremely well both with the
ministers who were sent to the island and with the dogmas which
the islanders were taught to accept. The St Kildans were sincere
in their beliefs and were equally true to them in their actions.
Such a faith still exists in many areas of the Scottish Highlands
and Islands.
When Angus Fiddes took over from MacKay in 1889, there
began a new regime of change in the island. Fiddes was a broad
minded man. With persistence and patience he succeeded in
rooting out the scourge of the 'eight-days' sickness' which had
plagued the island for a century. He also tried to get the St
Kildans to plant trees. But the islanders refused on the grounds
that the trees would take up good ground where sheep might
otherwise graze. The stringency of religion was not lessened under
Fiddes; some of his sermons lasted for four hours.
The Rev Fiddes was the last ordained Free Church minister to
serve St Kilda. After he had filled his term of office in 1903, a
succession of missionaries followed who, reflecting the enlighten
ment of the twentieth century, cased the terror of religion and
attended more to the medical and material wants of their charges.
4-7
lvlarriage
The form of ma rriag e used in St Kilda in 1697 is described
by Ni a rtin J\fartin. The couple who wished to be married were
taken to the marriage-stool and, in front of the assembled
islanders, asked whether there were any objcction
· s to their mar
riage . If there were none, the couple were asked if they were
willing to live together in weal or woe. After the assent, the official
performing the marriage, who was usually the steward's resident
officer, took out his naked dirk and caused the couple to swear on
it. They were then declared married. Fifteen couples were mar
ried in this way on 17 June 1697.
The Rev Neil MacKenzie, minister during the 1830s, describes
a marriage at which he officiated :
In the evening we were invited to the village to a Reiteach
(agreement) between the young folk, with which we complied.
On our arrival we found all the men of the island sitting on the
ground, or rather reclining close to the walls of the house of
the bride's father, on each side feet to feet, so that it was very
difficult to get through them. The near female relatives were
in the upper appartment with the bride. We were seated on a
chest among the men. A glass of spirits was handed round by
the bride's father, commencing with us and going round the
whole. A short and desultory conversation ensued, and then we
separated. Not a person mentioned the reason of our coming
together, except drinking to the health of the young folk.
On Sabbath-day they were proclaimed three several times,
for they were not inclined to wait for three Sabbath-days; they
were therefore exposed to pay three shillings instead of one,
which is thus divided-one shilling to the precentor, sixpence to
the person who proclaims them, and the rest to the poor. Early
on Monday morning two young men were despatched to the
hill to catch sheep; a certain quantity of barley grain was given
to the girls to be ground and baked; two elderly men were
appointed to boil the beef, and the rest skulked about the
houses, or lent a hand as need required . . . A considerable
number of the villagers attended the marriage sermon. As
soon as they were married they (the couple) went home; and
we saw no more of them till after tea, when the governor of
the feast, the bride's brother, came, dressed, in the uniform,
(which is a rag of white cotton cloth sewed to each shoulder
48
and the front of his bonnet) to invite us to the marriage feast ...
When we went we found every man in the island seated in the
house of the bride's father, with a table of planks before them;
the ground served them for seats. One end of the board was
raised much higher; this was intended for us, with a chest for
a seat, and opposite to us were the bride and bridegroom and
their friends. On the board before us were placed three plates,
(a very unusual thing in St Kilda) one filled with mutton, one
filled with barley bannocks, and the third filled with cheese.
The rest had their mutton and bread in wooden dishes made
by nailing small boards together. TI1ere was neither soup nor
drink of any kind on the board, nor used at any of their feasts.
After a blessing was pronounced, no conversation for a while
interrupted their eating, but afterwards there was some general
conversation. When we came out, the women and boys were
lounging about the house; the former waiting to get a piece of
bread and mutton as a reward for their baking and grinding.
Their portion being given out to them, the boys were seated
at the table to consume what remained; when these were
removed, all went home.
The Rev :NfacKenzie also had a case of breach of promise to

deal with. It was tried in open court at the end of the church,
before the ministers and elders. The lady proved her case against
the truant and he was fined, not a cash sum, but a hnndred full
grown fulmars, fifty young solan geese and a hair rope as a
solatium, and a tocher ( dowry) in the next matrimonial venture.

The hair rope was by far the most important part of the fine;
it was a prized possession necessary for bird-catching.
Death
Death on St Kilda was a solemn occasion, with those overtones
which are characteristic only of small communities. Again, the
Rev MacKenzie supplies the picture of a burial during the 1830s:
When it is known that death has really taken place, the near
relatives and others cry, and weep and wail. Who on such an
occasion could refrain from tears? Yet even grief and mourn
ing should have their bounds; but liere for a time they seem
to have none; to calm them is impracticable. In a short time,
49
ST I<.ILDA: ISLAND AND SOCIETY
however, they separate, and some of those who seemed com

fortless are nearly as cheerful as ever. This is the case with the
females, for the men in general have more regard to propriety.
They do not in general keep their dead above two or three
days in the house; during that time two or three persons who
can handle wood better than the rest are busily engaged in
making a coffin. Two more go to the hill for sheep belonging to
the deceased, or if he had none, one of his near relatives s up
plies sheep to be used at the funeral, and the rest of the inhabi
tants stand looking on, or sauntering about the houses, for they
will do no work when a dead body is in the village. The women,
at the same time, are as busily grinding and baking as if prepar
ing a marriage feast. These preparations are for food to those
that watch the corpse (which they assiduously do till interred),
for a feast of bread and mutton or beef, which they take in
the burying-ground, and a portion for the women who pre
pared the meat. The more sheep and cows they kill, and the
more barley they use, the more honour do they intend to confer
on their deceased friend. Those who have lost many relatives
have been much reduced by this foolish custom.
When all things are in readiness for the internment, a few of
the young men set off to a distance to get a broad turf for a
covering to the grave, while the rest are digging it. They then
come to the house and get the coffin well tied on two sticks,
and carry it in the course of the sun round the gardens with
which the group of houses which form the village are sur
rounded, though they should go through their corn. As soon as
the grave is filled up, they sit down, summer or winter, upon
the grass or stones, and eat the bread and beef which had been
prepared; and if any of them be detained at home, their por
tion is sent. If the deceased be an adult, he is interred in the
afternoon; and if a child, late in the evening.
Pastimes
In common with all remote commun ities, the islanders relied
on their own talents for their entertainment and amusement.
Before the adve nt of the Free Church to the islan d, the St
Kildans were 'very fond of music, dancing to an old wretched
fiddle with great d e l ight. They were al s o good singers, and
accompanied all their duties with suitable songs, ge ne rally of
50
their own composition.' Martin Martin says that the islanders

played the Jews harp which 'disposed them to dance mightily';
and when they brewed produced an ale which likewise 'when
drunk plentifully disposes them to dance merrily'. The islanders
were also given much to games, particularly shinty. Rock-climb
ing was as much a sport as an economic activity.
FOLKLORE
Folklore is die survival of the thought and ways of life of

former times. It is basically knowledge mostly preserved by oral
communication and gen�rally divorced effectively from the more
rationally-based knowledge of less superstitious people. Supersti
tion (Latin: super = above; stare = to stand) means a standing
over or a survival of an irrational or credulous attitude towards
magico-religious beliefs and practices of a civilised community,
long after these primitive ideas and customs have been abandoned
by the more sophisticated sections of society.
On approaching the subject of folklore and superstitious beliefs
in a small, well-insulated community such as St Kilda, one looks
for indications of an accretion of knowledge and beliefs over
many centuries which could be related to the development of
the community from its primitive beginnings to a more sophisti
cated·outlook on life and living.
In the main, however, one is disappointed with the survivals
of folklore and superstitious belief in St Kilda. One might have
expected interesting and significant idiosyncrasies, laterals of gen
eral Scottish Highland folklore showing St Kildan characteristics.
Instead, the ground is sparsely populated and virtually echoes the
general body of lore found on the Gaelic mainland of Scotland
and in Eire. One reason may well be the continuing crass ignor
ance of the St Kildans in failing to recognise the value of strength
ening oral methods of folklore preservation with the occasional
literary record. Again, the community may have been too small;
but this should not be accepted as the sole reason as even a single
family can accrete a kind of folklore throughout succeeding
generations. The influence of immigrants to St Kilda over the
centuries might also account for the St Kildan body of lore and
51
belief lacking some really individual characteristics. In summary,

while the islanders were for centuries hedged in with superstition
and customs which prevented progress to more rational planes
of thinking, they failed to produce the stuff by which their island
can be assessed in individualistic social terms.
Norse Legend
While many commumtles in Eire and Gaelic Scotland have
origins deep in prehistory, or in Celtic mythology with claims
to some connections with Celtic heroes, St Kilda can go back
little more than one millenium, to the days when the Norse in
fluence was being felt on the western seaboard of Scotland. The
King of Lochlainn (Norway) features prominently in all Gaelic
folktales; St Kilda lays claim to an association with a son of his.
This son was wrecked on a rock to the west of Hirt. He came
ashore in a small boat and made for a water-brook close by the
site of the present church. Here the St Kildans found him and,
while he drank deeply to wash the sea's salt out of his mouth and
lungs, they caught him by the neck and held his head under the
water until he drowned. The rock on which he was wrecked was
called Sgeir Mac Righ Lochlainn (rock of the son of the King
of Norway) and was named thus until at least the turn of this
century. The son of the king always came off second best in other
parts of Scotland; in St Kilda he fared no better.
Fairies
The ubiquitous fairies found their way to St Kilda. Their
presence on the island group is confirmed by a number of stories,
though the St Kildan fairy seems no different from his counter
part on the Scottish mainland.
The subterranean dwellings in Gleann Mor were regarded as
the habitat of the St Kildan fairies. Calum Mor's house was built
by Calum, or Big Malcolm, who was lame and, with the aid of
supernatural help, finished the construction all in one day. In
another time two islanders passed a green knoll, from the centre
of which they heard a noise. They paused an d while they listened
a door opened and a fairy woman emerged to offer each of them
a bowl of milk. One man accepted her generosity, crossing him-
52
"'l
'
J.- f \
'\ X.. ...,
..L. r- I
,
Page 53: (left) Stac Lee St Kilda; (right) Landing stores on the east cliffs of Toa Rona, North Rona
Pap,e 5·1 North Rona: (aboz,e) remains of a dwelling-house; (below) the
entrann• to thP l'hurch.Qucrn-stones are lying on the left
FOLKLORE
self while he did so in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. The act was an insult to the fairy who withdrew her offer
and disappeared into the knoll.
One woman working in the harvest field by the light of a St
Kildan moon, left her child on a fairy mound. Whe·n she returned
to the mound her child had been replaced by a fairy changeling.
Another mother was visited by two fairy women clad in green.
Seeing the child in her arms, they enchanted her and robbed
her of power of speech, but she heard the fairies discuss together
the gift of fluency of to'ngue which they were about to bestow
on the child. In later years this child grew to become one of the
most fluent persons on the island, with the ability to out-talk
a dozen people without feeling any fatigue.
The Water-bull
The tarbh uisge (water-bull) was another supernatural creature
found in St Kilda as on the Scottish mainland and Western Isles.
One day a St Kildan woman was gathering peats when a door
opened in a small hillock. Full of curiosity, but at the same time
being extremely cautious, she stuck a small iron knife into the
ground beside the door and peered into the interior of the mound.
To her amazement she saw a tiny speckled cow give birth to a
speckled calf without ears-the sure sign of the malevolent water
bull spirit.
Stones
Belief in the supernatural is associated with the Clach an Eolas,
the stone of knowledge. Supposedly, if any man stood on the stone
on the first day of the quarter he would receive second sight and
would be able to see all that was to happen in the ensuing quarter.
Another stone which featured prominently in the island's tradi
tion was the clack dotaig, a semi-transparent stone which, both
in St Kilda and in many other parts of the Highlands and Islands,
was held in reverence. To obtain this 'stone of virtues', one had
to boil a raven's egg and once boiled return it to the parent nest.
In time the parent bird would become so impatient for the egg
to hatch that it would fly off to return with this stone which a
diligent observer could secure as his treasured possession.
D 55
Y ct another stone on St Kilda with superstitious association

was that mentioned by MacAulay (1758). This stone was large,
square and white in colour; it was located on the face of a small
rise between the village and the north-west side of Hirt. The St
Kildans used to pour libations of milk into an indentation in this
stone each Sunday. The deity associated with the stone was the
gruagach, a supernatural being who, on the Scottish mainland,
was supposed to have once been a woman of good family put
under a spell and given a kind of fairy nature. It was the duty
of these beings (there were many of them) to be interested in
cattle and the dairy, and in the affairs of the house to which
they were attached. The libations of milk ensured the fertility
of the island's cattle and that no harm would come to them or to
the products from their milk yield. MacAulay also mentions that
some little way above this stone was a small plain green, tigh an
triar, where the islanders prayed for blessings upon their cattle
and where they used to sanctify them with salt, water a·nd fire,
when removing them from one grazing to another.
Below this plain was another with much the same character
which the islanders would never convert into arable gronnd be
lieving it to be the abode of some forgotten deity; any attempt
to disturb it would at once be punished by the loss of the island
boat or some other calamity. MacAulay says :
Here the old St Kildans implored the blessing of God on their

cattle, and here they lustrated or sanctified these cattle with
salt, water and fire. By virtue of this ceremony they conjured
away, or so they fondly thought, the power of fascinations, the
malignity of elves, and the vengeance of every evil genius.
Various accounts written of St Kilda mention that sacrifices

were once offercd to the God of the Seasons on a rising on Hirt
·
called Mullach-geal.
A stone more associated with custom and tradition rather than
superstition was the Lover's Stone. This is at the south-west
corner of the island, overlooking Soay. It is a lofty pinnacle, a
high perpendicular precipice some 200 ft above the sea. This
had to be climbed by all aspirants to St Kildan girls in marriage.
On reaching the top, the lover had to plant his left heel on the
56
FOLKLORE
outer edge, with the sole of his foot entirely unsupported, and
then to extend his right leg forward. The right foot had to be
grasped with both hands for a time deemed long enough to prove
his courage and ability to climb the other crags of St Kilda for
the harvest of birds.
fVells
The wells on St Kilda had their inevitable associations with
the supernatural, a possible carry-over from the beliefs in animism
which were widespread among the peoples of Britain before the
advent of Christianity. Tobar na Buadh (well of virtue) is located
at the foot of the great glen and some thirty yards from where
Amhuinn a' Ghlinne (river of the glen) enters the sea. 'It was
a fundamental article of faith,' says MacAulay, 'the water here
was a sovereign cure for a great variety of distempers, deafness
particularly, and every disease.' At one time there was a·n altar
close by the well where a prayer was offered to the deity; no one
approached this well with empt y hands. This well was far-famed.
1'1artin Martin first recorded it as being the 'finest of the excel
lent fountains or springs in which St Kilda abounds'. The more
active tourists of three centuries later landing on the island from
the Hebrides or the Dunara Castle used to dash for the col be
tween Mullach Sgar and Mullach-geal to drink the well waters.
Another popular well was Tobar na Cille, sometimes called
the well of St Brendan. This well was resorted to when the wind
was in the wrong direction and prevented the islanders from
launching their boat. The direction of the wind altered in the
islanders' favour when each man about to put to sea stood
astride the well waters for a few seconds.
Feast Days
The St Kildan calendar of holidays included six main feasts:
St Columba, St Brendan, Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter
and Michaelmas. Significantly, St Kilda himself is not remem
bered. On the saints' days, all the milk in the island was given to
the factor's deputy who thereupon divided it equally and impar
tially between every man, woman and child. On Christmas and
New Year's Day the St Kildans ate the best food they could
57
afTord and drank liberally and 'danced with vigour'. Easter was
observed in a solemn and quiet manner while Michaelmas was a
kind of Derby Day, similar to the horse races which once took
place in North Uist. Again this custom looks much like an
importation from that island. On this particular feast day, a pro
cession was formed on the shore. All those who had horses were
mounted, without saddle or bridle, and had only a wisp of straw
to guide the horse's head. The procession went as far as the
houses, when the horses returned to the shore for those who had
been left behind; this went on until everyone in the island had
taken part in the proceedings. It was also the custom on St
Michael's Day to prepare in each family a large loaf of bread,
dedicated to the saint, and divided among the members of the
family.
Second Sight
The instances of second sight in St Kilda are mainly con
cerned with the foretelling of death and the description of the
funeral or progress of a coffin. These instances parallel with those
recorded for other parts of the Hebrides, particularly the Southern
Isles.
Duigan and Fearchar Mor

The story of these two men is one of the few tales of truly
St Kildan origin. The Rev Neil MacKenzie (minister of St Kilda
c 1830) tells the tale :
... Several hundred years ago, two men from Lewis, Duigan
and Fearchar Mor visited St Kilda. On a certain day the two
went up to the top of Aois-mheall : they were no sooner up
than down they came in a flurry, crying that the Sassenachs
were coming, and, in the same breath, imploring the poor simple
natives, who believed them implicitly, to betake themselves to
the chapel-to the horns of the altar, the sanctity of which,
they said, would save them. The inhabitants were no sooner
in the chapel than the Lewis-men secured the door-set fire to
the fabric, and burned everyone living in the island except one
old woman who happened to be absent. This woman, smelling
58
FOLKLORE
that all was not right, concealed herself in a cave on the south
side of the bay, preserving life for several months by stealing
during the night from the ruffian's store. The Land Steward's
birlinn was seen at the set time making towards the island;
the two men hurried to the beach to meet him and tell him
a made-up tale; by this time the solitary woman had made her
appearance-the men were astonished-the secret was dis
closed-the steward gave his verdict, namely, that Duigan and
Fearchar Mor be both left upon Stac an Armin where they
could get nothing but raw birds. Upon reaching Stac an Armin,
Fearchar Mor said to Duigan, 'Do not forget your flint and
steel.' On hearing this the steward seized the fire-raisers, which
when Fearchar Mor saw he gave a desperate leap into the
fathomless main and was seen no more! Duigan was left on
Soay, where he built a wall, to protect him from the north wind,
which bears his name to this day, as also the cave in which he
spent the remainder of his sorry existence.
In this tradition, it is said that the old woman was taken off
St Kilda and for some time, until repopulated with fresh stock,
the island was deserted.
Perhaps the one solitary instance of an exclusive St Kildan
legend is that of the 'Amazon'. Her house is known today as the
Tigh na Banaghaisgich or female warrior's house (see page 101).
It has been known in Gleann Mor since :Martin Martin gave us
the first authentic description of St Kilda in 1697. The Amazon's
house was a focal point in St Kildan tradition. Martin mentions
that there were many traditions connected with this lady but
'1 shall trouble my Reader with no more of them'.
POETRY AND SONG
When Robert Connell, of the Glasgow Herald, made his visits to

St Kilda in 1885 and 1886, he endeavoured without much success
to collect what original poetical fragments remained in oral circu
lation among the islanders. Martin writes of 'some of both sexes
who have a genius for poetry, and are great admirers o f music'.
Most other writers have, ho wev er, indicated that the St Kildans
were g iven credit for possessing a higher degree of intellect than
59
was in fact the case. Even so, there do exist a number of frag
ments of song and poetry which prove that the islanders had in
herited enough of the gift of the Celt in the world of word and
music to produce the occasional gem showing interesting or
original poetic imagery. Out of hand, Dr Johnson, while on his
tour of the Hebrides (he was once offered the chance to buy the
island of St Kilda but refused), declared that no good poetry
could come from St Kilda, perhaps thinking that a community
must needs be considerably larger in order to generate, contain
and nourish the creative elements which are necessary to produce
the cultural background of any community.
As might be expected, the St Kildan songs and poetry find
their roots in the daily life and experiences of the islanders. One
set of verses (all poetry and songs were in Gaelic) was composed
by a St Kildan woman whose husband and son set out for the
strait between Hirt and Dun to catch guillemots. Despite pre
cautions taken by the father for his son's safety, the latter fell
over a precipice into the sea and was drowned. Robert Connell
remarks that the verses of poetry he found were nearly all pitched
in a minor key.
The collection of Gaelic hymns, incantations and fragments
of verse by Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, contains
some examples of St Kildan poetry. Carmichael, who spent many
years in the Hebrides recording and collecting much of what
would now be lost had it not been for his intense interest in the
subject, writes of one reciter whom he met in 1865 :
The technique and diction of the following pieces would not

satisfy Johnson, but they have other qualities that might please
him. Though not old, they have a charming simplicity and
intense feeling. There are some ...which the writer took down
on 22nd May 1865 from the recitation of Eibhrig Nic Cruimein,
Euphemia MacCrimmon, cottar, aged eighty-four years, who
had many old songs, stories and traditions of the island ... The
a ged reciter was much censured for her recital of these songs
and poems, and the writer for causing the old woman to stir
the recesses of her memory for this lore; for the people of St
Kilda have now discarded songs and music, dancing, folk l ore,
and the stories of the foolish past.
60
POETRY AND SONG
The following 'St Kilda Lilt', in the form of a dialogue, was

composed by Euphemia NiacCrimmon's father and mother before
they were married:
HE:
Away bent spade, away straight spade,

Away each goat and sheep and lamb;
Up my rope, up my snare-
r have heard the gannet upon the sea!
Thanks to the Being, the gannets are come,
Yes, and the big birds along with them;
Dark dusky maid, a cow in the fold!
A brown cow, a brown cow, a brown cow beloved,
A brown cow, my dear one, that would milk the milk for
thee,
Ho ro ru ra ree, playful maid,
Dark dusky maid, cow in the fold !
The birds are a-coming, I hear their tune !
SHE:
Truly my sweetheart is the herdsman

Who would threaten the staff and would not strike!
HE:
Mary, my dear love is the maid,

Though dark her locks her body is fragrant!
SHE:
Thou art my handsome joy, thou art my sweetheart,

Thou gavest me first the honied fulmar!
HE:
Thou art my turtle-dove, thou art my mavis,

Thou are my melodious harp in the sweet morning.
SHE:
Thou art my hero, thou art my basking sunfish,

Thou gavest me the puffin and the black-headed guillemot.
HE:
The mirth of my eyes and the essence of my joy thou art,

And my sweet-sounding lyre in the mountain of mist.
The following song or lament 'It was no crew of landsme·n',

was composed to commemmorate the death of eighteen St Kildans
on their return from a mercy food mission to North Uist :
61
It was no crew of landsmen

Crossed the ferry on Wednesday:
'Tis tidings of disaster if you live not.
What has kept you so long from me?

Is the high sea and the sudden wind catching you,
So that you could not at once give her sail.
'Tis a profitless journey

That took the noble man away,
To take our one son from me and from Donald.
My son and my three brothers are gone,

And the one son of my mother's sister,
And, sorest tale, that will come or has come, my husband.
What has set me to draw ashes

And to take a spell at digging
Is that the men are away with no word of their living.
I am left without fun or merriment

Sitting on the floor of the glen;
My eyes are wet, oft are tears on them.
Closer to the workaday life of the islanders are the working

or labour songs, of which the following St Kilda waulking song,
is typical:
I would make the fair cloth for thee,

Thread as the thatch-rope stout.
I would make the feathered buskin for thee,

Thou beloved and importunate of men.
I would give thee the precious anchor,

And the family gear which my grandfather had.
My love is the hunter of the bird,

Who earliest comes over misty sea.
My love the sailor of the waves,

Great the cheer his brow will show.
62
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
The St Kildan community, always functional in its approach

to life, held education in no great esteem. When, during the reign
of Queen Anne, the Rev Alexander Buchan was sent to the island
he did manage to educate some of the boys. Fifty years later, in
1758, the Rev MacAulay found all but four of the islanders
illiterate. But by the 1880s, there was scarcely a child of six
years old on the island who could not read at least one portion
of the Bible.
Education, as a formal function of society, first came to St
Kilda in 1709, when a Charity School was set up. It was financed
and managed by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christ
ian Knowledge (SSPCK). The school had a chequered history.
In a return for 1714, concerning the number of children attend
ing the society's schools, there was 'no account this year for Hirta'.
In 17 27 : 'At Hirta, alias St Kilda, an island and parish in the
Presbytery of Longisland . . . the greatest number of scholars at
once there is only 28.' A century later the school on the island fell
under the management of the Gaelic School Society. There were
44 scholars : 26 males and 18 females. 6 of the males, of whom
3 were married, were aged between 20 and 40 years. Of the
females, 6 were between the ages of 20 and 30. When the 1861
Census was taken, only 2 islanders, neither St Kildan by birth,
could speak English; and only 2 were able to sign their names.
Thus it is plain that, until 1884, education on St Kilda was a
sporadic matter and was entirely dependent on the attitude and
interest shown by the resident missionary.
In the summer of 1884, the first schoolmaster arrived on St
Kilda. The presence of Mr Campbell was the result of an
application made to the secretary of the Ladies Association of
the Highland Society. Campbell's school was a room in the factor's
house. There was a quick succession of teachers (six in all) be
tween 1884 an d 1888. In 1888, there were 14 schoolchildren on
the island : 10 boys a·nd 4 girls, all at various stages of learning.
Besides grammar, the subjects taught were geography, history,
arithmetic, and composition. One boy was sufficiently well
advanced to be able to learn some Latin. The pupils were divided
63
into three groups or 'classes': Senior, Intermediate, and Junior.

In 1892, there were 19 schoolchildren most of whom were under
the age of 14 years. By 1898, when Norman Heathcote visited
St Kilda for a study of the island's natural history, the children
could speak English well. The year before had seen the founda
tions of the island's new schoolhouse laid with full Masonic
honours. By 1899 the building was completed. In 1906, when the
number of children attending school had risen to twenty-two, St
Kilcla saw the dawn of a new era in education with the advent
of Mr and Mrs MacLauchlan.
Under the supervision of this man-and-wife team, education
took on many practical aspects. School began at 10 o'clock and
finished at 4 o'clock, with an hour's break for lunch. Mr Mac
Lauchlan took the morning classes while his wife took those in the
afternoon. They found the isla·nders, particularly the young ones,
eager to learn. The young girls, with their mothers, were taught
to make clothing in an island where the tailoring had previously
been done by the men. The increase in the islanders' facility with
the English language proved of value when the tourist trade
brought visitors to the island. No efforts were made, however, to
teach the islanders how to improve their cloth-making (tweed)
techniques, their husbandry, or their crops by the use of artificial
fertilisers.
An interesting document, the St I<ilda School Log Book is
preserved by the Inverness-shire Education Authority, latterly
responsible for education facilities on the island. It reveals life
on the island from the days of the first school to the last entries in
1930:
1906, Oct 3-No school for three days owing to the sad death
by drowning of Norman Gillies, one of the VI Str pupils. Great
gloom over the island.
1909, Mar 22-Great drowning accident; school closed for
seven days.
1916, Aug 22-A sad accident occurred while after the fulmar
and two men lost their lives. Owing to this the school was not
open yesterday.
1918, 10 Dec-School reopened today. No school has been held
since the island was bombarded (by a German submarine) on
64
EDUCATION
15th May. During most of that time the school has been
occupied by a party from the naval station while their own
premises have been repaired .
1930, 12 June - N o school today. Mr Tom J oh n sto n , M.P.,
Under Secretary for Scotland with other representatives of the
Government visited the island in conn ection with the e vacua
tion. A general meeting was held in the school .
1930, June-Attendance perfect for last week. (Eight). Schoof
closed today with a small treat which the children seemed
thoroughly to enjoy. Today probably ends the school in St
Kilda as all the inhabitants intend leaving the island this sum
m er. I hope to be away soon.
Thus ends the logbook, to the tune of an old song: the desertion
of an island. The school itself was classed as the 'St Kilda Sub
School, conducted under Art. 19 of the Scotch Code and is under
Obbe Public School, Harris, for the purpose of that Article.'
MEDICAL SERVICES
The medical history of St Kilda is full of paradoxes. For in

stance, while other small isolated communities tended to suffer
from intermarriage and inbreeding, the St Kildans were remark
able in showing no ill-effects from consanguineous marriages. In
the Edinburgh Medical journal of April 1865, it was noted that
of the fourteen married couples O'n St Kilda at that time, in not
one case was the relationship that of full cousins. In five couples
the relationship was that of second cousin, and to these fifty-four
children had been born. Thirty-seven of these had died in infancy
as the result of disease; of the remaining seventeen, not one was
in any way abnormal, either physically or mentally. In 1878,
Sands remarked: 'Although they have intermarried possibly for
a thousand years, none of the pernicious effects that one has been
taught to expect has resulted.' The fact is that the St Kildans
themselves were fully aware of the effects of inbreeding and, like
many primitive societies, exercised strict control on marriages.
In addition, the resident minister or missionary saw to it that
couples who wanted to marry were not too closely related. A
further reason for the virtual absence of the effects of inter-
55
marriage between close cousins was the occasional sally to the

main Hebridcan islands by St Kildans in search of wives.
In 1697 Martin Martin observed that the children of the isla:nd
were so strong and agile that, even at the age of three, they were
able to scale the walls of the old 'black houses' with little diffi
culty. By the twentieth century, however, the St Kildans suffered
from debilitating weakness, evidenced by the increased incidence
of rheumatism, colds and headaches. Medical observers saw a
physical deterioration, no doubt brought about by the increased

frequency of contacts with tourists and visitors who must have
brought to the island illnesses which the St Kildans were not able
to fight o�, lacking the necessary immunity.
Disease, in one form or another, looms large in the island's
medical history. In 1684 leprosy struck hard and was still in evi
dence when Martin visited St Kilda thirteen years later. In 1724 a
smallpox epidemic virtually wiped out the community. According
to one source of information, an old St Kilda man, Donald Mac
Donald, went to Harris where he died of smallpox. The follow
ing year his clothes were brought back to St Kilda by a relation
and immediately the whole community went down with the
disease. Only four adults and twenty-six orphaned children man
aged to survive the epidemic, the only survivors out of twenty-five
families.
It was a miraculous survival, of which the Rev Neil Mac
Kenzie wrote:
The disease ...which caused by far the greatest mortality was

a visitation of smallpox. It was brought to the island in the
clothes of one of their number who died of the disease in Harris.
It broke out just after a party had been left on Stack-an-Armin
to collect feathers. At such times they generally remain away
for about ten days. Before that time expired the disease had
made such progress that there were not in health a sufficient
number to form a crew. Death after death followed. At last
there was scar cely sufficient left to bury the dead. As they had
then no spades, one man is said to have dug eleven graves
with the back board of a wool card about 18 inches by 9 in
s1ze. No coffins were attempted. So weak were the survivors,
that when the dead bodies sometimes fell off the planks on
66
MEDICAL SERVICES
which they were being carried, they were unable to raise them
up again, and had to drag them to their graves. The hand of
death was heavy on the place; out of twenty-five families only
five could keep a fire. There were ninety-four deaths. When
the factor came next summer he found those who had been
left on Stack-an-Armin all well. They lived on fish and fowls,
but at times suffered much from cold and hunger. They made
fish-hooks out of a few rusty nails, and also contrived to stitch
together their clothing with feathers and patch them with the
skins of birds. They returned mostly to empty houses, crops
generally never reaped, and the cattle roaming about half wild .
•
In 1832 there was an epidemic of cholera, though the popula

tion remained stable through the period of the disease. In 1913
another epidemic, of influenza and pneumonia, paralysed island
life. Notice of the illnesses was sent to the Local Government
Board in Edinburgh and arrangements were made with the
Admiralty to dispatch a cruiser, HMS Active, with medical aid
and food to the island. Two of the officers of the Board and two
nurses joined the vessel at Oban. By the time the party had
reached St Kilda most of the islanders were convalescing from
influenza of the bronchial type. Most of the wome·n and children
had been acutely ill and highly fevered. In several houses, the
entire family was prostrated, with as many as eight people, in
cluding children, in bed in the same room. Windows were tightly
sealed. As ·no one had been available to cook food or even to milk
the cows for several days, the condition of the people was pitiable.
The church was cleaned, disinfected and converted into a tem
porary hospital and the adjoining school room was used as store
room and kitchen. All the islanders recovered. The source of the
epidemic was never discovered.
ln general, the islanders were physically fit and suffered no
more nor less than those in larger mainland communities. In
1830 the people were described as 'slender of form with fair hair
and a florid complexion. On the whole they are good-looking.
The diseases to which they are most subject are spotted fever,
dyspepsia, and nervous disorders, with swelling and bowing of
their limbs.'
In 1877 the islanders were '... of moderate stature; the men
67
between 65 inches and 67! inches tall, looked healthy and well
fed, though rather flabby. The prevalent disease was rheumatism
and dyspepsia was also common.' Towards 1890 the children o·n
the island '. . . were anaemic and languid, suffering from
symptoms of incipient scurvy'.
One illness which was not native to the isla·nd was the 'boat
cold'. The St Kildans' affinity for this illness was an example of
their lack of immunity to imported germs. The 'boat cold' was
not quite confined to St Kilda: other remote islands such as
Foula and Fair Isle experienced this peculiar instance of a com
munity contracting disease from visitors. The illness was seldom
fatal, though the occasional death did occur. The more important
effect of the illness was the manner in which it could interrupt
the routine of the island. Work was ofte·n made impossible, some
times for weeks.
By far the most ravaging of diseases was that which struck
at newborn infants and killed them before they had lived eight
days. This was the 'sickness of eight days', or tetanus infantus.
The first mention of the disease was made by MacAulay in 1756,
though the disease was known and experienced before this date.
Accurate records were not kept until the era of the Rev Neil
MacKenzie, resident minister from July 1830 to October 1844.
During this period of 14 years there were 68 deaths on the island.
Of these, 37 were infant deaths (26 male : 11 female) thirty-two
of them being the result of tetanus. What was even more sadden
ing to the community was that of the 32 babes who died of
tetanus, 23 were male children. According to the British &
Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review of 1838, eight out of every
ten babies born on St Kilda died of tetanus.
With the isla'nd's ecclesiastics declaring that the disease was
the way in which God controlled the population of the island
and punished the wicked, the disease was accepted. When Miss
Emily .MacLeod visited the island in 1877 she was told, after
suggesting that a trained nurse be sent to St Kilda : 'If it is God's
will that babies should die nothing you can do will save them.'
It was, strangely, left to the Rev Angus Fiddes to reverse the
preaching of his predecessors and show that the cause of the disease
was I\1an not God. In 1890 he applied to Glasgow for help in
68
JdEDICAL SERVICES
the form of a trained nurse. A nurse did arrive and stayed ten
mo·nths, but she did not achieve much. The reason for her failure
was that she had to remove centuries of tradition, in particular
the rites carried out on the severed umbilical cord by a bean
ghluine or 'knee-woman' who was always present at the moment
of birth and acted as midwife. This rite took the form of covering
the severed umbilicus with a mixture of fulmar oil and dung.
On many other islands with the same ritual, butter was used, but
this was a scarce commodity in St Kilda and the islanders used
their own deadly concoction. Suspecting that this was the source
of the disease, Fiddes took a course in midwifery.
In the Glasgow Medical journal of 1894, Dr Turner of Glas
gow, who tutored Fiddes in midwifery, wrote :
Considering that what theoretically would be likely to give

the best chance to escape the disease would be the careful anti
septic treatment of the cord, I gave Mr Fiddes instructions for
the application of iodoform freely to it, when it was first dressed,
for it to be rolled up in iodoform gauze, the whole to be covered
with a large pad of sublimated gamgee, and all the rest of the
child's clothing to be kept as scrupulously clean as possible. I
further told him to sec that a little fresh iodoform was dusted
round the stump of the cord until it came off, and the umbilicus
was satisfactorily healed.
When Mr Fiddes returned to St Kilda, he commenced battle

with the 'knee-woman'. It was long and bitter. But in the end,
armed with medical knowledge and antiseptics, he won the day.
The centuries-old grip of tetanus infantus on St Kilda was
loosened for the short time which remained to the community to
enj oy life on their island before they left it for ever. Perhaps
Fiddes had won a hollow victory.
Ultimately St Kilda was provided with official medical services
which were, inevitably, a charge on the British nation, the cost
being in the region of £300 per annum.
69
2 ST KILDA: ISLAND ECONOMY
ESPITE the forbidding nature of its environment, the
D St Kildan community was virtually self-supporting. It

provided its own food, clothing, fuel and domestic gear.
Until the late nineteenth century the economic bases on which the
community was founded were broad enough to be relevant in a
contemporary context. The economic and social upheavals which
followed the Industrial Revolution during last ce·ntury eventually
so influenced the small isla·nd community that the islanders be
came social anachronisms. Their economic bases became irrele
vant, not only to the islanders themselves, but also to those
outside the community whose tastes had changed and who
ceased to fi'nd attraction in the low-standard products of the
community, which ultimately had to compete with factory
products.
The produce of St Kilda over the centuries included cattle,
cheese, tweed cloth, blankets, fulmar oil, tallow, wool, feathers,
fish (salted cod a·nd ling), sheepskins and knitwear. Rents were
paid mostly in cloth and feathers, these items being easily con
verted into cash by the factor on the mainla·nd. The value of the
island's produce was, however, small. In 1875, John Sands, :MP
and journalist, visited St Kilda and produced a breakdown of
the island's exports: cattle-20 head; cheese-918 lb; cloth-
227 yd (of 49 in); blankets-403 yd (of 49 in); fulmar oil-566
gall; tallow-414 lb; wool-no quantity given, though some
exported; black feathers-2,103 lb; grey feathers-1,675 lb;
fish-1,080. The total value was about £250. The price paid to
the islanders was only £3 per head. While the economy of the
island existed on a non-cash basis, money was not important.
But as the St Kildans became more sophisticated, their new re
quirements resulted in an exports/imports imbalance which the
island economy was unable to rectify. The main imports latterly
included tea, whisky, meal, sugar, salt, paraffin, metal tools,
70
Page 71 l'\orth Rona: (above) ship lying in Geodha a' Stoth, Fianuis;
(below) the west cliffs in a fon�e 9 gale
Page 72 North Rona: (aboue) the west cliffs; (below) guillemots
ST KILDA: ISLAND ECONOA1Y
tobacco, hardware, and simple items of furniture which the

islanders could not make for themselves.
The community's primary function-apart from survival-was
always to yield sufficient produce to pay for the rent of the island.
In 1758 it was £11; by 1883 it had increased to about £95; in
1887 it was about £60, by virtue of new agreements with the
owner. The rent was ever a problem and sometimes a source of
complaint: at least once in the history of the island the commun
ity rebelled against the impositions placed on them by the factor.
But by 1928, MacLeod of :MacLeod, the owner of St Kilda, had
to graciously waive thirteen years of unpaid rent owed to him
by the 3 7 inhabitants remaining on the island two years before
their evacuation.
There were, however, times when it seemed that the sun smiled
on the community: the bird harvests were good, island produce
was exchanged for cash and merchandise and life was good. The
following summarises the main items (with typical prices) in the
island's economy a t various dates :
Prices of Imports 1877

Meal 25s (£1·25) per boll Leather (soles) 2s (lOp) per lb
Oats 25s (£1·25) per boll Leather (uppers) 2s 3d (llp) per lb
Salt 3s (15p) per cwt Bonnets (for men) 4s (20p) each
Coarse sugar 7d (3p) per lb Cravats 3s (15p) each
Tea 5s (25p) per lb From tourists 5s (25p) per head
Whisky 4s (20p) per bottle
Tobacco 5s (25p) per lb
Prices of Exports 1799-1902
1799 A shee p 3s 6d (17·50p)

A cow 30s (£1·50)
Feathers 3s (15p) per stone
sold in the Hebrides for lOs (SOp) per stone
A cow 25s 6d ( £1 2 7)
1831
·
A pony 25s (£1·25)

Feathers 5s (25p) per stone
184 2
sold on the Scottish mainland for 15s
(75P ) P er
stone
A cow £3
1875 Gs 6d (32·5p) per stone
Tallow
Che es e 6s (30p) per stone
73
ST KILDA: ISLAND ECONOMY
Ling 7d (3p) each
Cod 3d (lp) each
Bream ld (�p) each
Black feathers 6s (30p) per stone
Grey feathers Ss (25p) per stone
Fulmar oil Ss (25p) per pint
1877 Cheese 6s 6d (32�p) per stone
1885 Tweed cloth 3s ( 1 5 p) per yell
Blanketing 2s 6d ( 1 2.Zp) per yell
1902 Fulmar oil 6d (2!p) per p int
later 4id (2p) per pint
St Kilda stone 24 English lb
=
St Kilda pint = 5 English pin ts
BIRDS
The wealth of St Kilda lay undoubtedly in the seabirds which

bred in their millions on the high cliffs of the island group. The
continued existence of the island community almost wholly
depended on the gannet, the fulmar, the puffin, and, to a much
lesser extent, on other bird species. The birds were at once a
source of food, of produce for export and of basic materials for
domestic use.
The gannet (or solan goose) was the foundation of the island's
economy. It is a large bird measuring up to 5 ft across the wings
when fully spread. Excepting the head, which is brown, and the
black tops on the wings, the bird is all white. The bill is long
and straight, and has a slight crook at the point. The gannet's
egg is slightly less in size than that of the land goose. The main
food is the herring and the mackerel. In 1697, when Martin
1\.fartin visited St Kilda, gannets formed the principal food. He
recorded that 22,600 gannets had been caught in 1696, though
this figure has been questioned. Even now, after years of free
dom from persecution, the great gannetry at St Kilda is estimated
to contain only about 17,000 breeding pairs.
Said Martin :
We shall take it for gran ted that there are 100,000 of that
kind (solan goose) around the rocks of St Kilda; and this calcu
lation is by far too moderate, as no less than 20,000 of this
kind are destroyed every year, including the young ones. We
74
BIRDS
shall suppose, at the same time , that the solan geese sojourn in
these seas for about seven months of the year; that each of
them destroys five herrings in a day; a subsistence infinitely
poor for so greedy a creature, unless it were more than half
supported at the expense of other fishes. Here we have
100,000,000 of the finest fish in the world devoured annually
by a single species of the St Kilda sea-fowls.
In 1841, James Wilson estimated that the gannetry at St Kilda,

which is still the world's largest, consumed about 300,000 barrels
of fish annually, more than the total produced by all the north
east fishing stations in Scotland at that time.
Throughout the history of St Kilda, at no time until about
1910 did any thought of conservation of stock enter into the
islanders' minds. The annual slaughter over the years ended with
the inevitable result: the islanders had to resort to killing other
seabird species to make up the annual quota required for the
survival of the human species on the island and to pay the rent.
In 1786 it was recorded that over 1,200 gannets were taken in a
single night. During the early nineteenth century, the fulmar
became the target for the bird-hunters. Even so, seldom did the
annual to ta l of gannets killed fall below some 5,000 birds. By
1841, however, the islanders were killing only about 1,400 gan
nets; in the twentieth century the number fell to 300 birds killed
and preserved each year. The gannet colonies are concentrated
on Borcray, Stac an Armin, and Stac Lee.
The fulmar is similar in size to the gull. The plumage of the
head, neck, breast and tail is a dull white. The wings and back
are slate-grey. The pale yellow bill is very strong. The female of
the species lays one egg each season, in mid-May. In early August
the young fulmar begins to stretch its wings, a sign which heralded
the hunting season. While the bird is being caught, it ejects an
evil-smelling oily liquid at its captor. The liquid is amber-coloured
and its pungent smell pervades everywhere. Before 1878, this
Arctic species bred in British waters only at St Kilda. There
was a fairly consistent population at some 21,000 breeding
pa1rs.
When the fulmar took over in importance as the main element
in the St Kildan economy, very large numbers were caught. In
75
1910 the year's catch was 9,600 fulmars, compared with 600
gannets.
The third species of seabird which was of importance to the
islanders was the puffin. This bird is about the size of a pigeon.
The plumage is black on the back, and red and white about the
breast. The legs and feet are red. The beak is marked with red,
yellow and grey. The bird has a slightly comic look. The main
food is fish fry. The puffin lays its single egg in a burrow; if the
egg is stolen or raided by a black-back gull, the puffin will lay a
replacement. The present puffin population on St Kilda is about
1,000,000 and it is the most common bird in the island group.
According to the Rev N. MacKenzie (c 1834), some 18,000 to
20,000 puffins were killed each year during the hunting season. In
1897, 9,000 birds were killed. In 1928, two years before the
island's evacuation, the number preserved for human consump
tion was in the region of 4,000.
Though other seabirds were caught, in no way did the numbers
of these killed approach the figures of the gannet, the fulmar
and the puffin.
There was a regular timetable for harvesting the seabirds :
February Razorbill and guillemot
March Old solan goose
Summer Puffins and fulmar
Oct/Nov Young solan goose
Fowling Techniques
The physiology of the St Kildans was evolved tluough cen
turies of rock-climbing. The islanders were short, stocky, very
muscular and agile. The bone structure of their ankles was most
suited to climbing; their toes had a wide set and were almost pre
hensile. By a process of natural selection, the community was by
and large strong and healthy. Those who perished on the island's
rock-cliffs were fated, or were otherwise the victims of genuine
accidents.
All climbing was done barefoot, or in coarse socks. It was more
a matter of lowering on good ropes than in asce·nding from below.
Generally a fowling party moved together rather than singly over
the hunting rocks. In more difficult places one man moved at a
76
BIRDS
time, the slack in the rope being taken up by the others. The man
on the rope gave his full attention to the serious business of either
snaring the birds with a long noosed rod, or reaching for eggs.
Great importance was attached to the quality of the climbing
rope, one of the most treasured possessions of an islander. To
lose his rope was tantamount to losing his life, for he would then
have lost his living. Climbing ropes were often handed down
from father to son as heirlooms. In former times they were made
of plaited horsehair (served and parcelled) and even of straw.
A good horsehair rope had a life of some fifty years. The material
was derived from the island's stock of horses which became largely
extinct c 1840. In Martin Martin's time there were three ropes on
St Kilda, each about 150ft long and reckoned to have the same
value in e."Xchange or barter as two good cows. A new-made rope
was tested by putting a strain on it: four men pulling against
the weight of a large boulder round which one end of the rope
was tied. If the rope passed this test without breaking, it was
deemed safe to use for fowling by the island's Parliament. A�
sheachd beannac hd nan cairdean �sa lon laidir na feuma (Seven
fold blessings to the friends and the strong rawhide rope in time
of need)--not for nothing did the climbing rope enter into the
island's proverbial sayings. Latterly, the ropes were made of
Manilla hemp. Another article used for bird-catching was a rod
fully 10 ft long with a noose at the end. This was carried in the
hand. A clasp-knife was often carried on a string hung round the
catcher's neck. In the early years of the community's existence
the fowlers went foraging alone. Later, the fowling team usually
comprised four men, one of whom fastened the rope end round
his chest, low enough to allow maximum freedom of movement.
The other end was held securely, without stakes, by those at the
cliff head. Fulmars were killed by having their necks broken. A
special twist in the neck was necessary to 'lock in' the oil which
was the St Kildan's s ource of light in the dark winter nights. As
the fowler killed he threw the birds into a safe place and made
his way slowly along the nesting ledges.
After a quantity of birds had been killed, the fowler shouted
to his companions who pulled their partner, laden with dead
birds (each weighing 2-3 lb) to the cliff top. When the ropes
77
ST I<.ILDA: ISLAND ECONOMY
were not long enough to allow the fowler to reach the lowest nest
ing ledges, a series of ropes and holding teams was established on
the cliff face. The fulmar harvest began on 12 August, all fowling
ropes having been duly inspected and passed by the Parliament
the previous day. The harvest period usually lasted three weeks.
The Parliament also decided which parts of the rocks should be
cleared of birds, a·nd on which days. All other work was virtually
dropped once the bird-catching season arrived. As the poem says:
'Away my spade! and up, my rope and snare, I've heard the
gannet on the sea ! '
The gannets were to be found only on Boreray a·nd the other
St Kildan stacs. They were difficult to obtain, both because of
their method of nesting and the patience, time and skill required
of the fowlers. In addition, the birds had to be taken at night
while they sat on their nests. The sentry bird had to be killed
first, otherwise it would cry out and alarm the whole colony.
Once this bird was killed, a task requiring patience and skill,
the sleeping birds were knocked on the head with a thick stick
and thrown down the cliff faces into the sea below where the
carcases were picked up by the waiting boat.
The puffins were mostly caught by the women and children on
the island, the bird colonies being in the more accessible horizontal
cliff-tops rather than on the faces. Puffin-snaring began with a
curious rite. A bird was caught and removed of all its feathers
except those on the wings and tail. It was then set free when it
would be attacked by the other puffins. Says Sands 1875:
While the sagacious animals (the dogs) pawed at one hole,

they (the women) kept a watchful eye on the burrows adjacent
as if they expected the puffins to issue from them. Some of the
girls at the same time were plunging their hands deep into the
holes and dragging out the birds, and twisting their necks with
a dexterity which only long practice could give.
Snares were often made of horsehair. The dogs were specially

trained to catch puffins.
Ilarvest Yield
In 1875, Sands reported the yield for that year: fulmar oil-
78
BIRDS
566 gall; black feathers-2,103 lb; grey feathers-1,675 lb.

Some of the oil was exported direct to Skye where it was used
for smearing sheep; it was more often sold to the factor. Very few
of the puffin carcases were eaten, the puffin being killed mainly
for its feathers.
Two bird species were subjected to the communalistic division
of spoils: the solan goose and the fulmar. The birds killed were
divided equally amongst the islanders. After the division, each
share was taken back to the family home where the men, women
and children would spend long nights plucking the birds and
preparing the carcases for preservation as food during the winter.
The feathers were carefully set aside and sorted for sale to the
factor. Each ft1lmar gave a yield of about half a pint of oil, the
liquid being squeezed out of the carcase and put into canisters.
The carcase was then split lengthways down the back, and the
viscera removed to be used for manure. The whole was then
salted and stored in special barrels. About 200 birds filled one
barrel; each family had about 4 or 5 barrels kept in the cleits.
AGRICULTURE
In 1697 the islanders, according to :Martin Martin, gave voice

to their lack of desire to extend their agricultural activities; this,
even though the soil was sweet and fertile, and the barley pro
duced was the largest in the Western Isles. It ripened earlier than
in other parts and was an important item of export from the
island. Even by 1819, 11acCulloch wrote that the barley ' ... is
by much the finest to be seen in the whole circuit of the isles'.
Agriculture was an incidental pursuit and came nowhere near
the popularity of bird catching. The abundance and certainty
of the sea birds were far more important than reliance on sca·nty
soil, however well it might be cultivated. Agricultural activity
was restricted to an area of a few acres below the village. The
system of land use was that found in other parts of the Highlands
and islands, ie runrig, in which the strips of soil were interchanged
every three years. The earliest crops were barley and oats. Later
potatoes, cabbages and turnips were grown. Though the soil sur
face was thin, it was kept well manured by peat ash, bird car-
79
cases and the occasional old thatch from a house (well-sooted by

the peat fire). The main implement of cultivation was the cas
chrom (bent foot) which was essentially a long wooden handle
with a right-angled iron socket. Until the year of evacuation
(1930) the quern was used to grind the grain.
As much as fifty acres within the township wall were usually
cultivated with a few acres lying fallow. By 1927 only two acres
were sown with potatoes and com. The remaining area produced
luxuriant bracken, dockens and other weeds.
But even with good cropping techniques there could be the
occasional famine. In July of 1841 J. Wilson found :
The people are suffering very much from want of food.
During spring, ere the birds came, they literally cleared the
shore, not only of shell-fish, but even of a species of sea-weed
that grows abundantly on the rocks within the sea-mark. For
a time then they were better off, particularly as long as fresh
eggs could be got. Now the weather is coarse, birds cannot be
found, at least in such abundance as their needs require. Sorrel
boiled in water is the principal part of the food of some, and
even that grass is getting scarce. All that was near is exhausted,
and they go to the rocks for it, where formerly they used to go
for birds only.
That old standby, and latterly the staff of life for the High
lander, the potato, was not cultivated in St Kilda to the extent
it was in other parts of the Highlands. It was estimated in 1877
that a barrel of potatoes weighing about 220 lb would hardly yield
an extra 100 lb from the sowing. Not only was the yield small in
number, but those potatoes which did manage to survive the
growing season were soft and tasted like yams when lifted, be
cause of the effects of the sea spray which often enveloped the
island in a salt-tasting cloud of mist.
Oats were sown thickly : about 12 bushels per acre. The yield
was rarely above three times the amount planted. About the year
1877 it was discovered that the seed corn used by the islanders
had not been changed for some sixty years and the crop yield, and
the seed strain, had greatly deteriorated.
The islanders were more progressive and productive in animal
husbandry than in the cultivation of their land. The arable land
80
AGRICULTURE
of the i s land was shared out equally among the families, the
division being carried out by the Parliament. The head of each
household was responsible for about one and a half acres of land,
though this amount has fluctuated through the centuries. When
Lord Brough am saw St K ilda (1799) he wrote of Village B ay,
'The great bosom i s divided into 400 rips, or fields of b ar ley and
oats and potatoes-25 feet by three!'
Rober t Connell, reporting back to the Glasgow Herald in 1887
wrote:
The total area of arable land has been estimated at 40 acres

which would give an average of 2i acres per croft . . . For
house and croft the rent is £2 per annum ...Over and above
this £2, the people pay rent for the common pasture of the
island. For the grazing of each cow the charge made by the
proprietor is 7s per annum.For sheep, the charge is 9d a head
on St Kilda and 6d a head on the adjacent islands. By no
manner of means can it be held that these rates are excessive.
The total rental of the island in 1885-6 was about £60, but
before any reader fetches his slate to find out what rate of
interest this represents on a capital sum of £3000-the price
paid by the present proprietor in 1871-let me hasten to explain
that not a penny of it went into the pocket of MacLeod. The
expenses of factorship, which are necessarily heavy, including,
as they do, two trips to the island every year in a smack speci
ally chartered for the purpose, would appear to have eaten up
all that the crofters saw their way to pay.Of course, the people
could hardly be crofters if they were not in arrears to the
landlord.
Formerly the islanders paid each year on a fixed number
of sheep and cattle. Some were possibly paying too much and
others too little. The people regarding this method of fixing the
rents as a grievance, and at their request the proprietor lately
agreed to regulate the rent each year by the actual number of
cattle and sheep in the possession of the islanders . . . The
number of cattle on the island was ascertained to be about 40,
and of sheep the total number on St Kilda and adjacent islands
was close upon 1,000 ... The cattle are of the West Highland
breed, mostly black, or red and black, in colour.A considerable
proportion of the sheep are of the old St Kilda breed; the
others are a cross between that and the blackfaced variety.
81
The St Kildan livestock has been counted at various times. The

following summary table is taken from O'Dell and Walton The
Highlands and Islands of Scotland:
Ye ar Sheep Cattle Horses
Total On Soay On Boreray

1697 2,000 500 400 98 18
1758 1,000 500 400 40 10
1824 1,000 4/500 4/500 90
1841 2,000 500 400 2/3
1861 1,500 300 500 43
1875 1,200/ 400 50
1,500
1883 200
1927 400 400
1930 14
Note:- means None; a blank means No mention.
The cattle were kept, in the old-type houses, in the partitioned

off section of the building. Goats were once common on St Kilda,
but were removed from the island in the nineteenth century be
cause they disturbed the more valuable nesting birds. The horses
were used to carry peats and were a good source of manure. They
were cleared from the island in the early 1840s because it was
said that they damaged the pastures. One result of their evacu
ation was the removal of good turf from many hundreds of useful
acres ncar the township to serve as fuel. Previously the horses
had carried the turf from a farther distance; lacking the horses'
backs, the islanders preferred to spare their own and cut their
turf nearer to the house. In Martin's time there were 18 horses,
small red-coloured ponies imported from the mainland. In 1697,
some 100 cows on the island were small, fat and sweet-fleshed.
Though the number fluctuated over the centuries they were always
important for their by-products. If the islands had pursued
an efficient land-use policy over the years, they could well
have maintained an enviable agrarian economy and perhaps
by 1930 at least there would have been no great need for
evacuation.
82
FISHING
FISHING
The Dutch, in the seventeenth century, were the first active

fishers in the waters of the western seas around St Kilda. Realis
ing the great potential to be harvested, they prosecuted the activ
ity with such vigour that one wonders why their example was
rarely followe d by the islanders of the Hebrides themselves.
Though the sea was in the islanders' blood, derived largely from
the Norse element in their forebears, it was to roam as emigrants
rather than to fish that they looked to the sea.
Fishing as an economic activity in St Kilda was followed more
often than not simply to introduce a dietary change. The island's
boats were used more as a communications link with the Hebrides
and to convey the bird-catchers to St Kilda's satellite island rocks.
It was not until 1875 that fish as an element in the island's
economic make-up was sufficiently important to be enumerated.
Angling from the island's rocks was prohibited, otherwise the
birds would be disturbed and they were more important. One
reason given for the islanders' lack of interest in fishing was their
belief that too much fish in the diet resulted in skin eruptions,
though this did not deter the islanders from accepting, in the
latter years of the nineteenth century, substantial gifts of fish
from trawlers sheltering in the haven of Village Bay. In the
1870s, only two boats were occupied in fishing; the cod and ling
caught were salted for sale to the factor. These two species, inter
alia, abounded in the waters round the island group.
Robert Connell, writing after his visits in 1885-7, said after
proposing the construction of a suitable harbour :
With such a harbour as is proposed, and with the four boats

they presently have, the people would be able to add largely to
their wealth, for unquestionably the waters around their island
abound with cod, ling and other fish. Moreover, if the island
became a fishing station, it would be more regularly visited
by steamers, attracted by the prospects of freights, and the griev
ance so much complained of, that the islanders in the matter
of buying and selling are entirely at the mercy of the factor
who makes his own prices, would speedily be removed. It is
notorious, however, that the St Kildans are bad sailors and
83
fishermen, and it is doubtful whether a boat harbour would be

of much real practical value after all, unless indeed a number
of practical fishermen from the East or West Coast could be
induced to take up their abode on the island and impart their
training and experience to the natives.
In 1819, MacCulloch remarked that the islanders' lack of in

terest in fishing was due to their ability to obtain wealth from
other occupations, especially fowling: 'They possess already as
much food as they can consume and are under no temptation to
augment it by another perilous and laborious employment.'
In most instances, when fish were caught, their livers were
retained and the remainder, except for a few saved for curing,
thrown to the dogs. The livers were used as a source of food
(fish-heads were stuffed with them to make a dish called ceann
cropic). They were also a source of oil for medicinal and lighting
purposes.
In 1860, the captain of the Porcupine carried off St Kilda some
16 cwt of fish which the islanders had caught. He returned with
£16. A return on such a scale inspired some young men. But
when they considered the fickle seas around them, and their
slender boats, they gave up the idea of fishing as an occupation.
By 1902, the islanders were supplanting seabirds with substan
tial amounts of fish in their diet. What they caught was for their
own consumption; little was cured for export.
D 0 ME S T I C E C ON 0 MY
John Sa·nds first visited St Kilda in 1875 and subsequently

presented a paper on the island's antiquity to the Society of Anti
quaries of Scotland. He writes :
As some of the existing manners and customs of the St Kildans
may throw a light upon the habits of ancient and primitive
populations, I shall try to describe them. The ground is now
all dug with the spade, but I saw a cass chrom or two put away
on the rafters of barns. A wooden rake is used instead of a
harrow. Oats, bere, and potatoes, and a few cabbages and
turnips. Reaping hooks are sometimes used to cut the crop,
but in general it is pulled up by the roots, the straw being used
84
DOMESTIC ECONOMY
to thatch old houses and cellars. The grain is thrashed out with
a flail. It is scorched in a pot or put into a straw tub (like a
flat-topped bee-hive), and dried with heated stones. It is then
ground by hand-mills.The women sit on the ground half-naked,
and work at the mill like furies.Sheepskins, stretched on a hoop
and perforated with a hot wire, serve as sieves .... The meal
is baked into cakes and made into gruel and porridge. Meat
is often cooked along with these ...
Lucifer matches, although used by the minister, are looked
upon as curiosities by the people, who smile when one is struck.
Nor is there a flint and steel on the island. The turf fires are
always kept burning, and if one happens to go out a live turf
is borrowed from a neighbour.When parties of men or women
go to the adjacent islands they take a kettle of burning turf
with them. If the embers are covered with turf and ashes the
fire will survive for a great many hours. I myself had no
matches, and never required to borrow a cinder for some
months .The fires in St Kilda have probably been burning for
centuries.
Acco rding to Robert Connell (1887), the diet of the St Kildans

was:
Breakfast Porridge and milk, with the flesh of the fulmar

afterwards occasionally, the bird being boi led in the
porridge.
Dinner M utton, or the flesh of the fulmar or solan goose,
with potatoes when there are any.
Tea Tea and bread and cheese, the flesh of the fulmar
occasionally, and sometimes porridge.
The islanders take breakfast between nine and ten; dinner
generally not till about four, and sometimes an hour or two
later, on their return from the rocks or the fields; and tea
about nine in summer, and as late as eleven in winter, when
they sit up at their looms till about two in the morning. There
is a complete absence of variety in their food. This, along
with the lack of fresh vegetables and the indigestible nature of
the flesh of the birds which they eat, is a frequent cause of
dyspepsia, from which many of the islanders suffer.
Milk and sea-bird's eggs are consumed in considerable quan
tities during the summer; tea, sugar, and flour are now used
in nearly every house; potatoes are the only vegetables pro-
85
ST KILlJA: ISLAND ECONOMY
curable-the quantity grown on the island is small and the

quality bad, and the supply is only available usually for six
months. It therefore follows that the dietary of the people is
practically devoid of vegetables for the half of each year. Such
condiments as vinegar, pepper, mustard, and pickles are not
used. Whisky is relished very much, and every man keeps his
bottle, but nobody drinks to excess. On the whole, the people
live well; all that is wanted is a greater variety and more
vegetable food. A Skyeman, who had been often on the island
for various lengths of time, gave me his opinion in these terms
'They are the best fed people in creation. I speak the truth,
master.'
Latterly, in the twentieth century, there was little to distinguish

the St Kildan from other Highlanders, at first sight. Only in their
insularity were they different. Otherwise they had the same
trappings as had similar communities in the Highlands and
Islands. In many respects, the island community was better off
than the latter for it had a ample supply of food both from birds
and from the fish around the coast. But, like the Irish in the
Hungry Forties, the islanders did not use these resources. Instead
they suffered privation.
TOURISM
In much the same way as travellers in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries made the Grand Tour of Europe to broaden
their education, towards the end of the nineteenth century their
tours included St Kilda, on the edge of the known world. As
much an adve·nture as an African safari, an actual voyage to St
Kilda was regarded as necessary to fill the gap between imagina
tion and hard fact concerning the island and its people. This in
terest in the island was often excited by the writings of past
visitors: Martin Martin, the ministers Buchan and 1'vl acAulay ,
Lord Brougham, John 11acCulloch and others. Perhaps because
he was the island's first recorder, and because he had first-hand
knowledge, Martin was favourite reading; many of the island's
features, su ch as the wells of the Lover's Stone (see page 56),
were nothing if not excellent guide-book material.
U6
TOURISM
The first steam-boat visited the island in 1834. The islanders

rushed to tell the minister that a ship on fire was approaching St
Kilda. In 1838 the Vulcan dropped anchor in Village Bay on Sat
urday 28 July.Said a visitor in a letter home: 'I am at length, thank
God, arrived on terra firma in St Kilda, the place which, of all
other places within the British dominions, I longed most to see;
and I had not certainly been led to form a false or exaggerated
conception on it; nay, the half had not been told me.' The Vulcan
fired a large cannon to herald her safe arrival. 'The natives were
seen running down Aois-mheall like a flock of goats running for
their lives-all bare-headed, bare-footed and coats off.' In time,
the islanders became all too familiar with the steady stream of
ships of all kinds.
It was not until 1877 that the island's tourist trade really
began. Before that date visitors to St Kilda were of a better
breed than the tourists bent on satisfying idle curiosity. In 1877,
the 240 ton ss Dunara Castle was advertised as offering a voyage
to the 'romantic Western Isles and lone St Kilda'. The fare was
£10 for the 10-day voyage taken in cabin-class comfort with full
board. Some forty passengers took up the offer and found them
selves in Village Bay on the morning of 2 July. 'After break
fasting on board the Dunara, the passengers began to land in
detachments about half-past nine. Heavy rain fell during break
fast; but the weather speedily improved, and the sun shone forth
most auspiciously.' The natives co-operated : '.. . uttering a shrill
Gaelic cry, he descended barefoot, skipping and singing as he
went, and occasionally standing out nearly at a right angle from
the beetling cliff ! '
Other ships followed the Dunara Castle, including the Lady
Ambrosine and the Hebridean, both of which belonged to Martin
Orme. Ships under the flag of McCallum, Orme & Co Ltd, sailed
the Hebridean seas fulfilling both a social and a commercial
function, as did the vessels of MacBra ynes Ltd who absorbed
them in 1948. In 1898 the Hebridean was replaced by the ss
Hebrides and from then on both she and the Dunara Castle plied
the Hebridean waters during the summer months until 1939. In
1885, when the islanders experienced a disaster brought on by
a great storm, it was the H ebridean which was chartered to make
87
a special trip to St Kilda with freight worth £110, including

seed corn, barley, meal and potatoes.
It is ironic that the Dunara Castle, which began the tourist
trade that is said to have started the rot in St Kilda, took part in
the evacuation of the island in 1930. The ship was broken up in
the summer of 1948. Occasionally other well-known west High
land ships, such as the ss Clydesdale, called at St Kilda.
Tourists fell into two groups. First there was the professional
group which included sociologists, naturalists, doctors a·nd the
like; for the most part they either camped on the island or lodged
in island homes. The other group contained the curious, who
regarded the islanders as elements in a human menagerie and
preferred their more comfortable ship's base to living ashore.
But the tourist, whatever the type, playe d an undoubted part in
the buoyancy of the island's economy. They bought much of the
island's produce (tweeds, knitwear, sheepskins, and other articles
of St Kildan manufacture).
The general tourist brought evil in his wake. Wrote Connell
in 1886 : 'One cannot be long on the island without discovering
the great moral injury that tourists and sentimentalists and
yachtsmen, with pocketsful of money, are working upon a kindly
community and simple people.'
The introduction of a cash economy into the island was in
some ways timely. Paying rent in kind rather than in cash had
become an economic anachronism and the St Kildan was, one
feels, glad that the tourist brought money to be exchanged for the
island's products. This money allowed the islanders to participate
in the national economic system. With money, they were able to
buy direct-grain and foodstuffs, clothing, articles of furniture,
and the occasional bottle of spirits, not to mention the large
quantities of tobacco of which the islanders had become more
than fond during the previous century or so.
Alexander Ross wrote in 1884 :
By the frequent visits of tourists and yachtsmen, and the

liberal gifts of wine and clothes of the latest fashion, the St
Kildan has ceased to be the unsophisticated mortal he was 30
years ago, and though by no means �poiled or importunate in
his demands, he is, I believe degenerating like some other of
88
Page 89: (abot'e) Slal m sea pool on North Rona; (below) young gannets
on Sulasgeir
Page 90 Sulasgeir: (above) approach from the west ; (below) all stores
must be hauled up from the small hoat to th e top of the cliffs
TOURISM
the Highlanders, and is not ashamed to accept gifts, if not to

beg them.
The tourist season was the islanders' silly season. John Ross
(1889) wrote:
The excitement caused by the entrance of one steamer occupies

the minds of the natives until the approach of another. And
while excited they are incapable of doing anything but talking
of what they have seen and heard . . . The St Kildans are
spoiled children. This is the only opportunity afforded them
of 'turning a penny' and they are just over-pressing in taking
advantage of it. A few years back, visitors there used to scatter
money right and left, and the poor natives expect that it should
run a little more freely now.
The day following each visit was reserved for the sole purpose
of discussing the visitors, their scale of generosity, the prices
obtained in hard bargaining, and 'incidents'.
Inevitably, the way of life of the islanders changed.In particu
lar, the islander began to rely too much on regular communica
tion with the mainland, when for centuries his forebears had been
content with an annual visit from the factor. The changed con
ditions introduced psychological upsets and made for the accept
ance in the late 1920s of the need for emigration to solve their
problems.More than money caused this situation.The St Kildans
knew that they were regarded as human freaks. Wrote Norman
Heathcote in 1900 :
I do not wonder that they dislike foreigners, as so many tourists

treat them as if they were wild animals at the Zoo ... I have
seen them (the tourists) standing at the church door during
service laughing and talking, and staring in as if at an enter
tainment got up for their amusement.
The attitude of such sight-seers was undoubtedly resented by the

St Kildan, and it is not to be wondered that the islanders sought
to fleece the gawpers who landed on their shores. In the process
they got the name of being rather greedy. Rather it was the only
way in which the islanders could retaliate for the tourists' imposi
tion on their community of a situation which could do nothing
F 91
ST I<ILDA: ISLAND ECONOMY
but get out of hand. Unable to adapt to the standards set by

society, the islanders eventually failed both themselves and their
island home.
CLOTH-MAKING
In common with many other Highland and island com

munities, the St Kildans were self-sufficient in their clothing
needs, only looking to external sources for finery and gee-gaws
which the island's own resources could not provide. The cloth
made was a heavy coarse type, suited to the simple needs of the
islanders but never a particularly attractive item for general pur
chase by an external market. Inevitably, the methods used in
making the cloth were primitive. John Sands wrote in 1875:
The sheep are plucked, sheep-shears being unknown. The wool
is spun by the wheel into thread for cloth, blankets and stock
ings. Thread for sewing is spun by the spindle and distaff. The
women dye the thread with indigo (bought from the factor),
and with lichen found on stones. Almost every man is a weaver
in winter. The looms are all made of wood without any iron.
The cloth they make is all twilled, which requires four treadles.
An earlier report (c 1727) tells of the manner in which the

islanders fulled, thickened or waulked their cloth. They
. . . thicken their cloth upon stakes or rods or mats of hay
twisted or woven together in small ropes; they worked hard at
this employment, first making use of their hands and at last
their feet; and when they are at work they commonly sing all
the time, one of their number acting the part of a prime
chantress, whom all the rest follow and obey.
Cloth, as a major item of export, did not appear until about

1850. At about this time, the cloth which was to become known
as Harris Tweed was gaining an increasing reputation in the
markets in London. St Kilda tweed, a cloth of similar texture,
was associated in people's minds with the Harris cloth and its
characteristic qualities were appreciated in similar markets. The
wool for the cloth came from the plucked domesticated and wild
Soay sheep. The women folk spun it into yarn; the men wove
the yarn into cloth. In 1879 there were thirty-six spinning wheels
92
CLOTH-MAKING
on St Kilda. Every house possessed a loom, made from wood

supplied by the proprietor of the island. The exported cloth was
twilled and of a natural colour. In attempts to dye the wool,
failure occurred more often than success and the indifferent
results spoiled the cloth. In the end, the factor preferred to buy
the cloth in its natural state for subsequent sale and processing
on the Scottish mainland.
The cloth, though coarse and rough in character, was held in
high regard by the appreciative few; the romantic aura already
growing about the island helped its ready sale. Much of it was
sold in Stomoway, Lewis, where it was often made into suitings.
In 1892 a St Kildan, Alexander Ferguson, emigrated to Glasgow
where he set up a successful business as a tweed merchant hand
ling, amo·ng other cloths, St Kilda tweed which was in fair
demand.
The islanders were paid about 3s (15p) per yell or 'big yard'
of tweed cloth c 1885. A yell was an old Scots measure defined
as 4 7 inches and a thumb. Later the more reasonable yard of
36 in was introduced and the island's weavers reaped a more
appropriate reward for their labours. In 1914, Professor W. R.
Scott, who occupied the Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy
at Glasgow University, presented his Report to the Board of
Agriculture for Scotland on Home industries in the Highlands
and Islands. It contains much interesting information about craft
industries and tweed, as produced in St Kilda and the other
Hebridean islands. The following is an extract from an Appendix
in the Report on the earnings of labour expended in making St
Kilda tweeds carded by hand :
...a man and his wife working together would make a web
of St Kilda tweed of 30 yards in 5 weeks.The woman works 12
hours a day, that is, 360 hours, while the man does all the weav
ing (which takes 48 hours), and helps in the teasing and card
ing ... the wool being valued at a lower rate, being taken at
only 9d per lb. Thus, the St Kilda earnings would be approxi
mately l!d per hour.
With the increase in the numbers of tourists visiting St Kilda,

cloth became an important item of island produce offered for
93
on-the-spot sales, and for export. By 1928, some 1,200 yd of

tweed were being exported annually. This was about the only
manufactured article which the islanders had to give in exchange
for the various commodities they required. But the ascendancy
of Harris Tweed in the Hebrides, being cheaper, and better in
quality and range of shades and designs, went against the St
Kildan product. This factor, coupled with the high cost of trans
portation to the Scottish mainland, resulted in St Kilda tweed
being unable to find a place in a highly competitive market. In
addition, the market was fickle: purchasers bought the product
only because of its association with the island and not always
for its qualities as a cloth.
The islanders found themselves in a cleft stick. If the island's
factor was instructed to sell the cloth to a larger and less dis
criminative market, the reduced sale price would yield little or
no return for the labour in making the cloth. On the other hand,
to make the cloth more cheaply would incur great expense in
introducing near-factory facilities to produce a cloth which could
compete with the material being made in large quantities from
mill-supported methods in the Western Isles. The decline in the
demand for St Kilda tweed was one of the contributing factors
in the final decision to evacuate the island. The disappearance
of an important element in the economy of any commu·nity leads
to a drastic stock-taking; if there are no alternatives to fill the
gap, desertion is the only remedy. An economic yardstick was
applied to the isla·nd and its community which failed to measure
up to it. Perhaps had a social yardstick been applied, and had
society made an effort to appreciate the validity of the St Kildans'
desire to remain a social entity, the ultimate desertion of the
island might well have been delayed, if not put off altogether.
COMMUNICATIONS
On 24 September 1885, a local resident of Aird Uig, a town

ship on the west coast of Lewis, picked up off the beach a small
piece of wood, fashioned like a boat and rigged with a tiny mast
and sail. Tied to the wood was a bottle containing a letter, written
on a page from a school exercise book. It was addressed to 1\fr
94
COMMUNICATIONS
Kenneth Campbell, teacher, Uig, Lewis, by Stomoway. The

message was :
My dear Sir-I am now going to write you a letter and send

ing her in one of the little ships in whi ch we were sailing on
the shore as you know to let you know all the knews. the men
were building a house just a little house for the cows a great
storm came on and all the corn and barley were swept away
by the storm and one of the boats was swept away by the sea
the men of St Kilda is nearly dead with the hunger. They send
two boats from St Kilda to go to Haries (Harris) not the fish
ing boats but little piece of wood like the little one which
I send. I sent my best loves unto you-I am yours truly,
Alexander Ferguson.
In this way did the St Kildan community keep in touch with

the Hebridean islands to the east. Occasionally messages were
put in bottles. 1\1ore often messages were sent tied to a piece of
wood and attached to a round buoy (sheepskin floats) with a
little red flag. It was then left to the currents of the Atlantic Ocean
and the westerlies to push the St Kildan post off the island to
find its way to western shores (often as far distant as the Orkneys)
where it would be picked up. Although conununications were
always primitive, it was not until the late nineteenth century
that their efficiency was called into question. The islanders began
to rely on them increasingly to convey messages of recurring
distress; time therefore became important.
But even when steamships became common at St Kilda, com
munications were poor. About twice each year, the proprietor
sent a vessel; touring yachts and steamers called occasionally,
but mostly in the summer months. The mails came to the island
six times a year in 1883, though some eight months could pass
between one call and the next. In the twentieth century it was
the Aberdeen and other trawlers which conveyed messages to
and from the island.
In 1877, the GPO established formal postal communications
with Fair Isle and immediately the same service was requested for
St Kilda. But the Fair Isle service was provided as an en route
facility from steamers plying between Aberdeen and the Shetland
Islands. St Kilda was en route to nowhere. In 1879 a proposal
95
that the island's factor, John MacKenzie, should be subsidised

to carry mails to the island failed. Eventually an arrangement
was made by the GPO and various tourist steamers calling at St
Kilda to deliver and collect mails; but most of the activity was
concentrated during the three months of summer. In 1898, recog
nising the service given to the islanders by the Aberdeen trawlers
in particular, a further arrangement was made by the GPO that
all mail for St Kilda was to be sent through Aberdeen. The Post
Office, however, failed to mention suitable recompense for the
trawlermen and the service depended wholly on the goodwill of
the fishermen from Aberdeen who fished in the St Kildan waters.
Any mail from St Kilda was given to the trawlermen, with money
for postage stamps, to be posted at Aberdeen.
Towards the end of 1899 it was proposed by the factor that a
sub-Post Office be established on St Kilda, to remain open all the
year round. The first official St Kilda Post Office came into
being on 20 September 1899. It was set up in a room of the
factor's house on the island. The following year the minister, Rev
Angus Fiddes, was appointed sub-postmaster at £5 per annum
plus bonuses. The island's clerics held the post until 1905 when
Neil Ferguson became the first native, and the last, to take over
the work, which he did until 1930. Formal recognition by the
GPO never overcame the main problem of carrying mails to and
from St Kilda all the year round on a regular basis.
In 1968 the National Trust for Scotland produced a set of St
Kilda stamps, more correctly called local carriage labels and
similar to the local labels produced for some small Scottish islands.
The stamps are used for prepaying postage on mail carried
between St Kilda and the Hebrides or the Scottish mainland.
The stamps depict the bird life for which the islands are famous.
The 4d stamp shows a great auk, commemorating one of the
last sightings of the now-extinct species on Stac an Armin some
130 years previously. The other stamps depict the St Kilda wren,
gannet, shag, guillemot, kittiwake, puffin and Leach's fork-tailed
petrel.
The St Kilda set of labels is the work of Miss Jennifer Toombs
who designed the Churchill Omnibus Series for the British Crown
Colonies and the Churchill sets for British Guinea, Gambia and
96
COA1 M UN !CAT IONS
Jamaica. The labels are the first of a series being issued to pub
licise the work of the National Trust as well as the interesting
birds and flowers of St Kilda. Only those going to St Kilda on
working parties organised by the National Trust, or o·n one of the
cruises run by the Trust with calls at St Kilda, will have the labels
franked with a special cancelling date stamp. The old original
postmarks are much sought after by collectors, as they are rare
relics of an island community now no longer existing. The income
derived from the sale of the St Kilda stamps is being used for
the benefit of the working parties and other groups who visit St
Kilda each year to do nature research and to maintain the relics
of the once-thriving St Kildan population.
The maintenance of communications, so long as time was not
important, was of small value to the islanders. What was more
important to them was a way of contacting the outside world in
times of urgent need. The matter was brought to a head when
the community faced starvation in 1912 and it was a trawler
which brought the news to the mainland. The news was given
nationwide prominence and the Daily Afirror organised a relief
expedition. 'Dear Editor,' wrote the thankful islanders, 'a
thousand thanks for your great kindness to the lonely St K.ildans
in their distress for the want of provisions. Your help reached us
unexpectedly, and left us more than thankful for it.'
It was due to the generosity of H. Gordo·n Selfridge, the Lon
don stores owner, that the island was to have its own wireless
transmitter. The proprietor of St Kilda readily gave permission
for the station to be erected and the Postmaster General granted
a license. Work was put in hand but was brought to a sudden
stop. Another trawler reached the mainland with the news that
the whole community was ill with influenza. Again a relief mis
sion went to St Kilda. The wireless transmitting station was
completed on 22 July 1913 and the local missionary was in
structed in its use. But the equipment broke down soon after
wards and it was not until the 1914-18 War that it became
operational again as a War Signal Station.
But it was destined to be short-lived. On 18 May 1918, the
station attracted the attention of _a German submarine and did
not survive the shelling.
97
PIER FACILITIES
It was not until 1902 that the island was finally provided with
a pier. Before this date passengers landing on the island from
visiting ships had to be ferried across Village Bay to the shore.
The pier, made from concrete, had steps and an iron ladder on its
western side. It projected from the shore on the northern side of
Village Bay just westward of the manse. It protected a boat slip
situated between it and the shore. The pier was normally access
ible to boats, except when a full gale was blowing. It was some
what useless at low water owing to thick seaweed growths and
heavy boulders on the sea bottom in the vicinity of the pier.
In 1969, two copies of The Scotsman newspaper, dated October
1899, were found in some packages in the old jetty partly demol
ished during work by military personnel to lengthen and
strengthen it.
98
3 ST KILDA: ISLAND HISTORY
HE
T
early history of St Kilda is obscure. For centuries, the
island community kept no records to preserve for succeed
ing generations the interesting events which went hand in
hand with the evolution of the island society. In 1697
the St Kildans were amazed that Martin Martin could record
speech and express himself in writing. Writing may have been
an unnecessary activity on the island, but even the tradition of
transmitting history orally, as was common on the Scottish main
land, in the Western Isles, a·nd in Ireland, does not seem to have
been followed; otherwise we should have today much of the
island's oral tradition fixed in perpetuity by the transcripts of
visitors to St Kilda during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
It can be assumed that the islands have been occupied, though
not necessarily continuously, for between 1,000 and 2,000 years.
Excavations on the main island of Hirt have revealed an earth
house of the Iron Age type; and in Gleann Mor, the plan of a
group of circular (multiple) huts looks archaic but the date is
uncertain. Though the earth-house and semi-underground struc
tures were very common throughout the Western Isles until about
a century ago, they are accepted as forms of construction which
are eminently suitable to the climate of these parts and have an
extremely long lineage. On Dun there are the remains of a hill
fort, from which 'dun' is probably derived. Many writers have
commented on the St Kildan's disrespect for antiquity. Any ready
supply of building material was removed without a second
thought, with the result that much of antiquarian interest has
been lost. Martin Martin mentions three churches. Today their
sites are known but little remains of the original structures. The
churches were Christ Church, St Brendan's and St Columba's.
It is reasonable to suppose that in prehistoric times St Kilda
was occupied by a settlement in Gleann Mor located on the side
of the island opposite to Village Bay. This is thought to be the
99
ST KILDA: ISLAND HISTORY
first settlement on the island. What caused this settlement to

cease its existence and the new Village Bay community to come
into being is not known. It could be attributable to many factors:
change of climate; change in land use; increased interest in sea
birds as a source of food and item of exchange and barter; and
the greater degree of accessibility afforded by Village Bay. The
theory that the original settlement was wiped out by disease or
Norse invader is also reasonable and Village Bay may in fact
have seen the establishment of a new society by an invader to
whom a maritime environment was familiar. The influence of
the Norse during the eighth and subsequent centuries on the west
coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides may well have reached St
Kilda.
The present settlement site in Village Bay dates from c 1830.
Before this date the settlement was nearer the beach. The earlier
community seems to have been concentrated around the spring
called Tobar Childa, meaning Kilda's Well. This well was 'near
the heart of the village, and is of universal use to the community'.
Some of what are now called 'cleits' around this well were
once built to serve as dwellings. This is apparent in their structure
and design, both aspects being different from the many cleits
or store-houses built as such. They are broader and have a greater
headroom.
The Settlement of Gleam� Mor

The prehistoric settlement of Gleann Mor, or Glen Bay, is in a
fine U-shaped valley. Stone monuments of obvious antiquity
litter the area, once the dwelling-place of a pastoral community.
The structure which is of greatest interest is the 'Amazon's
House' (tigh na banaghaisgich). Martin :Martin first recorded the
building in 1697. But it was not until 1957 that it was realised
this beehive structure was only a small part of the extensive Gleann
Mor settlement. F. W. Thomas, in a paper to the Society of Anti
quaries of Scotland in 1 86 2 , described the house. However,
Martin's description (1697) is the more picturesque:
Upon the west side of the Isle lies a Valley, with a Declina
tion towards the Sea, with a Rivulet running through the middle
of it, on each side of which is an Ascent of half a Mile; all which
100
Piece of Ground is called by the inhabitants, The Female War

rior's Glen: This Amazon is famous in their Traditions: Her
House or Dairy of Stone is yet extant ... and is in the form
of a Circle Pyramid-wise towards the Top with a Vent in it,
the Fire being always in the Centre of the Floor ... The Body
of this House contains not above Nine Persons sitting; there
are three Beds, or low Vaults at the side of the wall, which
contains Five :Men each, and are separated by a Pillar; at each
Entry to one of these low Vaults is a Stone standing upon one
end; upon this she is reported ordinarily to have laid her Hel
met; there are two Stones on the other side, upon which she
is said to have laid her Sword: they tell you that she was
much addicted to Hunting, and that in her Days all the Space
betwixt this Isle and that of Harries (Harris), was one con
tinued Tract of Dry Land.
Martin himself coined the phrase 'Amazon's House'. The trans

lation of the Gaelic is 'Female Warrior's House'. One wonders
whether this ancient St Kildan community was one with a
matriarchal system of government.
Another beehive dwelling is Calum Mor's house. It stands
north of the graveyard and close to Kilda's Well. It contains some
very large blocks of stone, some of them weighing half a ton.
Inside, the house measures 14' x 7' and is half underground.
There are sixteen structures in the glen which conform to a
definite type, though they differ both in size a·nd constructional
details. Each is approached between curved or horned walls of
dry-stone which converge on the narrow gateway of a small
open courtyard. Around the court are clustered, in clover-leaf
fashion, a few beehive-shaped chambers. They are skilfully cor
belled towards the top and are finished off with a few broad
lintels, the whole being originally roofed with turf. Some chambers
have recesses in the walls. Many of the older cleits in Village Bay
and clustered around Tobar Childa display this form of con
structional detail, particularly the technique of corbelling in
wards to a ce iling of slabs, though they have no satellite beehive
dwellings.
The structures around the Amazon House area comprise two
'horned' structures with single courts and associated beehives
101
which are still in excellent condition, and a third nearby of which

little now remains. The horned approaches are, in this part of the
Gleann Mor settlement, wider and more square than in other
examples. One horn is longer that the other. It has been suggested
that this house was the hub and centre of the culture which
established them. The surrounding area, particularly on the
south side, shows evidence of stone alignments or 'avenues'-small
circles, monoliths and the like-all of which may have had some
ceremonial significance. The whole area of Gleann Mor has never
been subjected to a scientific investigation and still awaits the
attention of the professional archaeologist. Systematic study might
reveal what to date is often surmise, intelligent guesswork, and
the conjecture posed by the evidence of a past culture in the
writings of St Kilda's many visitors.
It has also been suggested that the community in Gleann Mor
was coeval with that in Village Bay. There is an ancient earth
dyke extending in a wide semi-circle across the head of the glen
which may well have marked the boundary between the zones
of two colonies.
Boreray and Soay

Apart from the historical buildings on Hirt, there are other
structures scattered throughout the St Kilda group of islands.
On Boreray there is the Staller's House. Martin Martin's account
of it relates ;
In the west of this Isle is Staller House, which is much larger

than that of the female warrior in St Kilda, but of the same
model in all respects; it is all green without, like a little hill.
MacAulay describes the house as being:
... 18 feet high, and its top lies almost level with the earth,
by which it is surrounded; below it is of circular form, and all
its parts are contrived so that a single stone covers the top. If
this stone is removed the house has a very sufficient vent. In
the middle of the floor is a large hearth; round the wall is a
paved seat, on which sixteen persons may conveniently sit.
There are four roofed beds roofed with strong flags or strong
lintels, every one of which is capable to receive four men. To
102
each of these beds isa separate entry, the distance between these
separate openings resembling, in some degree, so many pillars.
Much of this structure is now in a ruinous state. It is said that

it goes underground for 18 ft. A local tradition hints at an
entrance from the house leading to a sea cave 700ft below it. The
house is traditionally that built by one Staller (stone man) who,
with a large party of island adherents, rebelled against MacLeod's
resident steward on the island and, taking possession of Boreray,
proceeded to make it fast for himself and hisfollowers.
On So ay island there is a building erected on a level piece of
ground. There are indications that the structure was covered
with turf. Tradition ascribes a religious nature to the building, it
supposedly having once had an altar.
Recorded History
St Kilda's recorded history begins c 1380 when a charter was
drawn up to enable John, Lord of the Isles, to make over som�
of his Hebridean islands, including St Kilda, to his son Reginald.
One of Reginald's successors transferred the island group to the
l\facDonalds of Sleat in S kye, who subsequently gave the islands
into the possession of the MacLeods of Harris, whose seat was
at Dunvegan, Skye. In a MS history of the MacDonalds, written
during the reign of Charles II, it is recorded that the islands had
been in the possession of the MacLeods for two centuries, either
through the senior branch or one ofthe cadet families.
In 1799 St Kilda, with Harris, was sold to Captain Alexander
MacLeod for £15,000. During the next century the island
changed hands twice, but always within the MacLeod family. In
1871, St Kilda was sold back again for £3,000 to Norman,
twenty-second Chief of MacLeod, in whose family, the senior
branch of the clan, the island group remained until Sir Reginald
MacLeod sold it to the fifth Marquisof Bute in 1934.
Part of the recorded history of St Kilda involves the many
shipwrecks which have occurred in the area of the island group.
In 1686 a party of French and Spanish sailors were sheltered
by the islanders. In 1835 a Prussian vessel foundered offSt Kilda;
the crew of eleven got safely ashore. They spent two weeks on the
103
island before crossing to Skye. The expense of keeping the men

for the period was 5s (25p). Likewise the crews of the janet
Cowan (1864) and the Austrian ship Peti Dubrovacki (1887)
found the islanders not lacking in hospitality and desire to meet
the needs of others in distress, though at times they could ill
afford to do so.
LADY GRANGE
Though the history of St Kilda is meagre in the extreme, it

does contain one rich episode in the abduction and subsequent
imprisonment of Lady Rachel Grange on St Kilda for some
seven years. Only in this episode does the island's history ever
come close to the historical events of the 'outside world'.
Lady Grange was the wife of Erskine of Grange, who became
a Judge of the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 1707. In 1710
he became Lord Justice-Clerk. His brother was 'Bobbing Jock',
the luckless Earl of Mar who led the Rising of 1715. Lord
Grange had secret Jacobite sympathies and many times held
meetings with Jacobite sympathisers in his Edinburgh home. Lady
Grange, on the other hand, had Hanovarian sympathies. Though
they had been married for twenty years and had a family of eight
children, the couple drew apart; each had peculiarities of char
acter with which the other could not bear to live. In the end,
during the course of a quarrel, Lady Grange threatened to
reveal to the authorities her husband's dealings with Jacobite
supporters.
Late on the night of 22 January 1732, Lady Grange, then
living apart from her husband in a neighbouring house, was
seized by a party of Highlanders led, it is said, by Simon Fraser,
Lord Lovat, who played an important part in the Rising of 1745.
She was blindfolded and carried off to the Highlands, to Castle
Tiorram in Moidart. She was then taken to Skye and from there
to Heisgeir Island, North Uist, where she lived for two years. In
1734, the tenant of Heisgeir Island said he could keep her in his
care no longer and, with the consent of MacLeod of Dunvegan,
she was taken to St Kilda. She was retained there as a prisoner
under the watch of a keeper for seven years. After this period
10'1
LADY GRANGE
l£TTlR OF LADY GR/\NGE, FH\JM S! KILOA, 1738.
Facsimile of a letter from Lady Grange from her St Kilda prison
105
ST KILDA: I SL A N D HISTORY
she was taken to Assynt in western Sutherland. Finally she was

taken to Skye, where she died in May 1745. She was buried in
the cemetery at Trumpan in Watemish, while a mock funeral
was held at Dunvegan where a coffin filled with sods was duly
buried with great ceremony.
While in St Kilda, Lady Grange lived in a two-roomed hut
still to be seen today. She was provided with a female servant.
She described the island as a 'viled, nasty and stinking poor isle'.
Over a long period she gathered together pieces of paper on
which she wrote a long letter. Hiding it in a clew of thread which
she had spun, and which was sent with other yarn to the market
in Inverness, she managed to contact her relatives. Hearing that
she was alive and not dead as they had been told, they appealed
to the Government for help. A sloop of war was sent to the west
coast, but failed to find the poor woman who was being continu
ally moved about. The experiences she underwent finally drove
her insane.
Her letter, which caused a great stir in Edinburgh at the time,
begins with her insisting that she had committed no crime 'except
that of loveing my husband to much'. The story of her abduction
and subsequent adventures she describes :
... upon the 22d of Jan 1732, I lodged in Margaret M'Lean

house and at a little before twelve at night Mrs M'Lean being
on the plot opened the door and there russed in to my room
some servants of Lovats and his cousin Roderick MacLeod .. .
they threw me down upon the floor in a Barbarous manner .. .
they dung out some of my teeth and toere the cloth of my
head and tore out some of my hair ... they carri'd me down
stairs as a corps ...
After being carried like a lost, unwanted piece of baggage through

Scotland she came to St Kilda :
... Oh alas much have I suffer'd often my skin made black a

blew, they took me to St Kilda. John MacLeod is called Stewart
of the Island he left me in a few days no body lives in but the
poor native it is a viled, nasty and stinking poor isle. I was
in great miserie in the Husker (Heisker) but I am ten times
worse and worse here, the Society sent a Minister here I have
given him a much fuller account than this and he writ it down,
106
Pa.f!.e 107: (abor•e) Gannet hunters' bothy on Sulasgeir; (below) the men
of ;\" ess, once se tt l ed in t he bothies, prepare the long bamboo catching poles.
The spring device on the end fastens round the neck of the guga which
tends to retreat to the outer edge of the cliff ledges
-.
,..
.,.. .
'6
' i ,. �. �..
,,· .....
..
. .; -
jt. ,.,� #
Page 108: (left) Sulasgeir, gannet hunter p lu c k ing a gannet; {right) a fte r g-utting, the guga is salted, carefully rolled a nd
placed on a hug e stack of gu gas high over the landing place to a w ait the relief boat
LADY GRANGE
you may be sure I have much more to tell than this, When
this corns to you if you hear I'm alive do me justes and relieve
me, I beg you make all haste but if you he ar I'm dead do what
you think right befor God.
I am with great respect
your most humble servant
but unfortunate Cousen
Rachell Erskine
AS THEY SAW IT
The earliest known description of the Western Isles is that of

Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles. It is valuable because
it is based largely on personal observation. It formed the basis
of George Buchanan's account of these islands, at the beginning
of his Latin History of Scotland. Monro's records give much
detail about conditions in the Hebrides some 400 years ago. He
was born about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and he
was related to several of the most influential families in the High
lands and Islands of Scotland. His family also had a tradition of
service in the church through whose inftue·nce he was able to
aspire to high office. Donald Monro was first presented in 1526
to the vicarage of Snizort and Raasay, in Skye. Around 1547 he
became an archdeacon. One of his first actions was to make him
self familiar with his diocese and in 1549 he travelled through
many of the islands described in his book. While his primary
concern was the business of the church, his observations of the
secular scene were more than useful. Monro died c 1576, un
married. He was buried at Kiltearn, beside the Cromarty Firth,
near the seat of his family, the Munros of Foulis. No stone marks
his grave and his only monument today is the book which he
never himself saw in print. Of St Kilda he says :
To the west north-west of this lie (Uist) out of the mane

Ocean seais be 60 mile of sea lyis ane lie callit Hirta, mane
laich sa far as is manurit of it, abundand in corn and girsing,
namelie for scheip, for thai are fairer and greater scheip tair
and Ianger taillit than thair is in ony uther Ile thairabout. The
inhabitants thairof are simple creatures, scant leamit in ony
G 109
Religion: but Mccloyd of Haray his Stewart, or quhom he

deputtis in sic office, sayles anes in the zeir at midsymmer with
sum chaiplane to baptize bairns thair; and gif they want ane
chaiplane, thai baptize thair bairns thamselfis. The said
Stewart, as himself tald me, usit to tak ane mask of malt thair
with ane maskein fat and mask his malt, and or the fat be
readie, the commons of the town baith men, women and
bairns puttis thair hand in the fat, and finding it sweit greynes
eftir the sweitnes thairof, quhill neither wort nor draff are
left upsuppit out thair, quhill baith men, women and bairns
were deid drunken, so that thai could nocht stand on thair
feet.
The said Stewartis ressaves thair maillis in maill and reistit
muttonis, wild reistit foullis and selchis. This Ile is mair nor
nae mile lang narrest, alsmeikle breid, quhilk is not seen of ony
land or of ony schoir; But at the schoir side of it lyis three great
hills, quhilk are ane pairt of Hirt, quhilk are seen far off from
the forlands. In thir roch lies are infinite fair scheippis, with
ane falcon nest and wild foullis biggand. But the seais are stark
and verie evill entering in ony of the saids lies. This Ile perteinit
to Mccloyd of Haray of auld.
When Martin Martin went to St Kilda in 1697 he was accom

panied by Rev Mr Campbell, who had been summoned to the
island to denounce a certain false prophet who had risen among
its 180 inhabitants, professing to be an emissary of John the
Baptist. Martin's account of the islanders is given in a tone com
pacted of amusement and admiration. He observed that the
community was backward in some ways. They were illiterate
and had many silly customs. He was full in his admiration and
devotion to the St Kildans. He prai se d their music and their
poetry, their natural courtesy and their virtue: 'The inhabitants of
St Kilda are much happier than the generality of mankind, as
being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness
of true liberty .'
It was Martin's writings which attracted the attention of many

others to the island, particularly writers and poets. In 1747,
W illiam Collins, a young E ng l ish poet, was staying at Richmond
to be close to his friend, Scotland's James Thomson, the a u thor
of The Seasons which was then fashionable reading. He came
110
AS THEY SAW IT
across lviartin's account o f S t Kilda in Thomson's library and

wrote of the autumnal bird migration.
Another friend of Thomson's, David Mallet, used St Kilda as
the background to a romantic verse-tale, Amyntor and Theodora:
or The Hermit, of 1748. This tells the story of an exiled Edin
burgh Covenanter re-united to his daughter and his enemy's
son by a shipwreck; there was plenty of detail extracted from
Martin, and there was a prefatory note advising readers to visit
the island themselves.
In 1737 an authorless poem had appeared called Albania. It
was published in London and made mention of 'utmost Hirta's
seers' among its tributes to the Isles.
James Thomson himself came under St Kilda's spell, even
from a far distance and through :Martin as medium :
Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls

Boils round the naked melancholy isles
Of farthest Thule, and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides,
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? What nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise?
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And ride-resounding shore, are one wild cry.
Here the plain harmless native, his small flock,
And herd diminutive of many hues,
Tends on the little island's verdant swell,
The shepherd's sea-girt reign; or to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food,
Or sweeps the fishy shore; or treasures up
The plumage, rising full, to form the bed
of Luxury. ('Autumn')
In 1838, on the occasion of his visit to St Kilda, Lachlan Mac

Lean wrote, 'I shall for the present close my journal, and that
in the words of Dr MacCulloch, with some little deviation,
viz:'
If St Kilda is not the Eutopia so long sought, where will it be

found? Where is the land which has neither arms, money, care,
physic, politics, nor taxes? That land is St Kilda. No tax-
111
gatherer's bill threatens on a church door-the game-laws

reach not the gannets. Safe in its own whirlwinds, and cradled
in its own tempests, it heeds not the storms which shake the
foundations of Europe-and acknowledging the dominion of
M Leod, cares not who sways the British s ceptre.
'
Well may the pampered native of happy Hirt refuse to

change his situation-his slumbers are late-his labours are
light-his occupation his amusement. Government he has not
law he feels not-physic he wants not-politics he heeds not
money he sees not--of war he hears not. His state is his city
his c ity is his social circle-he has the liberty of his thoughts,
his actions, and his kingdom and all the world are his equals.
His climate is mild, and his island green, and the stranger who
might corrupt him shuns its shores. If happiness is not a dweller
in St Kilda, where shall it be sought?
EVACUATION
Until the years of the mid-nineteenth century, the St Kildan

community seemed secure in its striking ability to maintain itself
in an unsophisticated co nd i tion on a par with that found in
ma:ny parts of Europe. The community enjoyed a reasonable, if
modest, standard of living; and there was little difference between
St Kilda and parts of the nearby Scottish mainland or western
islands. The islanders were for the most part physically fit, well
clothed and satisfied. Then came the pin-pricks: the recurrent
epidemics; the endemic scourge of infantile tetanus; successive
failures of the harvest; the contacts which an outer world brought
closer to them by visiting tourists; and the gradual realisation
that, as part of an infinitely larger cash-based society, they were
fast becoming anachronisms. One might say that in the end it
was not insularity but isolation which killed off the St Kildan
community. As if in evidence of this, one recalls the many return
visits made by some of the expatriate St Kildans and their efforts
to re-establish some kind of physical contact with their former
homeland. One also recalls the return some years ago of the
islanders of Tristan da Cunha to their island, ravaged though
it was by volcanic action.
Evacuation as a s olution to the islanders' increa sing problems
112
EVACUATION
was discussed seriously in 1875, when a plan was put forward to

take the entire population to Canada. Some twenty-five years
before this, there had been a small evacuation which undoubtedly
did the community some harm, but which it managed fitfully
to survive. In 1886, a report was published in which it was said
that it might be worthwhile investigating the possibility of assist
ing the St Kildans to emigrate, as nearly all of them wanted to
leave the island.
The birth of the twentieth century saw the St Kildans no nearer
to finding a solution for continued survival which would satisfy
the increasing demands of sophisticated society that remote com
munities should either conform to a set social and economic
pattern, with little room for the preservation of environmental
conditions desired by their small populations-or cease to exist
altogether. In August 1920, Sgt MacGillivray, writing from the
Police Station at Tarbert, Harris, to his Chief Constable, said :
'I beg to report that there were 73 inhabitants on the island and
there is now nobody on the island but the missionary and the
natives.' This refers to the fact that damage caused by a German
submarine during the 1914-18 War had been repaired and the
party of workmen had now left. A year later he reported:
'. . . since last year there has been one birth and one death'.
In 1928 the population was down to 37, 15 males and 22
females. Police Constable MacKay noted in a report : '. . . there
is talk of some more of the natives leaving the island because the
living obtained is so poor'. The following year an epidemic of
wet eczema broke out, together with bad weather during which
the islanders failed to gather in their crops which lay unripened
in the fields waiting for the sun which never came.
The St Kildan community faced the start of 1930 with
the knowledge that it was but a matter of months until the final
decision was taken for the inevitable evacuation. In April 1930,
the islanders' plight received the active sympathy of Mr T. B. W.
Ramsay, MP for the Western Isles constituency. He wrote to the
then Secretary of State for Scotland, William Adamson:
I have written to the Highlands and Islands Distress Com
mittee ask in g them to do something to help the people on the
island who are in such dire straits as regards food supplies.
113
I hope you will do something to relieve these people in their

terrible plight.
The Scotsman newspaper recorded that a Fleetwood trawler

had brought much-needed provisions to the St Kildans who had
been 'reduced to living on meal and water and salted seabirds'.
The skipper reported : 'Except one or two men who have lived
all their days on the island, the rest of the inhabitants want to
come to the mainland. They do not desire to face another winter
of such privations.'
Now that the island was so much in the public eye, the Gov
ernment was forced to step in and the then Under Secretary of
State for Scotland, Mr Tom Johnston, asked for a report 'at the
earliest possible moment on the possibility of bringing the inhabi
tants of St Kilda off the island, and settling them on the various
vacant holdings which he understands exist on the Department's
estates'. The department concerned was the Department of Agri
culture. Mr Johnston also asked for the report to show 'an
estimate of the cost'. The matter was to be regarded as peculiarly
urgent since it was expected that a question about St Kilda would
be raised in the House.
Subsequently, investigations produced a reply from the Depart
ment of Agriculture to Tom Johnston: 'It would appear that
only one family is willing to take a holding ... the majority wish
to settle in Edinburgh or Glasgow.' This was to be a transition
with a vengeance: from remote insularity, the members of a
simple community were electing to become members of a vast
urbanised social complex and face all the pressures with which
even the conditioned indigenous city dwellers found it difficult
to cope successfully.
On another tack, the department wrote to l\1r Ramsay: 'The
Department have seen articles in the Press referring to distress ...
they have, however, received no confirmation that there has been
an acute shortage of food among the islanders.' The department
had, in addition, considered the fact that the Highlands &
Islands Distress Committee had decided to take no action on
Mr Ramsay's representations. Mr Ramsay kept pressing the
matter, however. He wrote to the island's missionary, the Rev
114
EVACUATION
Dugald Munro. He received a reply which he communicated to

Mr Johnsto'n, saying that the islanders 'are uncertain as to the
future . .. many hope to be assisted to leave the island this year
as the unsatisfactory conditions which prevailed throughout last
winter have left them very unsatisfied'. Ramsay added that he
planned to visit St Kilda in an attempt to find out the true state
of affairs on the island.
On 10 lVIay 1930, the St Kildans, through the agency of the
Rev Munro, sent a petition to the Scottish Secretary of State.
It was signed by twenty islanders and witnessed by Munro and
Williamina 1\1. Barclay, Queen's Nurse on St Kilda.
'We the undersigned . . . hereby respectfully pray and petition
Her [sicJ !vfajesty's Government to assist us all to leave the island
this year and to find homes and occupation for us on the main
land.' The petition had, in fact, been precipitated by the avowed
intention of several men on the island to leave of their own
accord and resources and take their chances on the mainland.
MHnro added : 'The reason why assistance is necessary is that
for many years, St Kilda has not been self-supporting, and with
no facilities to better our position we are therefore without the
means to pay for the costs of removing ourselves and furniture
elsewhere.'
The prayers, the pleadings, the slow machinery of bureaucracy
turning over every nuance in the islanders' request for assistance,
finally ended in the decision to evacuate. But-what would it
cost? However lavish other forms of public expenditure, the com
parative pence to be spent in the relief of a handful of island
folk were to be laid on the table and each penny subjected to
careful scrutiny before being held up in the face of the St Kilda·ns
to emphasise that the cost of their evacuation was a serious charge
on Britain's mainland society. On the other hand, could the
evacuation mean a long-term saving?
Early in 1930, the Department of Health for Scotland reported
that public funds were providing postal, educational and nursing
services at a cost of some £600 per annum. The Report observed:
' .. . the decline in cultivation may be due partly to the lack of
manpower and partly to indolence, the islanders having been
encouraged by tourists, trawlers, &c., to expect sympathy in lhe
115
practical forms of money, coal, fish &c., for the asking'. In

addition to able-bodied males and their families, a fringe of
dependants woul d also have to be removed, 'and supported either
by means of parochial or similar relief'.
A health inspector visited in St Kilda in May 1930 : 'The
islanders are very reluctant to state the number of sheep they
possess. When a question appears to suggest an enquiry into
means, the number is obviously minimised and on the other
hand an inquiry that suggests compensation brings out a much
higher number.' He emphasised in his report the disproportion
ate expense of providing nursing and educational services, and,
somewhat needlessly, the dangers of inbreeding, in a society
which had regulated such affairs extremely well over the cen
turies. The island's Nurse Barclay suggested that the average
earnings per household from the sale of woollen goods and eggs
was about £26 per annum.
In actual fact, between 1925 and 1930, the medical and nurs
ing service cost a total of £1,642 8s 7d.The Department of
Agriculture found its St Kilda bill comparatively light : in 1926-
item, bull, £40; in 1928-item, repairs to crane, £3; in 1929-
itcm, bull, £39.Total, £82.
Another aspect of the evacuation concerned the St Kildan
sheep. The problem here was catching the sheep and their subse
quent transportation and sale. There were an estimated 1,500
sheep on St Kilda itself. They were so wild, however, 'that their
legs might have to be tied'. A suggestion that netting might be
taken out to St Kilda for impounding the stock was answered by
'we much doubt if any netting would hold in these sheep which
are great jumpers'. Each sheep would bring in an estimated 15s
(75p), but the removal of the sheep was not considered likely to
be an economic success. The West Highland Auction Mart,
approached by the Department of Agriculture to handle the St
Kildan sheep, wrote back to say: '... woul d prefer to take no
responsible part in it . ..' Most of the sheep were eventually
rounde d up by the islanders and three shepherds sent from Lewis
by the government. The Dunara Castle took most of the livestock
when she left on evacuation day.
In July 1930, the Admiralty informed Tom Johnston that
116
EVACUATION
Hl\II ships Harebell and Godetia could be made available and

estimated that the cost of the service would not be above £100.
The Admiralty, being literally the prime mover, and faced with
a task which was they felt better carried out in camera, called a
conference of all the parties interested, in one way or another, in
the evacuation of St Kilda. The conference, according to a
memorandum on the proceedings, was told that the Secretary
of State was 'strongly against any official provision being made
for representatives of the Press'. The delegates were told that
twenty-four of the island inhabitants were going to Loch Aline,
on the direct route from St Kilda to Oban.
The information caused no little alarm in Inverness-shire's
County Council. The County Clerk wrote to the Department
of Health to say that his council 'are a little anxious ... that
during the period of acclimatisation ...certain of the islanders
self-supporting at present, might, by reason of their transfer to
the mainland, become a burden on the County'.
Tom Johnston, in an attempt to raise funds for the settlement
of the St Kildans, and for help in the expenses incurred in the
removal process, approache d the Highland & Agriculture Society
of Scotland and the Highlands & Islands Fund. The first body
said that it was not proper for the money which lay in their St
Kilda Fund to pay for the necessary furniture in connection with
the rehousing of the islanders. They were, however, prepared to
use the money for things 'over and above the bare necessities of
life', such as the purchase of livestock. The Highlands & Islands
Fund said that the Trustees had considered Mr Johnston's appli
cation for a £500 grant for the St Kildans but were against a
direct block grant. They were willing only to consider individual

cases of distress and helpfully sent off some application forms.
While official, public and semi-public bodies were treating the
whole affair rather cagily, the Press, in sharp contrast, fou·nd the
St Kilda story very strong meat for their columns. An official
of the Health Department found time to complain in a letter to
Tom Johnston:
I am being pes tered by representatives of the Press . . . I un
derstand from the Scottish Office that it is your view that it
would be unfortunate to make a public 'show' of the evacuatio n
117
and accordingly I am trying to avoid mentioning the actual

date as far as possible, and am also telling the Press that the
accommodation available doesn't permit ...
But the St Kilda affair was now a public matter and was rightly
considered important enough for accurate accounts of the evacu
ation to be recorded for posterity. One request from the Press to
attend the evacuation was sent through No 10 Downing Street
to the Scottish Office. The Prime Minister received the reply :
'The Admiralty are naturally hostile to the idea of publicity and
Mr Johnston himself is strongly of the opinion that the utmost
effort should be made to avoid the miseries of the poor people
being turned into a show.' It concluded: 'The Scottish Office
are endeavouring to carry out the evacuation with as little pub
licity as possible out of consideration for the feelings of the St
Kildans themselves.'
The final estimate of the cost of the evacuation, 'no more than
£500' alarmed the Treasury. 'We have been prepared from the
start to deal with the situation as sympathetically as possible in
the confidence that while everything necessary would be done
to secure finality in resettleme·nt of the inhabitants on the main
land you would not incur expenditure other than on a reasonable
scale.' The bill for £500 was '. . . somewhat higher than we
expected . . . we should wish to know beforehand if you are
driven to the actual building of new houses for any of the families
who have not at present any accommodation in sight'. Later the
Treasury hoped 'every effort will be made to keep the amount
to be borne on public funds at a minimum and to meet the re
quirements as far as practicable from other sources'. The cost of
the evacuation was finally about £800.
The evacuation took place on 29 August 1930. Not all the
islanders' possessions were removed. Much was left behind, par
ticularly bulky furniture, chairs, pictures, looms; these and other
items were left to be ravaged by wind and rain. One of the last
of the St Kilda wooden-beam looms is in the possession of I\1r J.
G. Jeffs, of Kirkcudbright, Scotland.
The death of the St Kildan community was sensitively recorded
by Surgeon Lieut-Comdr A. A. Pomfret, RN, of His Majesty's
sloop Harebell:
118
EVACUATION
At 0 7.00 hours all t h e houses were locked and the people taken
on board. Shortly afterward they were looking their last at St
Kilda as the Harebell, quick ly increas ing speed, left the island
a blur on the horizon Contrary to expectations they had been
.
very cheerful throughout, though obviously very tired, but

with the first actual sep a ration came the first signs of emotion,
and men, women and c h ildren wept unrestrainedly as the last
farewells were said. An hour later the few remaining were
landed at Oban and the evacuation of St Kilda was complete.
On the voyage from St Kilda, the thirty-six islanders were

cared for with sympathy. They did not know of the ship's
message to the Admiralty regarding who was to foot the bill in
the matter of whether the St Kilda inhabitants were to be 'victu
alled on board or whether they are to make their own arrange
ments'. The Admiralty, in a burst of generosity, replied that the
islanders should be 'victualled on board' but the cost should be
charged to the Scottish Office. In the event, the St Kildans fed
heartily and consumed 30 lb of bread, 10 tins of salmon, and 30 lb
of M & V (meat and vegetables) ration, garnished with preserved
beef a·nd jam. The bill for this fare was 42s 6d (£2·12).
After the evacuation, there was a suggestion that the cost of
the operation should be charged against the sale of the islanders'
sheep, which yielded £800. This suggestion was discounted, as
was the proposal to defray, in the same way, the expense of

rounding up the sheep and transporting them to the mainland.
In the end it was agreed to distribute the whole £800 from the
sale to the islanders in proportion to their ownership. Yet it took
the Press to raise the matter that the islanders had not received
their money from the sale of their sheep.
:Most of the able-bodied islanders were found work (a guaran
teed minimum of 105 days' employment each year) with the
Forestry Commission at Ardtornish in Morvern. There, the St
Kildans, natives of a treeless island, found themselves tending
trees. The unfamiliar environment took its toll and their subse
q uent history is a tragic tale. In the main, the population was
an ageing one : many died soon after the transportation; others
drifted back, homesick, to their deserted island during the subse
quent summer seasons. During the Second World War, seven of
119
ST KILDA: ISL A N D HISTORY
the younger men served in the Armed Forces, patriotically fulfill

ing a service to society.
The full story of the evacuation is now a matter of dormant
records in more tha·n two dozen files in the Scottish Record
Office, Edinburgh. They are available for inspection by anyone
who wishes to unravel the threads of the complicated weave that
resulted in the St Kildan Parliament's decision to cut clean away
more than 1,000 years of living in Britain's most remote island
group.
A former islander, Christine MacQueen, seems to have summed
up the nation's failure to accept its island communities and its
Scrooge-like precision over the once-for-all cost of removing the
St Kildan thorn : 'The whole business from start to finish has
been the work of despairing Sasunnachs.'
120
4 NORTH RONA
ISLAND EXTRAORDINARY
N
ORTH RONA, for its size, is the most northerly isolated
and exposed island of the British Isles ever to be regu
larly inhabited, probably before Scotland appeared in
recorded history. Though nowadays it is often omitted from
maps, it still deserves full consideration in view of the part
it has played in the life of the people of the Ness district in the
north of Lewis. North Rona is called 'North' to distinguish it from
South Rona, an inshore island lying off Skye, and from Ronay,
which lies off South Uist; it is 44 miles NNE from the Butt of
Lewis and 45 miles NW from Cape Wrath. It lies in latitude 59°
7' 30" and longitude 5° 50'. With its sister island of Sulasgeir,
North Rona forms the northern termination of the Outer
Hebrides.
The island has been described as having the 'shape of a decanter
with the neck towards the north'. It is some 300 acres in extent,
with a maximum length, north to south, of 1 mile. The breadth
at the southern end of the island is similar. The central part of
Rona forms a high ridge reaching its highest point in Toa Rona,
355 ft above sea level. From this hill-ridge the ground falls
away gradually to the south-west and, at its lowest part,
the island is almost flush with the sea. The slopes which fall
away rapidly from the ridge to the north, end in high cliffs.
The most northerly part of Rona is Fianuis, a flat peninsular
rocky surface jutting out from the main land-mass of the island.
At most, this part is 60ft above sea level, varying from the cliff
edges of the west side to the gentler slopes and flat rock-bed of
Leac Mhor (Big slab). The island's cliffs are tunnelled through
and through with caves. One of the most impressive is the Tunnel
Cave, at the head of which there is a blow-hole some 100ft long
and which appears in the surface of the ground above about the
121
NORTH RONA
BOGf'A
��liSCEAR MHOR
RONA
( BARVAS PARISH, LEWIS ) USGEAR� � SGOR LICE MOIRE
l..mc lain
Tallleir
Prigeochan
Lamhocleit
GEA�UJG BHEAG �
l>
SOGH'A MHEADHON LA
GEALLCI\UIC MHO!\�
Sketch map of North Rona
122
ISLAND EXTRAORDINARY
middle of the neck of Fianuis. The island had no proper beach

or shore. All round the island lie hidden reefs and skerries.
Occasionally one or two of these show above the water, such as
the pinpricks Harsgeir and Loba Sgeir to the southwest. Farther

off lies the skerry of Gealldruig l\1hor. Rona is owned by a Lewis
man and is used for grazing sheep.
The island is composed of Hebridean hornblende gneiss with
veins of pegmatite. Quartz and felspar are also found. The rock
is for the most part covered with a few inches of sandy soil held
together by various kinds of organic matter and by the roots of
a tenacious turf composed of Yorkshire fog, bents and fescue
grasses. Some sedge is to be found to the south of the island, near
the 'village'. The drier, rocky parts of Rona are covered with sea
plants: sea-pink, buck's-horn plantain, scurvy grass, Scotch lovel
and mayweed. Altogether some forty-one species of plants exist
on the island.
As might be expected, the island is both a place of residence
for an indigenous seabird population and a lodging house for
migrants, who find Rona a convenient stopping-off place to rest
their wings for a few days and feed up to gain the strength needed
for further flight. The most common birds are kittiwakes, closely
followed by fulmars. Other species include gulls, shags and Leach's
petrels. These latter birds breed on only three places in the British
Isles other than on North Rona : on St Kilda, the Flannans and
on Sulasgeir. Recent counts by ornithologists show that North
Rona is now the largest breeding station for these small midnight
blue birds which come ashore only to breed.
The name of the island is correctly derived from Ron-y,
meaning Seal Island. Certainly the Atlantic grey seals breed on
North Rona in greater concentration than anywhere else in the
world. Their haunt is the low, flat expanse of Fianuis. The seals
come ashore in the autumn to give birth to the calves.
HISTORY
The First Inhabitants

Tradition has it that the first inhabitant of the island was
St Rona:n, who was so exasperated with the sound of women's
123
NORTH RONA
quarrelling voices at Ness in Lewis that he upped and went to the

island which is supposed to bear his name. The story tells how
Ronan prayed God for guidance on how he could effectively
escape from the ceaseless babble of female tongues and devote
his time exclusively to the serious thought and spiritual occupation
which befitted a man of God. In a vision, St Ronan was told to
go to the shore on the following morning. He did this and saw a
whale which gave him the convenience of its back to make the
journey to Rona.
When he landed on the island he found it inhabited by an
unruly and quarrelsome mob of large ugly-looking animals, like
dogs, with great long claws and red eyes which glowed like coals.
In the usual manner, the saint prevailed against these beasts, with
the acknowledged divine aid, and walked fearlessly towards the
creatures. They, in turn, walked backwards, powerless against
the superiority of the good man. They reached the edge of the
cliffs and fell over, desperately clawing at the hard rock for a hold
to ease their fall. They scratched in vain, however, and all
plunged into the deep water. The scratch marks they left can be
seen today in the form of deep channels in the face of Leac na
Sgrob (Slab of the Scraping).
There were a number of saints called Ronan. One such was
the Abbot of Kingarth in Bute. He, and his disciples, travelled
far and wide on gospel missions, apparent proof of this being
the large number of small cells bearing his name scattered
throughout the Hebrides. At Eoropie, in Ness, there is Teampull
Ronain, and nearby is the inevitable Ronan's Well. So this tradi
tion may well be founded on fact. This St Ronan died in 737.
Another St Ronan appears in the Irish Calendar of Saints. Little
is known about this cleric except that he laboured in Scotland
and was once involved in the Paschal dispute, which might be as
good a reason as any for making sail for a remote island to live
out the rest of one's life as a hcm1it. In all likelihood, the Abbot
of Kingarth was the original.
1\tiany of the saints of St Ronan's day and age were keen on
travel. Like St Brendan, the Irish seafarer saint, they were
attracted to lonely places to live out their lives in deep thought
and meditation, as sanctuaries on earth for the Holy Spirit, far
124
Page 125- (left) The south-east cliffs of Sulasgeir, some 200 ft high; (right) Flannan Isles, This photograph of the West
Landing was taken before the disaster on 15 December 1900
Page !26: Eilcan Mor, Flannan Isles: (above) approach from the cast;
(below) some- of the workmen employed during the- construction o f the
lighthouse in 1899
I
.,
HISTORY
from the secular influences which, even in those early days, were
often too strong to be resisted. The fact that St Ronan was an
historic person does not necessarily mean he actually visited the
island and stayed there, especially as his career indicates that he
had heavy administrative and other responsibilities as Abbot of
Bute. More likely, as with St Columba of Iona, missionaries went
abroad from these religious centres carrying the blessing and
name of the current dignitary with instructions to set up cells
and places of worship as visible signs that Christ was among the
people of the islands. It rnay well be that one of these mission
aries from Bute reached Lewis, travelled north through the island
to Ness and heard about a resident community on Rona. Then
he made his way there to become resident priest. This makes the
assumption that the Norse in Lewis were amenable to Christian
ising influences in the eighth century. If they were not, the cell
of Rona island may well date from the eleventh or twelfth cen
tury, when clerics were certainly acceptable among the emerg
ing powerful families and clans of the Highlands.
Another tradition claims to record the first owners of Rona.
This concerns the dispute between the Morisons of Ness and the
people of Sutherland, on the Scottish mainland, over the owner
ship of the isla·nd. After a prolonged discussion, heated we may be
sure, it was decided that two boats should race for the island;
the first claim staked down would prove ownership for all time.
The boats set off. The island's shape reared up on the horizon
and as the boats skimmed over the waters the Sutherland boat
seemed to draw ahead. But the Morisons had planned beforehand
in the event of such a possibility. One of them shot a burning
arrow onto the island and set the grassy top on fire, thus getting
prior claim on the land. This tradition is probably founded on the
custom of the Norsemen who, by lighting a fire at the mouth of
a river, thought this act sufficien
· t to lay claim to all the country
which the river drained.
Leaving tradition aside, it can be taken as a reasonable premise
that North Rona supported a population from the eighth century
AD. The earlier Norsemen must have known about Rona and the
other ·northern and western outposts of the long chain of islands
comprising the Outer Hebrides. Most of these small islands have
H 127
NORTH RONA
placenames of Norse and Icelandic origin. It is possible that the

first settlers were itinerant Vikings who chose the island as an
extremely useful base from which to operate raiding excursions
on the north and west coast of Scotland.
As Rona was fertile and cultivable, and provided a diet from
seabirds and their eggs, the Norsemen would hardly overlook the
immense strategic possibilities of such a base. In addition, it was
virtually impregnable, for to this' day landing on North Rona is
possible only in good weather. And even given the latter, any
invaders would have to contend with rocks and the like thrown
down at them from the upper landing heights. Perhaps the only
disadvantage of Rona might be the fact that the bed on which
Rona lies is hard rock. This makes it difficult for an anchor to
hold, so that any resident ship, intermittently based on the island,
would have to carry two crews, one crew remaining on the island,
while the other took the ship to maraud down the ·nearby coasts.
The ultimate take-over of the island would be with the birth of
children in the settlement, for women, Norse or otherwise, were
part of the baggage of the early Vikings. Thus a community would
come into being.
A Fertile Island
The social history of North Rona is extremely interesting. It
is that of a remote island community, relatively inaccessible to
external influences, and thereby left to make progress at a pace
dictated only by the necessarily limited intellect of those who
made up the population. From the various accounts written of
the people of Rona, certain aspects of island life emerge which
indicate the slow and uneventful progress of the community
to an awareness of itself and the eventual desire to fit in somehow
with the scheme of things which the world outside had long
since planned and implemented to meet the normal needs of the
civilised human being.
In 1549, Donald Monro said of North Rona:
Towards the north-eist or north north-eist from Leozus

(Lewis) 60 miles of sea lyis ane little lie callit Ronay, laich mane
land, inhabite and manurit be simp le people scant of ony Re
ligion. This Ile is half mile lang, half mile braid : abundand of
128
1-IISTORY
corn growis in it be delving, be abundante of naturall claver girs

for scheip. Thair is ane certane number of ky and scheip
ordanet for this lie be thair awin auld rycht, extending to sa
mony as may be sufficient upon the said girsing; and the
countrie is sa fertile of girsing, that the superexcrescens of the
said ky and scheip baith feidis thame in flesche and als payis
thair dewties with the same for the maist pairt.
\Vithin this lie thair is sic fair quhyte beir meill maid like
flowir, and quhan thay slay thair scheip (they slay them) belly
flauchts and stuffs the said skynnis fresche of the beir meill.
They send thair dewtie aftirwart to Mccloyd of Leozus, with
certane reistit muttonnis. and mony reistit wild fowls. Within
this Ile thair is ane chapell callit St Ronans chapell, into the
quhilk chapell (as the ancients of that cuntrie alledgis) they
use to leave ane spaid and ane schoole quhan one deid, and
upon the morn findis the place of the grave taiknit with ane
spaid (as thai alledge). In this Ile they use to tak mony
quhaillis and utheris great fisches.
Even in those days when many another island and Scottish

mainland community was considered remote, the community
on North Rona, being so small compared with, for instance, that
on St Kilda, must have seemed on the very edge of the world, if
not just beyond it. Yet the island and its community was signifi
cant, for it demonstrated that Man could inhabit such a place
and, with his simplest requirements satisfied, form a vigorous self
dependent and self-supporting community.
As Monro says, the island could well support its community,
any supplementary dietary needs were provided by the seals and
the seabirds. Considering the extremely barren nature of its
sister isle Sulasgeir, North Rona was surprisingly fertile. The
produce of the island was sufficient not only to meet all domestic
requirements but to leave a surplus to pay for the Rona rent or
tribute to MacLeod of Lewis, chief of that clan
· at Stornoway,
or for trading. Of course, such a community was ever at the
mercy of marauders, mainly seamen from passing ships who
let their desire for fresh meat so overpower them that they raided
the island's larder. This, in fact, happened on at least one
occasion in the island's recorded history.
Though it lacked some essentials (for instance, peat for fuel)
129
NORTH RONA
the island supported or produced sheep, cows, a bull for breed

ing, oats, milk products, corn, barley meal, wild-fowl feathers,
potatoes, mutton, seabird carcascs, and seal skins. Monro mentions
'whales and other great fishes', though this might well be an
assumption, for this type of fishing activity implies the possession
of a boat able to carry a crew of at least four. As there is no beach
on Rona it is difficult to sec how or where such a craft could be
drawn up to safety above high-water mark. A small light canoe
type craft or kyak might have been available for light fishing, but
certainly it would have been unsuitable for whaling. Accounts do
not mention that fishing was an occupation of significance, except
to indicate the existence of fishing rights around the island. As
dried fish, fish-oil and the like do not figure in the island's list of
produce, fishing was apparently pursued for domestic purposes
only: a change of diet, a source of manure, oil for lamps, or dried
fish to be stored and used for food during the winter months.
Sir George :MacKenzie's account, quoted more fully later in
the chapter, and which is probably derived from hearsay, tells us
that the community was organised as 'a kind of commonwealth'.
However, the principle of sharing goods and of communal exist
ence seemed to extend only to the equalising of the numbers of
each family. There were five families, each with sbc persons,
making thirty the optimum maximum total at any one time. This
number seemed to be critical. If it were exceeded, the surplus
persons had to be removed to Lewis. There seems to be no indica
tion who these persons were, whether young, teenage, old, or male
or female. The population of Rona was often less than thirty.
While still a 'commonwealth', there was a definite delineation
of property in the allotment of parts of the shores and perhaps
inshore sea areas for fishing. Martin tells us that none of the
islanders would 'by any means allow his neighbour to fish within
his property'.
Tragedy
The little community which Monro had found so pleasantly
prosperous, met tragedy in the latter part of the seventeenth
century. Martin's account of Rona is given later in this chapter.
In it he tells that, about 1680, a swarm of rats, 'but none knows
130
HISTORY
how', came to Rona and soon ate up all the corn on the island.
These rats possibly came from a large amount of washed-up
wreckage. They swarmed over the island consuming valuable
supplies and starved the population. Only a few months later,
this disaster was followed by a raid on the island by seamen from
a passing ship who deprived the islanders of their one and only
bull. 'These misfortunes and the want of supply from Lewis for
the space of a year occasioned the death of all that ancient race
of people'.
In such a way did the keen knife-edge, on which the Ronans
lived, move to sever a thread of continuous occupation which
had probably lasted for at least 1,000 years.
A Brief Colonisation
There seems to have been a short-lived colonisation of the
island soon after the total loss of the original population. It too
ended disastrously c 1695 when most of the men of the com
munity seem to have been lost in a tragic disaster, after which
the women were brought back to Lewis. This mass loss of males
certainly implies a boating disaster. Possibly, after the experience
of the rats and the subsequent raiding by seamen who stole the
island's only bull, an attempt was made to establish a less tenuous
and intermittent island contact with Lewis by keeping a boat on
the island. It may have been drawn up, but with difficulty, on
the storm beach to the north of the island. After this disaster, it
was merely a matter of implanting a shepherd family to look
after the sheep belonging to the Ness tacksman. From this time
onwards, the resident population was purely functional and in
cidental, with no social overtones to continue the almost certain
millenium of community occupation on the island. One wonders
how long the community would have survived had the seven
teenth-century disaster not occurred. It took the St Kildan com
munity until the 30s of the twentieth century to finally concede
defeat against overwhelming odds imposed by contemporaneous
factors.
One-Family Island
By 1797, the Old Statistical Account of Scotland recorded only
131
NORTH RONA
one family living on Rona, instead of the five (about thirty people)
who once lived there. Walker, who published an economic history
of the Hebrides in 1808, gave the population of the island as 9.
The family was that of the person employed by the tacksman,
the renter of the island, to look after the stock grazing.The tacks
man was a native of Ness who paid £4 sterling per annum for
the use of Rona. Each season he sen t out a large boat to bring
back corn, butter, cheese, a few sheep, and sometimes a cow.
There were in addition the inevitable wild fowl and feathers.
'It is the total seclusion of Rona from all the concerns of the
world which confers on it that intense character of solitude with
which it seemed to impress us all ...Rona is forgotten, unknown;
for ever fixed, immovable in the dreary and waste ocean'. So
wrote Dr John MacCulloch after his visits between 1811 and
1821. In his time there were about 6 or 7 acres under cultivation
producing barley, oats and potatoes. 8 bolls of barley and 8 stones
of gannets' feathers were sent to the Ness tacksman each year.
The island grazed some 50 sheep.
The shepherd on Rona was called MacCagie. His family con
sisted of his wife, two boys, an infant and an old, deaf mother.
There was no boat. The oil derived from coal-fish served for
light. The one and only fire on the island was kept burning day
and night, for should it go out it could never be re-kindled again.
MacCagie had neither matches, flint nor steel to strike a spark.
The family lived in very primitive conditions, in the earth-houses
on the island.The children were ill-clad but healthy and well-fed.
MacCagie's only worry seemed to have been his desire to have his
child christened in Lewis.
The last family to live on Rona was that of Donald lVIacLeod,
self-styled 'King of Rona', of whom it was said that he was the
second monarch ruling in the British Isles at the time of his
evacuation in 1844, the seventh year of Queen Victoria's reign.
Since that time Rona has not had continuous habitation. Annu
ally, men from Lewis went to the island to shear the sheep and
replace a few of the stock. Sir James Matheson, who bought the
island of Lewis in 1844 for £190,000, offered North Rona to
the Govemment in 1850 for use as a penal settlement. The offer
was refused.
132
HISTORY
Two Exiles on Rona

After 1844 Rona l ay deserted, slowly reverting to its natural
wild state. But in M ay 1884, the island became a haven for two
men from Ness. Harvie-Brown in vest igat ed the circumstances of
this migration and has left us wit h his findings, including his
account of the subsequent tragic death of the new inhabitants
of Rona :
The names of the two men who went from Lewis to Roney
were Murdoch :MacKay and Malcolm MacDonald, two good
representatives of the Danish and Celtic types. Having objec
tions to the appointment of a layman as preacher to the
church at Ness, and being grieved at some feeling shown them
in consequence of the action which they took along with a few
others of the congregation, they were desirous of making some
atonement for their opposition, and resolved to leave the place.
Accordingly, on the morning of Monday, 20th May, 1884,
they sailed for the island of North Roney, where they landed
that night. Ostensibly their reason for going there was to take
care of the sheep on the island, but in reality it was to atone
for their action against the minister that they went into exile.
Twice did boats go out to North Roney-in the following
August and September-and the friends endeavoured to get the
two men to return to their families and friends, but in vain.
The men were then in good health, and apparently enjoyed
their island home, and employed themselves in building sheep
fanks, fishing, and killing seals. It was only, however, on the
22nd April, 1885, after two previous unsuccessful attempts,
that they (friends from Ness) effected a landing. No one met
them. At the door of the little half-underground house occupied
by the two men the boatmen found the body of Malcolm Mac
Donald in a sitting position beside an improvised fireplace,
as if he had fallen asleep. On the floor of the house, beside the
fireplace, lay the body of Murdoch MacKay. His tartan plaid
was placed neatly and carefully over and under him, showing
that the deft hands and the warm heart of Malcolm Mac
Donald had performed the last sad office to the body of his
dead friend. The bodies were wrapped in canvas wrappings, and
buried side by side in the primitive and beautifully situated
burial-place adjoining.
It was feared that the poor men might have met with foul
133
NORTH RONA
play, and the matter having been brought up in Parliament,

the Crown authorities ordered an investigation. Accordingly,
the procurator-fiscal, Stornoway, and two medical men, pro
ceeded to Roney in the fishing cutter 'Vigilant'. The bodies of
the two men were exhumed, and a post-mortem examination
made.
There was no appearance of foul play; it was ascertained
that Murdoch MacKay died of acute inflammation of the
right lung and left kidney, and that Malcolm MacDonald died
from cold, exposure and exhaustion. The opinion among the
friends is that Malcolm MacDonald assiduously attended his
friend day and night till he died, by which time he himself
became so weak that he could not bury the body, and being
unable to remain in the hut had sat down by the improvised
fire and died. There was a small pot on the little fireplace at the
door, indicating that Malcolm MacDonald meant to prepare
for himself some food, which, however, he was never destined
to eat. The medical examiners found nothing in his stomach
but a few grains of meal and a little brown liquid-probably tea.
An abundance of unconsumed food was found in the hut.
On this occasion the son of :Malcolm MacDonald took two
coffins with him to Roney, and the two friends were re-interred
again side by side as before. Mr John Ross, jun., joint-fisc..'"ll,
Stornoway, Dr Roderick Ross, Barvas, and Dr Finlay Mac
Kenzie, Stornoway, Mr Gordon, Inspector of Police, Captain
MacDonald of the 'Vigilant', together with some of the officers
and several of the crew; MacDonald, son of 1Vlalcolm 1\..fac
Donald, and one or two other relatives of the deceased men,
attended the re-interment, which all present felt to have been
of a touching nature.
The men would seem to have spent their time in prayer and
meditation, and in reading the Gaelic Scriptures, in which they
were well versed. Neither of them could write, but they kept
a record of their time--of the days, weeks and the months
in a very ingenious manner. This was accomplished by means
of a bar of red pine wood, evenly and accurately dressed, 2
feet long and 1-fr inch in the side. A notch is neatly cut in the
corner of the bar for each day of the week, and then a deeper
notch for Sunday, while for the end of the month a cut is made
from side to side of the bar. The plan is simple, clever and
intelligible. The markings begin on Friday, the 21st June 1884,
134
HISTORY
and cease on Tuesday, the 17th February, 1885. Towards the

end the notches are less neatly and accurately made, indicat
ing very clearly that the deft fingers which fashioned the rest
were becoming weak and powerless to cut into the hard pine
wood. These notches are no less touching than instructive,
and speak to the eye and to the heart and the imagination with
a pathos all their own. Through a hole in the end of the
calendar is a looped cord by which to suspend the stick .. .
Harvie-Brown, referring to his own visit to North Rona continues :
The habit of sheep-stealing is still carried on by passing

ships or fishermen. In the summer of this year (1885) both
sheep and the oil barrels and the plenishings of the house be
long to the dead men, consisting of sugar, tea, butter, soap,
a grinding-stone, etc., were stolen by some Grimsby fishermen,
who have since been apprehended. These articles were all upon
the island at the time of our visit in June, and there seemed to
be considerable honourable feeling even amongst the proprietors
against touching the dead men's effects ...
Later, the friends of the dead men returned to Rona to erect

a memorial stone among the cruder efforts of past Rona genera
tions. The stone reads :
' '
SACRED TO THE MEMOR Y OF MALCOLM M C DONALD NESS WHO
'
DIED AT RONA FEB 18 1885 AGED 67 ALSO M M c KAY WHO DIED
AT RONA SAME TIME Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'
AS THEY S AW I T
With most now-deserted islands, their history is to be found

largely in the accounts written and left by their many visitors
through the centuries. North Rona is no exceptio·n. The quality
of the accounts vary. Some, like MacCulloch's, give some useful
facts and glimpses of life but deal at much greater length with
very general impressions. Others made more purposeful visits to
record the natural life on the island; while others, perhaps even
more specialised, confined themselves to a close study of rocks
a·nd minerals.
The earliest account is that of Dean Monro, given already in
135
NORTH RONA
this chapter. It is short, and concentrates on the produce of the

island and the religious character of the islanders. His island
going was functional, mainly to discover the fertility and worth of
church lands, which perhaps explains his interest in this aspect
to the general exclusion of others. We may take the dean's
remark that the folk were 'scant of onie religion' to mean that
they did not possess one of the more acceptable forms of worship,
and were in fact performing religious ceremonies which resembled
the contemporary practice and which also contained elements
not appropriate to Christianity.
About a century and a half after Dean Monro came Martin
Martin, 'Gent' from Skye. He did not visit the island himself
but he nevertheless recorded a great deal about the inhabitants
of North Rona. While in Lewis, he was fortunate in meeting up
with the Rev Daniel Moriso·n, Minister of Barvas Parish which
contained Rona, who had recently returned from a trip
there, and who was still full to the brim with impressions and
anecdotes.
Perhaps it was more than fortunate that the minister's account
was taken down by Martin, for he does not seem to have left
any other record of his visit. As it is, Morison's account, as noted
down by Martin, is perhaps the most useful we have. For, though
the economic aspects of Rona are not dealt with as fully as we
might wish, it is sufficiently detailed to tell us of the way of life,
philosophy, community organisation, social relationships and the
economic condition of the island's inhabitants. It also tells of a
remote people whose mental evolution had proceeded undisturbed
by alien thought or action, making its own gradual progress.
The island Rona is reckoned about 20 leagues from the north

east point of Ness in Lewis, and is counted but a mile in length,
and about half a mile in breadth : it hath a hill in the west
part, and is only visible from the Lewis in a fair summers-ciay.
I had an account of this island, and the custom of it, from
several natives of Lewis, who had been to the place; but more
particularly from Mr Daniel Morison, minister of Barvas, after
his return from Rona island, which then belonged to him as
part of his glebe. Upon my landing (says he) the natives re
ceived me very affectionately, and addressed me with their usual
136
AS THEY SAU' IT
salutation to a stranger: "God save you pilgrim, you are

heartily welcome here; for we have had repeated apparitions
of your person among us (after the manner of second sight)
and we heartily congratulate your arrival in this our remote
country".
One of the natives would needs express his high esteem for
my person by making a turn round me sun-ways, and at the
same time blessing me, and wishing me all happiness; but I bid
him let alone that piece of homage, telling him I was sensible
to his good meaning towards me; but this poor man was not
little disappointed, as were also his neighbours; for they
doubted not that this ancient ceremony would have been very
acceptable to me : and one of them told me, that this was a
thing due to my character from them, as to their chief and
patron, and they could not, nor would not, fail to perform
it.
They conducted me to the little village where they dwell,
and in the way thither there were three enclosures; and as I
entered each of these, the inhabitants severally saluted me,
taking me by the hand, and saying, "Traveller, you are welcome
here." They went along with me to the house that they had
assigned for my lodging; where there was a bundle of straw laid
on the floor, for a seat for me to sit on. After a little time was
spent in general discourse, the inhabitants retired to their respec
tive dwelling houses; and in this interval they killed each man a
sheep, being in all five, answerable to the number of their
families. The skins of the sheep were entire, and flayed off so
from the neck to the tail, that they were in form like a sack.
These skinnes, being flayed off after this manner, were by the
inhabitants instantly filled with barley-meal; and this they
gave me by way of a present: one of their number acted as
speaker for the rest, saying, "Traveller, we are very sensible
of the favour you have done us in coming so far with a design
to instruct us in our way to happiness, and at the same time to
venture yourself on the great ocean; pray be pleased to accept
this small present, which we humbly offer as an expression of
our sincere love to you".
This I accepted, though in a very course address; but it was
given with such an air of hospitality and goodwill, as deserved
thanks. They presented my man also with some pecks of meal,
as being likewise a traveller: the boat's-crew having been m
137
NORTH RONA
Rona before were not reckoned strangers, and therefore there

was no present given them, but their daily maintenance.
There is a chapel here dedicated to St Ronan, fenced with
a stone-wall round it; and they take care to keep it neat and
clean, and sweep it every day. There is an altar in it, on which
there lies a big plank of wood about 10 feet in length; every
foot has a hole in it, and in every hole a stone, to which the
natives ascribe several virtues: one of them is singular, as they
say, for promoting speedy delivery to a woman in travail. They
repeat the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments in
the chapel every Sunday morning. They have cows, sheep,
barley and oats, and live a harmless life, being perfectly ignor
ant of most of those vices that abound in the world. They know
nothing of money or gold, having no occasion for either; they
neither sell nor buy, but only barter for such little things as they
want; they covet no wealth, being fully content and satisfied
with food and raiment; though at the same time they are
very precise in the matter of property among themselves; for
none of them will by any means allow his neighbour to fish
within his property; and every one must exactly observe not to
make any encroachment on his neighbour. They have an agree
able and hospitable temper for all strangers; they concern not
themselves about the rest of mankind, except the inhabitants
in the north part of Lewis. The take their surname from the
colour of the sky, rainbow and clouds. There are only five
families in this small island, and every tenant has his dwelling
house, a barn, a house where their best effects are preserved,
a house for their cattle, and a porch on each side of the door
to keep off the rain or snow. Their houses are built with stone
and thatched with straw, which is kept down with ropes of the
same, poised with stones. They wear the same habit with those
in Lewis, and speak only Irish (Gaelic). When any of them
comes to Lewis, which is seldom, they are astonished to see so
many people. They much admire greyhounds, and are mightily
pleased at the sight of horses; and one of them, observing a
horse to neigh, asked if that horse laughed at him. A boy from
Rona perceiving a colt running towards him, was so much
frightened at it, that he jumped into a bush of nettles, where
his whole skin became full of blisters.
Another of the natives of Rona having had the opportunity
of travelling as far as Coul, in the Shire of Ross, which is the
138
AS THEY SAW IT
seat of Sir Alexander MacKenzie, everything he saw was sur

prising to him; and when he heard the noise of those who
walked in the rooms above him, he presently fell to the ground,
thinking thereby to save his life, for he supposed that the house
was coming down over his head.
When Mr Morison the minister was in Rona, two of the
natives courted a maid with intention to marry her; and being
married to one of them afterwards, the other was not a little
disappointed, because there was no other match for him in this
island. The wind blowing fair, Mr Morison sailed directly for
Lewis; but after three hours sailing was forced back to Rona
by a contrary wind: and at his landing the poor man that had
lost his sweetheart was overjoyed, and expressed himself in
these words, "I bless God and Ronan that you are returned
again, for I hope you will now make me happy, and give me a
right to enjoy the woman every other year by turns, so that
both may have issue by her". Mr Morison could not refrain
from smiling at this unexpected request, chid the man for his
unreasonable demand, and desired him to have patience for a
year longer, and he would send him a wife from Lewis; but this
did not ease the poor man who was tormented with the thought
of dying without issue.
Another who wanted a wife, and having got a shilling from
a seaman that happened to land there, went and gave this
shilling to Mr Morison, to purchase him a wife in Lewis, and
send her to him, for he was told that this piece of money was
a thing of extraordinary value; and his desire was gratified
the ensuing year.
About 14 years ago a swarm of rats, but none knows how,
came into Rona, and in a short time, ate up all the corn in the
island. In a few months after, some seamen landed there, who
robbed the poor people of their bull. These misfortunes and
the want of supply from Lewis for the space of a year,
occasioned the death of all that ancient race of people. The
steward of St Kilda being by a storm driven there told me
that he found a woman with her child on her breast, both lying
dead at the side of a rock. Some years after, the minister (to
whom the island belongeth) sent a new colony to the island
with suitable supplies. The following year a boat was sent to
them with some more supplies, and orders to receive the rents;
but the boat being lost as it is supposed, I can give no further
139
NORTH RONA
account of this late plantation. The inhabitants of this little

island say that the cuckoo is never seen or heard, but after the
death of the Earl of Seaforth, or the minister.
It is a pity that the accou·nts of the conversation between

Morison and the island folk were rendered into an acceptable
form of language. The island language was, of course, Gaelic.
So it would have been more than interesting had the minister
caused Martin Martin to set down the literal account of his talks,
to compare whether Gaelic had developed in Rona at the same
pace as among the larger Gaelic-speaking communities. The
social and economic intercourse between North Rona and Ness,
in Lewis, might well have progressed the Rona Gaelic to the state
where it equalled contemporary use. But, as the intercourse was
intermittent and the contacts of short duration, the Rona Gaelic
might have been shown to be lacking in extent of vocabulary and
to be full of archaic forms of words and expressions.
The Rev Morison was displeased at the sun-ways turns of the
Ronans round him as part of a blessing of welcome and says
that it was an ancient ceremony.To go 'with the sun' was, in fact,
common practice throughout the Highlands. Going against the
sun, or widdershins, could invite the attentions of evil agencies
in a ·number of forms, particularly faeries. There is no mention
of the folklore of Rona, which is a pity, for any observations made
on the superstitions or beliefs of the island folk would have been
valuable as a basis for assessing the intellectual growth of the
community.
Dr John MacCulloch was an expert geologist who spent the
decade between 1811 and 1821 sailing among the Hebrides.
After a number of unsuccessful attempts at landing on Rona
he eventually succeeded. But the island itself was not the only
obstacle to his ambition to get onto it and onto some of the other
islands on his list : ' ... the map-makers had forgotten them, and
the manufacturers of longitudes and !attitudes had tabulated
them, each according to his own fancy or belief'. He said of
Rona:
The first objects we saw as we reached the surface of the

cliff, were a man and a boy, who, with a dog, were busily
14-0
AS THEY SA J1' IT
employed in collecting and driving away a small flock of sheep.

No houses were visible; but, a little farther off, we perceived
two women, each loaded with a large bundle, who seemed to
have arisen out of the ground, and were running with all speed
towards the northern side of the island. It was plain that they
had taken us for pirates or Americans.
:MacCulloch visited the shepherd (NiacCagie) and his family:
... I had not observed that our conference (with MacCagie)

was held on the top of a house; roof it could not be called.
The whole spot seemed to consist of an accumulation of turf
stacks, and, on the lowest of these, we thought ourselves
stationed. It was the house itself ... We could not perceive the
entrance till it was pointed out. This was an irregular hole,
about four feet high, surrounded by turf; and, on entering it,
with some precaution, we found a long tortuous passage, some
what resembling the gallery of a mine, but without a door,
which conducted us into the penetralia of this cavern.
From the rafters hung festoons of dried fish; but scarcely
an article of furniture was to be seen, and there was no light
but that which came through the smoke-hole. There was a sort
of platform, or dais, on which the fire was raised, where the
old woman and her charge sat; and one or two niches, exca
vated laterally in the ground, and laid with ashes, seemed to be
the only bed places. Why these were not furnished with straw,
I know not; and, of blankets, the provision was as scanty as that
of the clothes. Possibly, ashes may make a better and softer
bed than straw; but it is far more likely that Kenneth MacCagie
and his family could not be fashed to make themselves more
comfortable. . . . Every thing appeared wretched enough; a
climate where winter never dies; a smoky subterranean cavern;

rain and storm; a deaf octogenarian mother; the wife and
children half naked; and, to add to all this, solitude, and a
prison from which there was no escape. Yet they were well fed,
seemed contented, and little concerned with what the rest of
the world was doing.
The short account of Rona by Sir George MacKenzie is in

teresting because it illustrates j ust how finely balanced was the
141
NORTH RONA
North Rona economy. Even one person too many on the island
could be responsible for the death of the community, or for its
continued existence, on a greatly attenuate d level, until the
annual relief ship came from Lewis.
Rona had for many generations been inhabited by five

families, which seldom exceed thirty souls in all; they had a
kind of commonwealth among them, in so far if any of them
have more children than another, he that had fewer took from
the other what his number equalled, and the excresence of
above thirty souls was taken with the summer boat to the Lewis
to the Earl of Seaforth, their master, to whom they paid yearly
some quantity of meal stitched up in sheep's skins, and feather
of sea fowls.
They have no fuel for fire upon the island; but by the special
providence of God, the sea yearly casts in so much timber as
serves them : their sheep there have wool, but of a bluish colour.
There is a chapel in the midst of the isle, where they meet twice
or thrice a day. One of the families is hereditary beddal (beadle),
and the master of that stands at the altar and prayeth, the rest
kneel upon their knees and join with him. The religion is the
Romish religion : there is always one who is the chief, and
commands the rest, and they are so well satisfied with their
condition that they exceedingly bewail the condition of those,
as supernumerary, they must send out of the island.
At much later dates, after the desertion of the island, the

accounts of Rona become quite numerous. However, they are
the descriptions of visiting naturalists and are interesting for
details of natural life on the island and also for the picture of a
once-inhabited island slowly reverting to a wild state.
When Harvie-Brown landed on North Rona it was June
1887:
Thrift filled the air with delicious fragrance, faint but sweet.
Huge caverns, geos, gloups, and rock-arches, stacks, and
detached masses of rock, abound, and at once attract attention;
and the booming of unbroken Atlantic waves, and giant rollers
lashing deep into their recesses, and filling often to the roof
some of the great arches, proved a very fascinating scene to
me.
142
Page 143: (aboce) View of the western cliffs of the Flann an Isles from
near the West Landing showing the channel between Eilean Mor and
Eilean Tighe, with puffins-sea parrots-in the foreground; (below) taking
blalkface s h eep off Eilean Mor, Flannan Isles
-
. ----· �-:��_:.:___,
�-.!" • ..:..>."'
Page 144: (above)

Low water at Port
Roy, Ceann Ear,
i\-lonach Isles; the
mountains of South
Uist may be seen
dimly on the ho ri zon;
(centre) on the left

the schoolhouse on
Ceann Ear, and on the
righ t the last cottage
on the Monach Isles
to be inh abited;
(below) ferrying
cattle fro mHeisgcir
Is land , North Uist
AS THEY SAHI IT
The Duchess of Bedford landed on Rona in 1907 and 19 10.

Her main attention was drawn to the memorial stone which had
been erected to the two men who died in 1885:
The horrible modern tombstone erected to the memory of the
last two inhabitants who died there in 1887 (sic), and placed in
the little chapel yard amongst the old locally carved stone
crosses, had been re-whitewashed. If ever I commit sacrilege it
will be here.
The Duchess, who held an 'A' license and who disappea red
in 1937 on a flig ht over the North S ea, had other things to say
of the island :
... by no stretch of the imagination could I have detected
its (the thrift) fragrance amidst the all-pervading stench of the
nesting-places of hundreds of Fulmars, Great and Lesser Black
backed Gulls and Herring Gulls.
l\1alcolm Stewart published his book Ronay in 1933, and

opene d up a flood of interest in the island. He visited North Rona
in 1930 and 1932:
First impressions are always most important, for they are pres
ent in the mind when one looks back on places visited in the past.
No one could ever fail to experience immense pleasure on first
landing on North Rona. A narrow strip of land, on the north
end covered with green vegetation and surrounded on three
sides by the ever-present Atlantic. The natural stillness and the
solitude of the place are broken by the cries .of sea fowl, and
the beat of the waves. You may be alone here on North Rona,
but for all that the island is teeming with other animal life.
Two hundred sheep, and milliards of gulls, not to mention the
seals that are ever inhabitants of North Rona. Well they know
the beauties of the place, but few let out their secret to the poor
human.
Ruins of villages deserted for many a year usually induce a
feeling of despondency and regret, not to mention solitude, but

here, however, though one stands and ponders upon the men
who lived here before, no one has such thoughts of sadness. So
old are the buildings and so unique their construction, that now
they are entirely overgrown with turf, and only a few feet
above the surface are almost indistinguishable from th e sur
round ing ground.
I 14-5
NORTH RONA
HEARTH AND ALTAR
Tradition has it that after St Ronan had cleared North Rona

of wild and hairy beasts, he built himself a rude stone shelter.
But though he had rid the island of the physical manifestations
of evil, the spirit of the Devil was still abroad and was the source
of a great wind which blew on Rona and bore its full force on
the saint's simple structure. But Ronan leaned against the inside
wall and prevented the Devil from completing his intention of
ridding Rona of such a holy man. This tradition indicates that
from those earliest times the island's exposure to high winds
created a problem in the design of the buildings which were
to serve as dwelling houses for the island's community. To obtain
adequate protection and to present as little wind-catching surface
as possible, the houses were constructed as roofed dug-outs.
In many ways, the Rona houses resembled the beehive houses
which are found in various parts of Lewis, ie partly underground
and roofed over with either turf or large flat stones. The walls
on Rona were built up from dry stones. The houses were com
pletely without windows and chimneys. Shelving was usually
built into the thicknesses of the walls; it was easy enough to
do this with thin flat stones. The shelves were useful for bowls of
milk and utensils to be stood out of the way. The doorway was a
low corridor and one had to stoop and crawl in order to gain
entrance to the living quarters. Sometimes two flimsy wicker
frames served as doors to keep out the cold air.
The 'village' o·n Rona is now in ruins. The roofs of each cluster
of dwellings have fallen in and the grassy turf has covered much
of the scars left by a thousand years of occupation by man. Each
cluster of dwellings contains low passages, such as that through
which Dr MacCulloch made his way. Both barn and byre were
part of the house, as they were in the 'black houses' of Lewis.
The plan of the Rona houses is round rather than the Lewis
rectangular; wind-baffling passages are distinctive.
T. S. Muir, who visited Rona in 1857, toured the island and
made many observations. On his return to Lewis he met up with
lain MacKay, who had lived on Rona and whose memory of life
on the island went back to the turn of the century. In some ways,
146
HEARTH AND ALTAR
Muir and MacKay were what Martin Martin and Daniel

Morison had been in the previous century: the visitor recording
the other's experience of the island. 1\1acKay asked Muir whether
he ha d seen the Rona houses.
Yes; and some with low stone-covered passages, partly sunk

into the ground, leading crookedly into them : these passages
were not in the least broken down-having been very strongly
built-but the houses themselves were roofless, and empty of
everything; only there was a quem, or the like, still lying
about here and there.
-=--- :·. -::.- (..-.

�
--___..- - --- --- _ ----
--=- - ------ -- � -- -
..
. - � -
--=-==-�
Artist's impression of the church ruins on North Rona
St RonanJs Chapel
The structure which has the greatest interest and, perhaps, the
greatest relevance to the island, is the chapel or cell of St Ronan.
Unlike the secular structures, the chapel is mainly proud of the
land, though still conforming to the pit-house design. It is a two
chambered building, consisting of a chancel and a nave. lain
MacKay also told T. S. 1\1uir of the manner in which the cell
was kept in good repair :
147
NORTH RONA
We laid turf also on the top of the chapel, and put lime made
from shells in among the stones, to keep them together; for
we thought a great deal of the teampull, and would not have
liked it to fall down .. I mind we were often on the top of it
.
putting on turfs; for the wind was always blowing them off in
the winter time, so that we had every now and then to be put
ting them on again.
When Dr Frank Fraser Darling visited North Rona in 1939

t o spend some time on the island, he passed some of the days by
doing some excavation work on the chapel. It was his work which
restored the chapel to its orig inal state. In his book Island Years
he describes his ac tivity :
Tradition has it that St Ronan built the existing cell on

Rona, and as this building is in many ways typical of the cells
built by ascetic hermits of the early Celtic Church in other parts
of Scotland, there is no reason yet for disbelieving the traditional
origin of a building which is unlike any other on Rona.
Muir, a Scottish ecclesiological antiquary, who visited Rona
in 1857 and 1860, made careful measurements of the cell and
described the place as he found it. His sketches indicate a very
long entrance, and a paving to the cell is implied. He also wrote
of entering the cell on elbows and knees; it was the unlikelihood
of this being the original mode of ingress that decided me to
dig.
The east and west walls are almost perpendicular, but the
longer north and south walls slope inwards rapidly, and at a
height of over eleven feet are bridged by rectangular slabs of
gneiss to finish the roof. The length and breadth of the cell
at floor level are 11 feet 6 inches and 8 feet. This building is in
drystone, very beautifully done, and the technique is the same
as that of the black houses still inhabited in Lewis. The inside
edges of the ftattish stones are set a little higher than those
reaching to the outside, so that all water draining on to the
top of such a wall must drain outwards and the inside surface
remains dry and free from condensation. The beehive shielings
are built on the same principle and the courses reach inwards
from near the foot of the wall. These buildings are in direct
descent from the culture of the Megalithic age. St Ronan's cell
is the best example of this type of construction I know, and into
the south wall, near the east end, he built a neat aumbry a foot
148
HEARTH AND ALTAR
square. There is a small window 19 inches by 8 inches running

through the thickness of the west wall above the door. Whether
there was a similar window in the east end is not known, be
cause the upper part of the wall there has fallen in. Earth and
stones were banked high round the north, east and south walls
so that the building was practically underground. The outside of
the west wall became the east inside wall of a chapel which was
built some time after Ronan's cell; Muir estimated about two
centuries later. This building, also in drystone but of poorer
workmanship, is 14 feet 8 inches long by 8 feet 3 inches, and
forms in effect a nave to the cell as chancel. But it is doubtful
whether the two buildings were used conjointly in this way.
The roof and much of the walls of the chapel have dis
appeared, and when I first went to Rona the south wall was
just a heap of stone fallen outwards. I had with me a copy
of Harvie-Brown's book aforementioned, in which there is what
is probably the first photograph of the chapel ever taken. That
was in 1885. The south wall was erect then, and from the
photograph I could see very well the height of the doorway in
the south wall and a c urious bulge in the eastern half of that
wall. I began nervously to make a clearance of the fallen stones
and to find the foundations; I did not wish to take down much
in an effort to rebuild, for there was no knowing where I should
be able to stop. However, once the foundation was clear, even
showing that increased thickness east of the doorway, I went
ahead with confidence. The south wall is now back in the state
it was in 1885, and I do not think it will be easy to tell where I
began my work.
I now turned my attention to the inside of the chapel, which
had been occupied by fulmar petrels in the summer and was
half full of fallen stone and earth. This very low doorway into
the cell was intriguing, and it was there I struck first with spade
and pick. It was not long, as I cleared my way north and south
of the opening, before I struck two blocks of masonry; they were
piers 3 feet high and 2 feet 3 inches square, one each side of the
entrance, and they had at some time been faced with lime
mortar. When I reached the foot of these piers, which I take
to be the altar supports of the chapel, I found a rough paving
running into the doorway of the cell. Here was no necessity
for elbows and knees; the doorway and its original paving and a
tiny step was 4 feet 4 inches high and 20 inches broad. The
149
NORTH RONA
vertical section of soil and floor made by my di ggin g revealed

a thick bed of shell sand laid on the paving over the floor of
the chapel. I found charred bones of sea birds and seals in this
layer. A hard floor of rammed clay lay above the shell sand,
and I was able to clear all the inside of the chapel to the level
of the clay. As the east end and the entrance to the cell showed
workings below the level of this floor, I built a course of dry
stone across the chapel, so that both the clay floor and the
original cell front are now visible and should not easily become
encumbered again.
There was now the cell itself to excavate, and I have not
done this entirely, because at some time the sloping walls have
been roughly buttressed on the north and south sides by large
stones placed on end. But I have cleared to the paving inside the
door, and at the east end I have gone right across the cell. I
found an altar of well-built masonry 2 feet 6 inches high, 3
feet broad and 2 feet 3 inches deep. Muir said there was an
altar stone 3 feet long at the east end of the cell, and he gave
a sketch of it in position. Doubtless this was all he could see
of the altar at that time, and I found this stone on a level
with the top of the altar but at right angles to it. The altar
being completely revealed, I replaced the big slab. A visitor
to Rona will now get the impression of a simple early church
in a very fair state of preservation because it has been almost
buried for so long.
Around the chapel is the burial ground, once containing rough

stone crosses, and now featuring the modern addition commem
morating the two shepherds, l\1acDonald and l\1acKay, who died
in 1885.
150
5 SUlASGEJR
ISLAND ROCK
T
HOUGH often called an island, Sulasgeir is in fact little
more than a large sea rock. It is situated in latitude 59° 6'
north and in longitude 6 ° 1 0' west. It is half a mile long
(NNE to SSW) and has a maximum breadth of 200yd. The
highest point is 229 ft above sea level and occurs at the extreme
southern end of the island. The centre is low and narrow, being
only some 20ft above the waves so that in rough weather the
sea breaks completely over the waist of this North Atlantic
gannetry. This waist has a sea cave which runs from one side of
the island to the other. But this is only o·ne of many caves and
geos, for the rock is composed of hornblende gneiss which has been
weathered by the constant pounding of waves through the long
milleniums since Sulasgeir was first formed. Though but twelve
miles or so from its sister island North Rona, to the east, the
geology of Sulasgeir is different in some respects. Biotite is present
on Sulasgeir as an accessory mineral while it is almost entirely
absent from Rona. On the other hand, Rona has more pegmatite
veins. On Sulasgeir this mineral is found only in veins which are
both small and ill-defined.
There is scarcely any surface soil on Sulasgeir, though some
half-dozen species of plants are to be found in rock crevices. These
include thrift, scentless mayweed, scurvy grass, orache and chick
weed. They occur mostly at the southern end of the isla·nd. The
northern end is the domain of the seabird population concen
trated in a tight-knit omithopolis.
Sulasgeir is surrounded by satellite islets. The farthest away
are Bogha Corr and the larger Gralisgeir, about half a mile to the
north-west and south respectively. That all these islets have
names indicates that Sulasgeir, though never inhabited for any
length of time, has nevertheless been of social and economic
151
S U LAS GEl R
0 BOGHA
CORR
0 BOGHANNAN
s'IAR Pol a' Chd1lainich
b
BOGHA LEATHAINN � �
Ql. BOG� LAMHA CLBT(> ft
LAMHA CUlT�
Geodha Blatha Mor
Pairc a' s-lar
SULASGEIR
Sron naLice
(BARVAS PARISH,lEWI�)
N
t
0 GRALISGEIR
Sketch map of Sulasgeir
importance to the people in the north of the mainland-mass

of nearby Lewis.
It is the gannetry on Sulasgeir which has thrown this remote
island into far fame and wide recognition, particularly in the
world of ornithology. The gannets have in fact given the sea
rock the name by which it has been known by Lewismen for cen-
152
ISLAND ROCK
turies: sula = solan goose, sgeir = rock. It is reckoned that there

are some 5,500 pairs on the island. Other birds include guille
mots, puffins, Leach's petrel and kittiwakes and fulmars, all of
these species breeding in numbers varying from a few hundred
to a few thousand.
HISTORY
The inhabitation of Sulasgeir has been only intermittent and

brief, a matter of days or a few weeks. In the south part of the
island there are some stone bothies and a chapel or cell. The
bothies or shelters are all made from dry-stone, built up with
large slabs of rock; there is no record as to who constructed them
or when they were built. The island has a nature which is so
bleak, barren and forbidding that it is almost impossible to
imagine any human being electing to live on Sulasgeir-unless an
out-and-out hermit. Certainly, since 1549 the island has not been
on record as having been inhabited. The bothies were probably
erected early in history and kept in good repair at various times
through the centuries by the men of Ness, in Lewis, who made
annual visits to Sulasgeir for a hunting of gannets, which were
used largely for food. T. S. Muir, who visited Sulasgeir in 1860,
called one of the bothies a 'chapel'; this structure has a Gaelic
name Tigh Beannaicht, indicating its religious nature. Muir gives
no reason for his making this functional distinction from all the
other Sulasgeir bothies. It may be simply that one of the bothies,
the 'chapel', was reserved by the visiting men as a meditative
sanctuary on the island while the remainder of the buildings were
used for secular purposes during the time of their stay catching
the young gannets.
There is a tradition in Ness that Sulasgeir was once used as a
prison for sheep-stealers. Sheep-stealing was once a crime punish

able by death. Life on Sulasgeir was probably regarded in Lewis
as a suitable equivalent and perhaps saved the expense of a hang
man. Tradition says that farther back in history, cAD 500, Sulas
geir was the final prison for Brenhilda, a sister of St Ronan, the
patron of nearby North Rona. In yet another small corner of the
island's tradition, Sulasgeir is said to have had the honour of
153
SULASGEIR
being the scene of the first visual contact which Prince Charles
Edward had with Scotland and his Scottish clansmen. This hap
pened when his ship was hailed in the vicinity of Sulasgeir by a
passing Ness boat-crew making for North Rona.
John Swinburne, who visited Sulasgeir in 1883 to record the
birds and the plant species, wrote of a boat-crew of Nessmen
from Lewis who were stranded on the island :
On one occasion now some years ago, a crew from Ness in the
Lewis had their boat wrecked in landing on Sula Sgeir in the
month of June, and lived on the island for several weeks, sustain
ing themselves on the flesh of birds. Captain Oliver, who com
manded the revenue cruiser, Prince of Wales, visited Sula Sgeir
in the month of August to look for the lost boat. He found a
wreck on it, also an oar on end with an old pair of canvas
trousers on it, and, over the remains of a fire, a pot containing
bird's flesh; but there being no trace of the men, it was thought
that they must have been picked up by a passing vessel. Nothing
more was heard of them until the month of October following,
when a Russian vessel on her homeward voyage met a Sterno
way craft in the Orkneys, and informed the crew of the latter
that they had taken the men off Sula Sgeir and landed them in
Rona. Captain Oliver at once went to Rona, and found the
crew consuming the last barrel of potatoes which the poor
shepherd had. He took away the former, and left the latter
sufficient provision for the winter.
Sulasgeir, like Rockall, has been the target for gunnery prac
tice through the years. M. Stewart in Ronay, published in 1933
says: 'On December 23rd, the 2nd and 4th Battle Squadrons
with the I ron Duke proceeded to sea to the westward of the
Orkneys and carried out target practice at the Sulis-ker rock, north
of the Hebrides'. Such is the fate and treatment of lonely sea
islands.
SO THEY SAID OF IT
Through the years, the island has been an attraction for visitors
other than the purposeful Nessmen. Each has left a word-picture
of Sulasgeir, of his own painting, and often highly stylistic.
154
SO THEY SAID OF I T
One of the first was Dean Monro who paid his visit in 1549.
The last in his long list of 251 islands is Sulasgeir :
Be sixteen mile of sea towards the west of this Ile (North

Rona) lyis ane Ile callit Swilskeray, ane mile lang, without
girs or hedder, with heich blak craigis and blak fog upon pairt
of thame. This Ile is full of wild fowls, and quhan the fowls
hes thair birds ripe, men out of the parochin of Niss in Leozus
uses to saill thair and tarry 7 or 8 dayis and to fetche with
thame hame thair boatful of dry wild fowls with wild fowl
fedderis. In this Ile thair hantis ane fowl callit the Colk, little
les nor ane goose, quha cummis in vair to the land to 'lay' his
eggis and to deck his birds quhill he bring thame to perfection,
and at that time his fl.eiss of fedderis fallis off him all haillelie,
and he fl.asses to the mayne sea again, and cummis nevir to
land quhill the zeiris end again, and than he cummis with his
new fl.eiss of fedderis. This fl.eiss that he leaves zeirlie upon his
nest hes na banes in the fedderis nor any kind of hard thing
in thame that may be felt or graipit but utter fine downis.
T. S. Muir in 1860 wrote:
Sula Sgeir !-the sea-rock of the sulaire or solan goose, I should

fancy it means-what can be said of it?-more than it is a
high, horrent, and nearly herbless strip of gneiss, or other such
like adamantine matter, scarcely one-third of a mile in extent,
and so narrowed in many places that, in the winter-time, the
serpent wave must be evermore lashing over from side to side,
and cutting up the whole mass into so many the merest of
particles?
In June 1887, Harvie-Brown's party of naturalists made a land

ing on the island from the Shiantelle :
Quite a number of Fulmars were circling round and even rest

ing on the rock, but I searched vainly for eggs or young ...
Foetid hollows and dark-green spray pools ... usually covered
with green slime and feathers, and surrounded by dead young
birds, rotten or highly incubated eggs, and old saturated
nests ... Our visit to Sulisgeir in 1887 will ever be remembered
as one of the most remarkable incidents of our Hebridean pere
grinations during many years, more especially if we look to the
155
SULASGEIR
ghastly lonesomeness and geologically disintegrated nature of

the whole place; almost pathetically sad in its collection of rough
stone huts, the solitary wretched sheep, and the remains of
another, and the heads of defunct Gannets strewn all over
the surface.
In 1930, Malcolm Stewart, author of Ronay visited the island:
Quite apart from the actual buildings, there are to be found

a few rusty iron implements-in one of the houses is an empty
bottle and a large pot suspended by a chain from the roof,
while a piece of old rotten sacking hangs in the doorway.
Around are strewn the remains of dead birds.Among the clefts
in the cliffs a few old oars and other pieces of wood are to be
seen, while near the landing-place is some rusty chain, placed
no doubt, to facilitate the hazardous landing. Perhaps the next
person to spend a night or two on the island, if anyone might
ever wish to do this, will also find in another house a few cans
of water, some tinned food, and a spade, and wonder as to how
they came there and who brought them.
One who spends a night in or near the bothies of Sula Sgeir
will without doubt be rudely awakened by cries and considerable
commotion issuing from the walls of the buildings (of Leach's
forktail petrel).
John Wilson Dougal, the amateur geologist, whose many visits

to Lewis are commemorated in a large white rock on the moor
between North Tolsta and Ness, visited Sulasgeir in September
1930:
We were fortunate within ten minutes of landing to discover

the abundant presence of Flinty Crush rock .. . The elation of
reaching the island-the desire of so many years-helped to
sustain us against the soaking showers of rain which beset us
as we ranged, hammer in hand, over the rough rocks ...
Robert Atkinson, an inveterate island-goer, wrote of his landing

on Sulasgeir and of a night spent on the island in 1938 :
The very ground churned with petrels, they scuttled underfoot,

they were headlong in the air ... The gannets were stilled until
we came stumbling along with our torches and disturbed them.
The complete changeover of life from day to night was remark-
156
S O THEY SA ID OF IT
able : all day the sky full of gannets and their unceasing caco
phony; a brief no-man's-land of silence at dusk and dawn; all
night the wild dashing and outcry of petrels, flying out over
the heads of the sleeping gannets.
GANNET HUNTING BY LEWISMEN
Though lying some forty miles from the Butt of Lewis, Sulasgeir
had for centuries, but to a lesser degree today, a·n important role
in the social and economic life of the Lewis community at Ness.
In 1549, as we have seen, Dean Monro referred to the large
numbers of sea-fowl on Sulasgeir, and told of the men of Ness
who sailed to the island each year for a wild-fowling expedition.
The target was the young gannet, or the guga, which they caught
and killed in their thousands. The Old Statistical Account of
Scotland (1797) says: 'There is in Ness a most venturous set of
people who for a few years back, at the hazard of their lives,
went there in an open six-oared boat without even the aid of a
compass.' The men stayed on Sulasgeir for about a week and
brought back to Lewis a boatful of dried wildfowl and feathers.
The custom of guga-hunting is centuries old and is nowadays
characteristic of the Ness district of Lewis and of no other. The
reason for this may be that the Ness community has preserved,
reasonably intact, the characteristics of their undoubted Norse
forebears. Excellent seamanship was certainly essential for the
success of the expeditions-rowing across forty miles of turbulent
Atlantic water in an open or half-open boat was not a pleasure
cruise. To effect a landing with modern boats on Sulasgeir still calls
for an exact and detailed knowledge of the island's waters, the
currents and the state of the tides. Most of the cliffs on Sulasgeir
are high, jagged and sheer. There is only one possible landing
place and that is on the east side of the island, at Geodha Phuill
Bhain. Even so, the weather must be suitable and the waters
reasonably calm before a landing can be effected.
Though it is only the natives of Ness who today regard the guga
as a delicacy, in former times the flesh of the young solan goose
was widely enjoyed. In the sixteenth century it was served at the
table of Scots kings. It found wide favour with the wealthy as a
157
S U LAS GEl R
'whet' or appetiser before meals. This custom is described by

John Taylor, the king's Water Poet, in his Pennyless Pilgrimage
(1618). He says: 'It is very good flesh, but it is eaten in the forme
as we eate oysters, standing at the side board, a little before
dinner.'
The gannets which provided the flesh for the tables of the Edin
burgh elite came from the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. About
the time Taylor wrote, the birds were 'sold at Edinburgh for
twenty pence apiece', a price which, even allowing for the differ
ence in past a·nd present monetary values, compares very favour
ably with today's charge of about 5s (25p).
By 1938 the bird protectionists had stepped up their
shows of disapproval of the Ness hunt. Each year the 2,000
or so dead birds from Sulasgeir brought home by the Nessmen
provoked loud cries that this practice would lead to the eventual
extinction of the species on Sulasgeir. Both The Times and the
local newspaper the Stornoway Gazette carried solid columns of
correspondence, both pro and con. At last the issue reached
Parliament and a Questio·n was asked. The 'cons' wanted the
Nessmen to stop their voyages altogether. Traditionalists, on the
other hand, said that the annual expedition to Sulasgcir was an
outward show of the men's daring and enterprise and was a facet
of a way of life which was worth preserving, more indeed than a
few thousand gannets which were, in any case, a small part of a
growing world population of the species. It was also pointed out
that commercial gain was not the primary purpose of the Sulas
geir expedition. 2,000 gugas was an average haul; at 1s (5p) per
bird the catch was worth £100. This was in fact £10 per man for
a fortnight or so of the toughest privation. There were easier ways
of making money. The gugas which were not used by the Ness
community were sent all over the world to Lewis exiles.
In the end it was inevitable that the gannet should become one
of wild birds taken under the protective care of the Protection
of Wild Birds Act of 1954. But so strong was the representation
on behalf of the Nessmen that a Statutory Order was passed to
allow them to perpetuate their tradition and to satisfy their
peculiar appetite both for the guga and for adventure.
Mention has already been made of the boat for long used by the
15U
GANNET HUNTING BY LEWISMEN
Nessmen to cross forty North Atlantic miles to Sulasgeir. It was

the sco or sgoth. The design was after the style of the Shetland
sixern (Old Norse : sexaeringr), a clinker-built vessel of fir and
fastened with iron. The method of construction was similar to
that of the older Viking ships. The overall length was about 30 ft
with a keel length of 18-20 ft; the beam varied from 8-10 ft;
the hold was some 3 ft deep. The rig consisted of a single square
sail fitted to a mast stepped about amidships. The tack was made
fast to the fore-quarter, not to the stern head. The sail had a
couple of reefs in the head, and two or three in the foot. The
oars were square in the loom. The vessel was undecked, though a
half-deck was provided at a later date. The last boat of this
type used in Ness was the Pride of Lionel, converted to a power
boat by the installation of a 7 -hp petrol engine.
It was in the Pride of Lionel that John Wilson Dougal went to
Sulasgeir in 1930 and wrote this account of his voyage in an
open boat at night:
Steadily the boat made its weird passage through the heavy
swelling currents ... In mid-boat the flicker of light from the
hand lamp showed the steersman and the crew discussing the
course in Gaelic ... At this stage of night dreaming, when still
spelled by the scintillating panorama of the heavens, the boat
was dipping and rising from basin to basin, with sometimes
a rending slap on the bow that made more than one of us
look involuntarily, to see if the bare planks had sprung.There
was no pretence that our scow had a trail boat, or even a life
belt.
Forsaking the damp night air, rest was sought for a few hours
on a plank and a restless bag of straw, till the grey glimmer of a
chilly, sunless morning brought us to look around on the still
tossing currents, with early solan geese already alive to the
day's necessities ... Soon we heard with sympathy and interest
the skipper's shout, Rona, Rona ahead! Sulasgeir! Sulasgeir!
'
Starboard there!' and shaking his fist at the elements of sea and
sky, he cried 'Have I not the eye of a hawk?'
After the Second World War, this old type of boat was replaced
by a small modern motor-boat. Not that this improvement made
the journey less hazardous. Difficulties have been encountered.
159
SULASGEIR
On the 1952 trip, the gannet hunters suffered a real disaster. The
Mayflower was lost and the party marooned on the island. They
were eventually rescued by the Storn oway lifeboat at great risk
to both boat and crew.
Sulasgeir, with its sister island of North Rona, was made a
National Nature Reserve in June 1956 and is in the charge of an
honorary warden, at present Mr James MacGeoch, of Aviemore,
Inverness-shire, some of whose photographs appear in this book.
160
6 THE FLANNAN ISLES
T
HE .Flannan Isles, also known as the Seven Hunters, lie
in a close group about 20 miles west by north from Callan
Head on the west coast of Lewis. Their latitude is 58°
17' north; longitude 7° 35' west. The groupcontains seven islands
worthy of the name and a number of small islets, rocks and reefs.
There are three sub-groups : to the north are Eilean Mor and
Eilean Tighe; to the south are Soray, Sgeir Toman and Sgeir
Righinn; and to the west are Roareim and Eilea·n a' Ghobha.
The Flannans are part of the civil parish of Uig in Lewis. Their
total land area is less than 100 acres and they are used only for
sheep grazing by Lewis crofters.
The islands are particularly remarkable for the manner in
which they rise sheer from the sea. The largest island is Eilean
:Mor (Big Island) which has a maximum height of 288 ft above
sea level. 39 acres in extent, it has a coast line of some 1 i miles.
The next largest island is Eilean Tighe (House Island), with an area
of 18 acres. Then follow Eilean a' Ghobha (Smith's Island), Soray,
Roareim, Sgeir Toman and Sgeir Righinn with areas of 12, 8,
7, 5, and 3 acres respectively.
All the islands consist of hornblende gneiss with pegmatite
veins. The gneiss is rather different from that of North Rona and
Sulasgeir in that biotite is more common in the Flannans. The
islands, in addition, exhibit a wide geological spectrum. The peg
matite on Eilean l\'for shows a rather marked graphic structure.
A small tholeiitic dyke has been recorded there. A highly fel
spathic dyke has been found on Eilean a' Ghobha, of apparently
trachytic character. There is a deposit of cemented sand on the
top of Roareim.
The largest islands in the group have green grassy tops: 'like
a meadow thickly enamelled with daisies' is how Dr MacCulloch
described them in 1815. The group supports a large number of
birds, particularly seabirds; over one hundred species have been
161
FLANNAN ISLES
(UIG PARISH. LEWIS)
.,DEARC NA SGEIR
Tom no Sronno Fo�
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U ,S:) LAMH A'SGEIR BHEAG
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Sketch map of the Flannan Isles

THE FLANNAN ISLES
noted. The Flannans are a favourite haunt of halichaerus grypus,

the grey seal, though it does not breed among the islands.
By far the most important bird is Leach's fork-tailed petrel,
which breeds in large numbers in holes in the turf on Eilean Mor.
Other birds include the fulmar, shag and the kittiwake. Plant life
is sparse and confined largely to those common small flowers
associated with isolated maritime lands.
The cliffs on the island are so steep that landing is always
extremely difficult and hazardous, and is possible by boat only
when the weather is favourable; the swell of the Atlantic waters
can easily smash a small boat against the hard and unrelenting
rock-faces. One remarkable sight in the Flannans is Brona Cleit,
a needle-shaped stack about 100 ft high, at the far end of the
western sub-group of islets.
Landing on Eilean Mor, the la rgest island, is possible at two
places. The landings are built up from concrete blocks cem ented
in place against the cliffs. When the weather prevents an actual
boat landing, a crane above each landing-place takes stores, and
sometimes men, ashore to the lighthouse from the Northern
Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh's supply ship Pole Star.
The Flannans Lighthouse is one of a chain of lights in the
western approaches of the Atlantic. The structure was built be
tween 1895 and 1899 by D. & C. Stevenson of Edinburgh, the
firm of which Robert Louis Stevenson's father was the head. The
tower is 7 5 ft high; the light stands about 330ft above the sea.
It was first lit on 7 December 1899. A framed notice in the tower
of the lighthouse reads :
The Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses hereby give

notice that on the night of Thursday the 7th day of December
next, and every evening thereafter, a light will be exhibited
from the lighthouse which has been erected on Eilean Mor,
one of the Flannan Islands. The light will be a group flashing
White Light showing 2 flashes in quick succession every half
minute. The power of the light will be equal to about 140,000
standard candles. The Light will be visible all around and will
be elevated 330 feet above high water spring tides, and allowing
fifteen feet for the height of the eye will be seen at about 24
nautical miles in clear weather, and at lesser distances accord-
163
THE FLANNAN ISLES
ing to the state of the atmosphere. When close to, the stacks
lying to the westward of Eilean Mor will obscure the Light
over two small angles. The top of the lantern is about 75 feet
above the island.
By order of the Board
Edinburgh, 30 O ct. 1899 James Murdoch· Secretary.
The Flannan's Light is one of the world's remotest lighthouses.

It is served by four men, of whom one acts as relief keeper and
spends his off-duty time at the shore station at Breascleit, Lewis.
Each keeper spends six weeks on the 'rock' and three ashore. The
present candlepower is 820,000. The character is Group Flashing
(2) White; 30 seconds (flash 1·0, eclipse 2·0, flash 1·0, eclipse
26·0). The range is now 25 nautical miles.
THE ROLE OF MAN
The Flannan Isles have always played an important part in the

ecology of the folk of Lewis in that they offered both grazing
for sheep and the chance to obtain substantial supplies of bird
oil, bird-flesh and feathers, not to mention birds' eggs to add a
tasty supplement to a normally monotonous diet.
The island group supposedly takes its name Flannan from one of
two saints. There was Flannan, once Bishop of Cell da Lua (Kill
aloe) on Lough Derg on the River Shannon in Eire. An account of
this Fla·nnan is given in the Irish Book of Leinster. He was possibly
a contemporary of St Brendan, the Irish sailor-saint. Flannan
was of royal blood. His father had been king of the Dal gGais and
retired late in life to become a monk at Lismore. His influence
on his son was considerable. There is some rather slight evidence
that this Flannan preached in Scotland. If this is true then he is
an obvious candidate for consideration for the honour of the
derivation of the name of the island-group. The alternative is St
Flann, the son of Maol-duine, Abbot of Iona who died in AD 891.
Whichever it was, indeed if ever any saintly seafaring mission
ary landed on the islands, the Flannans have had for centuries
a very strong religious association, more so than any of the other
Hebridcan islands and islets remote from land. It may have been
164
THE ROLE OF A1 AN
the awe-inspiring sight and appearance of the cliffs, with their

teeming birds and their startling suddenness as they rise out of
the sea, miles from land, that gave them their 'atmosphere', so
much related to the highly elevated spiritual plane on which the
Celtic mind often operates.
Eilean Mor carries the inevitable chapel, dedicated to St
Flannan and surrounded by a host of taboos originated and
perpetuated by many generations of visiting Lewismen. The
chapel or cell is built of dry stone. It is called Teampull Bean
nachadh, or Blessing House. Its internal measurements are
5 ft x 7! ft. The walls average 30 in thick; at the gables the
roof rises to about 9ft; there is a small, low doorway in the west
end. The building is situated near the lighthouse. T. S. Muir said
of it : '. . . a very primitive-looking thing, composed of rough
stones joggled compactly together'.
Towards the western end of Eilean Mor are the Bothies of the
Clan l\1acPhail (Bothan Clann 'IcPhail). These are also stone
built in much the same style as the temple. In all probability
these structures housed the men from Lewis when they visited
the islands. Eilean Tighe gets its name from the 'house' which
according to Malcolm Stewart (who landed there in 1932) was
'a collection of stones a rranged in an oval to round formation'.
Three writers have passed on good descriptions of the Flannan
Isles. The first is Dean Monro who wrote in 1549:
Seven Haley Isles. First, furth 50 myle in the Occident seas

from the coste of the parochin Vye in Lewis, towarts the west
northwest, lyes the seven iles of Flan ayn, claid with girth, and
Haley Isles, verey natural gressing within thir saids iles; infinit
wyld scheipe therein, quhilk na man knawes to quhom the
said sheipe apperteines within them that lives this day of the
countrymen; bot M'Cloyd of the Lewis, at certaine tymes in the
zeir, sendis men in, and huntis and slayis maney of thir sheipe.
The fleshche of thir sheipe cannot be eaten be honest men
for fa tnesse, for ther is na flesche on them, bot all quhyte lyke
talloune, and it is verey wyld gusted lyk ways . The saids iles
are nouder manurit nor inhabit, bot full of grein high hills,
full of wyld sheipe in the seven iles forsaid, quhilk rnay not
be outrune. They pertaine to M 'Clo yd of the Lewis.
165
THE FLANNAN ISLES
The next account is written by John Morison, a Harrisman

domiciled in Lewis who left a large n umber of MSS on Lewis
history and traditions. He writes c 1688 :
There are seven Islands 15 myles Westward from the Lews,

called the Isle of Sant Flannan, lying doss together; wherin
there a cheaple, where Sant Flandan himself lived ane heremit.
To those in summertyme some countriemen goes; and bringeth
home great store of seafouls and feathers. They way they kill
the fowls is, one goeth and taketh a road 10 or 12 foot long,
and setts his back to a rock or craig, and as the fouls flieth by,
he smitheth them continuallie, and he hes ane other attending
to catch all that falls to the ground; for the fouls flee there so
thick that those who are beneath them cannot see the firma
ment. These Isles are not inhabited, but containeth a quantitie
of wilde sheep verie fatt and weel fleeced.
When the people goe there, they use everie two men to be
Comerads. They hold it a breach of the sanctitie of the place
(for they count it holier than anie other) if any man take a
drink of water unknown to his comerade or eat ane egg or legg
of ane foull, yea take a snuff if tobacco : It is for centaintie that
upon a tyme a Countriefellow being sent there and left in it,
be reason he could not be keept from theft and robberie and
so on a time the fire went out with him, without which he could
not live, and so despaired of lyfe and since he saw that there
was no remead, he betook him to pray both to God and the
Sainct of the Island as they term' d it and by night being fallen
in a deep sleep, he sees a man come to him well clade saying
aryse, betake thee unto the Altar and there thou shall find a
peate in fyre, for the Lord hath heard they prayer. So he arose
and accordingly found the fyre, which he preserved untill he
was taken home, and henceforth he proved as honest a man as
was in the Countrie.
The third description of the island-group comes from Martin

Martin (1697). His account details the superstitions of the bird
fowlers who visited the islands :
To the north-west of Gallan-head, and within six leagues

of it lie the Flannan-Islands, which the seamen call North
hunters; they are but small islands, and six in number, and
maintain about seventy sheep yearly. The inhabitants of the
166
THE ROLE OF MAN
adjacent lands of the Lewis, having a right to these islands,

visit them once every summer, and there make a great purchase
of fowls, eggs, down, feathers, and quills. When they go to sea,
they have their boat well manned, and make towards the islands
in an east wind; but if before, or at landing, the wind turn
westerly, they hoist up sail, and steer directly home again.
If any of their crew is a novice, and not versed in the customs
of the place, he must be instructed perfectly in all the punc
tilloes observed here before landing; and to prevent incon
veniences that they think may ensue upon the transgression
of the least nicety observed here, every novice is joined with
another, that can instruct him all the time of their fowling:
so that all the boat's crew are matched in this manner.
After their landing, they fasten the boat to the sides of a
rock, and then fix a wooden ladder, by laying a stone at the
foot of it, to prevent its falling into the sea; and when they
are got up into the island, all of them uncover their heads,
and make a turn sun-ways round, thanking God for their safety.
The first injunction given after landing, is not to ease nature
in that place where the boat lies, for that they reckon a crime
of the highest nature, and of dangerous consequence to all their
crew; for they have a great regard to that very piece of rock
upon which they first set their feet, after escaping the danger
of the ocean.
The biggest of these islands is called Island-More; it has
the ruins of a chapel dedicated to St Flannan, from whom the
island derives its name. When they are come within about 20
paces of the altar, they all strip themselves of their upper gar
ments at once; and their upper clothes being laid on a stone,
which stands there on purpose for that use, all the crew pray
three times before they begin fowling: the first day they say
the first prayer, advancing towards the chapel upon their knees;
the second prayer is said as they go round the chapel; the third
is said hard by or at the chapel; and this is their morning
service. Their vespers are performed with the like number
of prayers. Another rule is that it is absolutely unlawful to kill
a fowl with a stone, for that they reckon a great barbarity, and
directly contrary to ancient custom.
It is also unlawful to kill a fowl before they ascend by the
ladder. It is absolutely unlawful to call the island of St Kilda
(which lies thirty leagues southward) by its proper Irish name
167
THE FLANNAN ISLES
Hirt, but only the high country. They must not so much as
once name the islands in which they are following by the
ordinary name Flannan, but only the country. There are several
other things that must not be called by their common names,
e.g., Visk, which in the language of the natives signifies Water,
they call Burn; a Rock, which in their language is Creg, must
here be called Cruey, i e., hard; Shore in their language, ex
.
pressed by Claddach, must here be called Vah, i.e. a Cave;

Sour in their language is expressed Gort, but must here be
called Gaire, i.e., sharp; Slippery, which is expressed Bog,
must be called Soft; and several other things to this purpose.
They account it also unlawful to kill a fowl after evening
prayers. There is an ancient custom by which the crew is
obliged not to carry home any sheep-suet, let them kill ever
so many sheep in these islands. One of their principal customs
is not to steal or eat anything unknown to their partner, else
a transgressor {they say) will certainly vomit it up; which they
reckon a just judgment. When they have loaded their boat
sufficiently with sheep, fowls, eggs, down, fish &c., they make
the best of their way homeward. It is observed of the sheep of
these islands that they are exceeding fat, and have long horns.
I had this superstitious account not only from several of the
natives of the Lewis, but likewise from two who had been in
the Flannan Islands the preceding year. I asked one of them
if he prayed at home as often, and as fervently as he did
when in the Flannan Islands; and he plainly confessed to me
that he did not : adding further, that these remote Islands
were places of inherent sanctity; and that there was none ever
yet landed in them but found himself more disposed to devotion
there, than anywhere else.
'
THE FLANNAN S MYSTERY
For centuries the sea has been the sole possessor of clues to
the many unsolved mysteries, strange happenings, baffling
phenomena which have taken place on the surface of its waters.
On a par with the mystery of the Marie Celeste, the complete
and utter disappearance of three keepers from the lighthouse on
Eilean Mor in December 1900 has been, and still is, a matter
for new theories to account for the happening.
168
THE FLANNAN}S A1YSTERY
On 15 December 1900, the steamer Archer, bound from

Philadelphia to Leith, passed within a few miles of the island
group. Though the black masses of the islands were clearly
visible in the moonlight, there was no beam from the lantern
on Eilean Mor. The skipper of the Archer reported his discovery
when he made landing at Oban. A message was sent to the
Northern Lighthouse Board relief ship, Hesperus, which was
anchored in Little Loch Roag. But before she could venture
out to investigate the happening, a series of strong gales blew
up and it was not until 26 December that she was able to make
steam for the Flannans.
When the Hesperus reached the Flannans she signalled her
arrival by whistle, then by rocket. From her position at the east
landing she could see the lighthouse buildings. But there was no
flag signal from the flagstaff, nor were there the normal signs
of activity which usually accompanied the arrival of the ship.
A boat was lowered and a party went ashore. At the jetty, the
first sign was noticed that something was amiss. Normally, it
would have been piled with empty provision boxes for return to
the shore base. Now it was bare.
In a mounting fit of alarm, the party, which included Joseph
Moore, a relief keeper, climbed up the concrete steps and ran up
over the inclined path over the brow of the cliff to the lighthouse.
There was an uncanny silence which was accentuated when they
entered the living-room. The fire was dead. The clock had
stopped. On the table lay a meal which had never even been
touched. There was cold meat, pickles and a dish of potatoes.
An overturned chair lay a silent witness on the floor. The men
then went up the spiral steps to the sleeping quarters. There they
found the beds, made up in the clean, clinical way of sailors.
In the galley, pots, pans and dishes sparkled. Moore went up to
the lantern room. He found the lamp cold. The wicks had been
trimmed and the lenses were polished clean. All was operational
in fact. There was absolutely no reason for the lamp being out.
After a further search the logbook of the chief keeper, Ducat,
was found. The entries were made up to 13 December. A slate
was discovered which took the record to 9 o'clock on the morning
of 15 December. The entries told of weather conditions and the
169
THE FLANNAN ISLES
state of the lantern, that there had been gales and heavy seas for
a week and that there was evidence of severe damage at the west
landing which had been reduced to a shambles. A crane, which
had been set fast in a bed of concrete some 100ft above the high
water mark, had been torn from its fixings. A concrete rope box
about 40ft higher up had also been torn away a·nd smashed to
pieces. Heavy iron stanchions on the concrete stairs were twisted.
And for about thirty feet along the top of the cliff, standing
200 ft above high-water mark, the turf had been torn away. A
boulder weighing nearly a ton had been wrested from its cen
turies-old bed and rolled a considerable distance. Obviously the
storm had been unusually severe. But the keepers had survived it
and the last entry on the slate made by Principal Ducat was that
the wind was moderating.
A search carried on outside the lighthouse revealed no sign of
the keepers. Nothing was found which could account for the dis
appearance of the three men.
The mystery was heightened by the fact that both Ducat's
and Marshall's oilskins and seaboots were missing. Only Mac
Arthur's clothes and boots could be found.
A full-scale official investigation was begun. Some facts emerged
from the inquiry. One was that the oilskins and seaboots were
used by the keepers only when visiting one or other of the land
ings. The other was that the east landing was in good order
while the west was in bad need of reconstruction and repair. In
the end, no definite co·nclusion was reached as to the explanation
of the disappearance of the three men. 'It is to be assumed', con
cluded the Report, 'that the three men, for some reason, left
their post, were caught by an unexpected heavy sea and drowned.'
The nearest explanation of the mystery comes from local know
ledge of the sea conditions which sometimes exist round the
Flannans, conditions which men in their first year on the island
of Eilean Mor could not be expected to know. This theory also
accounts for the damage done to the west landing. After severe
storms in the Atlantic, huge isolated waves come rolling in on the
islands to dash against the rock-cliffs. The rebound waves are
often more violent tha:n the original or parent wave.
The west landing on Eilean Mor is in an inlet called Skiopageo.
170
THE FLANNANJS MYSTERY
It is a few hundred yards long and ends in a cave which at high

tide can be closed completely. In certain conditions of high storm,
wave upon wave of water is pushed into the cave. The pressure of
the resident air is thus built up to such an extent that it eventually
explodes outwards and tons of water fall onto the adjacent sides
of the geo or gully, including the west jetty.
The theory about the Flannans' mystery is that after the storm
damage to the west landing, two of the keepers, Ducat and Mar
shall, went down to the landing wearing their outdoor clothes
and boots. As they were experienced seamen, though not local
men, they well knew to keep an eye to seaward for incoming
waves. One such wave might well have swept into the geo,
followed by smaller waves to begin the build-up of pressure in
side the cave. In the meantime, MacArthur, the third keeper, was
probably in the lighthouse and setting the last touches to the
breakfast table. A glance out to sea would be sufficient to notice
an incoming wave of more than usual height making for the west
of the island with its attendant follower waves. Being a local man,
he realised the importance of warning his mates. He rushed to the
door, knocked over a chair, and, forsaking his oilskins and boots,
ran to the west landing calling out to watch for the wave which
would rebound on them. He then might well have had to descend
to the jetty to make himself understood and in the meantime died
with his fellow keepers as the Skiopageo cave exploded to disgorge
its death-wall of sea water onto the unfortunate men.
It will never be known for certain just what happened. One
can in these matters come only as close to the truth as the human
imagination will allow. But the mystery still remains unsolved,
like a haunting, unexorcised cloud hovering over the Seven
Hunters. One cannot visit Eilean Mor, look far-down at the
heaving, white-capped waves beneath and not feel that little
bit unnerved at something which lies just outside the pale of
human knowledge and understanding.
PERSONAL NOTE
Wilfred William Gibson's poem was almost a set piece for

learning in the Nicolson Institute, Stornoway, where the present
171
THE FLANNAN ISLES
author schooled. The subject of the poem was the mystery of the
Flannans and the disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers.
In particular, the last couplet almost rang a knell of fear through
us as we recited 'Three men alive on Flannan Isle, who thought,
on three men dead.' The mystery was heightened by the know
ledge that the islands were remote and might have been well
beyond the edge of the world so far as accessibility was concerned.
But one day a visit was made possible for the author, a visit
still remembered clearly after more than two decades.
The chance came when a holiday was being spent at the Light
house Shore Station at Breascleit. The relief ship Pole Star was
due to visit the Flannans and casual labour was needed to off
load stores from the ship's small boat. Though there was hard
work involved, the pay was 30s (£1·50) for the day's trip and in
addition, the greater reward, the opportunity of becoming a
visitor to these remote Atlantic islands.
We left the jetty at Breascleit, in Little Loch Roag, and boarded
the Pole Star a·nchored off-shore. In the early morning light any
other journey would have had dull prospects, but the excitement
of a visit to the Flannans was hard to suppress. The voyage took
over two hours. First sighting of the islands was spots, like thick
dark clouds, low on the far horizon. Then they solidified, took
shape, and rose to their full height out of the sea. The islands
were almost like growths speeded up by camera. Soon they were
towering above the ship. The immediate impact was o·ne of fore
boding and a sense of physical inferiority as we had to crick our
necks to view the lighthouse perched on top of Eilean :Nior against
a moving backcloth of clouds. Birds showered themselves round
the cliff faces in their thousands. And at the cliff-roots, seals
slithered off the seaweed-covered slippery rocks as the Pole Star
blew her hooter. The sound echoed above the ship and bounced
itself off the surrounding islands before it died away in a series
of half echoes, which served only to emphasise the loneliness of
the Flannans.
The small boat was lowered and we made for the south land
ing. From sea level, Eilean Mor looked like a low-backed whale
rising from the sea. A jump onto slippery, wet sea-smelling rock
and one was ashore, clinging to iron rungs wedded firmly to the
172
PERSONAL NOTE
rock face and climbing up the 160 steps to the top. The landings
on Eilean Mor are so placed that one of them can be used for
boat, or if necessary crane landing, at any time of the year,
depending on the prevailing weather conditions. From each land
ing there is a small rail-track on which runs a trolley operated by a
cable wound up by a drum in the engine-shed beside the light

house. The rails from each landing meet at 'Charing Cross' to form
a single line up to the lighthouse. The lighthouse itself consists of a
white tower and lantern. The surrounding walled building com
prises the stores and living quarters of the keepers.
As the youngest member of the labour squad, I was excused
much of the work involved in landing the stores, oil drums and
coal, and was offered the chance, eagerly taken, of being shown
round the light. The recollection is still clear of clinical cleanliness,
polished warm-looking brasses and copper pipes and a pleasant
whiteness. From the tower, the view of the other islands in the
Flannans group seemed unreal. This was probably a natural re
action. Land-based humans become so accustomed to assessing
the sea in terms of land, that when the land is secondary in import
ance to a vast acreage of sea, it takes a considerable mental
adjustment to realise that in certain vistas it is the sea which
provides the dominant and over-riding characteristic, and which
makes any solid mass, a small island in particular, seem an
intruder.
It was not a long visit. The hours passed too quickly and it
was soon time to leave Eilean Mor. But not without a large
quantity of gulls eggs to take home for a breakfast, and some
blown eggs (given by the keepers) as souvenirs. These eggs had a
combination taste of egg yolk and fish. One egg was big enough
to fill a frying pan. As the year was 1945, and rationing was still
in force, the salty taste of the eggs was no barrier to a full
appreciatio·n of the nourishment they yielded.
The voyage back was marked by another event. Lunching in
the galley of the Pole Star, we listened to the news on the radio.
The announcer, in unfeeling tones, told us that within the pre
vious twenty-four hours, an atomic bomb had been dropped on
Japan, with appalling injury and loss of life. Though none of us
really understood the full impact of the news, there was the
173
THE FLANNAN ISLES
general undefined feeling that we had suddenly been pushed

without warning into a new age with new and unknown horizons,
poss ibly resulting in lighthouses becoming anachronisms and the
Flannans group of Hebridean outliers becoming completely
deserted by humans, however functional their present stay on
Eilean Mor.
7 THE MONACH ISlES AND
HEISGEIR ROCKS
THE MONACH ISLES
T
HE 11onach group of low-lying islands is some 8 miles
south-west of Hougharry Point in North Uist. Though
they are relatively near the large island-mass of North
Uist, the islands are somewhat inaccessible and are truly oceanic
islands, being completely exposed to the full advances of the
Atlantic. The group consists of five islands, three of which are
joined together at low tide, like Siamese triplets, by exposed,
shallow, sandy beaches. The three main islands are Ceann Ear
(East Head), Shivinish, and Ceann Iar (West Head). The two
other smaller islands are Sillay, the site of a now-deserted light
house, and Stogay. The total area is some 600 acres, most of
which is now used for grazing sheep.
The islands are less than 50 ft above sea level, and in this
respect they differ from other island subjects of this book. They
are basically Lewisian gneiss covered with sand-dunes or machar
and protecte d by reefs. Despite the lack of adequate protection,
usually offered by high hills and cliffs on other islands, the
Monach Isles have a long history of human settlement.
The plant life on these islands is typical of the sandy-soil cover
ing or machar associated with much of the Outer Hebrides. This
soil, based on fertile shell-sand, generates a thick, springy turf
which supports a wide variety of flowers. These include stone
crop, kidney-vetch, thyme, heartsease and bird's-foot trefoil.
Marram grass is a particular feature, being used to keep the sand
dunes in control by stabilising them. Otherwise, as occurred in
1810, the sand becomes exposed to high winds and generations
of work to keep the topsoil intact disappear overnight. Seabirds
are not so plentiful on these islands because of the lack of cliff-
175
r
MONACH ISLES l
( NORTH UIST, INVERNESS·SH1RE )
Hearn ish
t ANCEANN
0 IAR
0 ()
+ AN CEANN
Crois EAR
oo Cuthaige
SILLAY Ru' na Marbh

&1 Looo...- 4 Port Roidh
SgeirMhor
o lfz I mile:
Sketch map of the Monach Isles

T H E AI 0 N A C 11 I S L 1:.; S
shelter. Some birds, however, like arctic terns, make their nests
in scoops in the sand.
History
Be aucht mile of sea from this lie (Uist) towards the west
lyis and lie four mile lang, half mile braid, laich mane lane,
callit Helsker na Caillach, pertaining to the Nunnis of Colmkill,
gude c orn land not well fyrit.
Thus Dean :Monro describes, c 154·9, the Monach Isles group.

But long before the dean visited the Outer Hebrides, the isles
were well-known. As far back in history as 1263, the year of the
Battle of Largs, the islands were significant as places which
yielded a good living for a large number of people. The early
visiting Norsemen gave many of the island's reefs and skcrrics
Norse-derived names; the Gaelic element in the placenames of
these islands is small.
One of the earliest references to the islands is in connection
with the establishment of a nunnery attached to Iona. The nun
nery was set up on Ceann Ear, the most easterly island of the
interconnected group. It is said of these nuns that they were so
strong as to be able to handle large boats which they rowed
across the Sound of Monach to North Uist, returning with loads
of peat for fuel, which the island-group has always lacked.
The Norse name for the island-group was Hcisgeir. But the
association of the islands with a male monastery set up on Silla y,
the westerly isolated island of the group, caused the name to be
changed to Monach. It was part of the monks' duties to maintain
a light on Sillay to act as a navigational guide to mariners sailing
in the nearby western Atlantic waters. This light is supposed to
have been sited on a rock, or altar. The religious associations
came to an end after the Reformation.
The first recorded owner of the l\!Ionach group was Ailcan
:MacRuairi 'ic Shomhairle, who also possessed Uist. He had
connections with the dynasty of the Lords of the Isles. Much later
(1644) the ownership fell into the hands of Lord James MacDonald
of Sleat in Skye. In 1856 these MacDonalds sold Uist and the
Monach Islands to Major lain P. Orde who passed over his
L
177
THE MONACH ISLES AND HEISGEIR ROCKS
property to the Duke of Hamilton in 1944. The present owner

is Lord Granville, the Queen's cousin.
In 1595 the islands were said to be able to raise twenty men
of military age, suggesting a total population of some hundred
people. In 1764 John Walker recorded a population of seventy.
That the islands were surprisingly fertile is indicated in records of
c1800 which estimated that some 1,000 cattle were being carried.
SL'< years earlier the Rev Allan MacQueen had written : 'The
soil is sandy, yields very little grass at any time, and is only
valuable on account of its kelp shores and a small quantity of
grain it produces.' But, despite MacQueen's report, there must
have been sufficient produce to feed a large community with some
to spare. For, a century before, in 1692, a shipload of meal was
sent from Heisgeir to Ball<J.chulish for the islanders' kinsmen, the
MacDonalds of Glencoe, soon after that clan had suffered the
dreadful atrocity known as the Massacre of Glencoe.
In 1810 or thereabouts, however, the population of the islands
was almost entirely removed. The reason for the sudden exodus
was the complete failure of the soil. The records point to over
grazing, which exposed large areas of sand. This erosion was
coupled with a great storm which tore up the turf and covered
the islands with still more sand. In an attempt to reclaim the land,
sea-bent or marram grass was planted and in time the land re
covered sufficiently to support a population again. By 1841 there
were two farmers with their families, a female weaver and a herd,
totalling 19 people. By 1861 this number had increased to 127,
which included some visiting lobster fishermen from Ireland and
!slay. In 1891 the maximum population of 135 was recorded. This
figure included the native residents, twelve lighthouse keepers
and their families and some twelve visiting fishermen.
There were ten crofts sharing 141 acres of runrig arable land
and about 400 acres of pasture. These crofts also had a share of
the common grazing grounds on North Uist where they also held
a common croft; this gave them the necessary elegibility quali
fication to participate in the North Uist land.
After the turn of this century the population began to fall. In
1914 there were twelve families, probably about eighty persons;
in 1921 the population numbered sixty-six. Ten years later it was
178
THE MONACH ISLES
thirty-three. The following year saw only two families on the

Monach Isles a·nd they left in 1942. The 1951 census showed the
islands deserted.
In the old tradition of the monks who lived on Sillay, and
who had felt it part of their duty to their fellow-men to warn
sailors of the dangerous reefs round the islands, a lighthouse was
erected on Sillay in 1864. It was 135 ft high and had a range of
18 miles. Tradition has it that this light was built on the same
spot as the ancient altar which was provided with a continuous
fire beacon. However, sea disasters did occur despite the Sillay
light, which often failed to penetrate through the dense sea fogs.
In 1894 the Inflexible from Sunderland was wrecked on the reef
of Sgeir 1\!Ihor Shithinis. This was an ill wind which blew good
for the islanders for the wreck provided them with some necessary
and much-needed materials. In 1903 the Vanstable of Dunkirk
struck the hard teeth of the Diurabergs, six miles north of the
Sillay light. Again, the islanders found cause to bless the storms
which brought such bounty to their shores.
The Gulf Stream also brought the islanders wealth. In fact,
records indicate that the amount of wreckage thrown up on the
shores of the :.Monach Isles was so great and such a source of
profit that the islanders were relatively rich.
The Sillay light was extinguished in 1942, during the Second
World War, and has been permanently discontinued. The light
house keepers and their families were the last residents of the
Monach Isles. In the winter months of 1936, two of the light·
house keepers were drowned when the small boat in which they
were returning from Ceann Ear to Sillay with mails was over
taken by heavy seas. A third keeper watched the tragedy from the
lighthouse helpless to do anything for his fellow keepers.
The island community was well served with amenities pro
vided by various agencies. There was a Post Office, though no
shop. A Ladies' Highland Association school was provided on the
island. Later the Free Church manned the school. After 1874
the school was operated by the School Board. For many years
there was in addition a missionary and mision-church of the
Glasgow and West Coast Mission. In 1876, a formal missionary
appointme·nt was made, the appointee having already devoted
179
twenty-eight years to the satisfaction of the spiritual needs of the

Monach community. His official recognition meant full employ
ment for three days each week for a salary of £20 per annum. He
held the post for another thirty years after which he was succeeded
by his son.
The Monach Isles are now only occasionally populated by
lobster fishermen who visit the islands and lodge in the houses
which still remain in a reasonable state of repair.
THE HEISGEIR ROCKS
About twelve miles to the north of the Monach Isles lie the
Heisgeir Rocks. Heisgeir Eagach has no vegetation. The main
islet, Heisgeir Mhor, has about 4 acres of-coarse grass and vegeta
tion. Dean l\1onro, 1549, says:
To the north-west of the Keantuach of Vyist lyis ane Ile be

12 mile of sea callit Haifsker, quhairin infinite slauchter of
selchis is maid at certane times in the zeir ...
Martin 1\!Iartin, 1695, says of the islets:
About three leagues and a half to the West, lie the small Islands
called Hawsker-Rocks, and Hawsker-Eggath, and Hawsker
Nimannich, id est, Monk's-Rock, which hath an Altar in it,
the first so called from the Ocean as being near to it, for Haw
or Thau in the Ancient Language signifies the Ocean: the
more Southerly Rocks are six or seven big ones, nicked or in
dented, for Eggath signifies so much. The largest island, which
is Northward, is near half a mile in Circumference, and it is
covered with long Grass. Only small Vessels can pass between
this and the Southern Rocks, being nearest to St Kilda of all
the West Islands; both of 'em abound with Fowls, as much as
any Isles of their extent in St Kilda. The Coulterneb, Guillemot,
and Scarts are most numerous here, the Seals likewise abound
very much in and about these rocks.
As Martin says, these rocks have ever been a favourite haunt

of the Atlantic seals. The islets have never supported a human
population, but, because of the economic value of the seals, have
been a significant factor in the economy of neighbouring Uist.
180
THE HEISGEIR ROCKS
t
(I
•9
HEISGEIR
ISLAND
(North Uisi Parish)
()
�·\
,.,'\() 0 HEISGEIR
"-
EAGACH
Sketch map of Heisgeir
The slaughter of the seals on Heisgeir has attracted much com

ment over the years. Visits were paid to the breeding grounds
shortly after the cow seals had calved and indiscriminate clubbing
took place. There was a complete lack of any sense of conserva
tion. By an Act of Parliament, passed in 1931, the killing of grey
seals at any season of the year at this island group is illegal.
Heisgeir is now their sanctuary.
Heisgeir Eagach really consists of five distinct islets or stacks
which rise close together with deep-water channels of the Atlantic
flowing between them. On Heisgeir Mhor, the lowest land lies at
the centre of the islet. At the north is the high sea cliff known
181
�-__.Ailm.:...uM·'-l>.�· HEISGEIR·ISt.AND
_
Outlines of Heisgeir Eagach and Heisgeir Island
locally as the Castle, which rises to some 120 ft and is pierced by

an arch at sea level. To the south rises a rounded hill.
The Sailing Directions for the West Coast of Scotland pub
lished in 1874 gi ves the following desc ript ion:
Haskeir islands, two in number, are distant from each other

one mile in an E by N t N and W by S i S direction, The
easternmost and highest, which lies NW t N, 6i miles from
Griminish Point, North Uist, and NNE i E, 10! miles from
Monach Lighthouse, is one mile in circumference, and rises at
the West end to 120 feet; the East end is nearly as high, and
between the two the land is very low and nearly divided by a
remarkable cave or basin, 140 feet long and 34 feet broad, so
that from a distance of 5 or 6 miles the island shews two ftattish
lumps. Towards the West end are 3 or four acres of rich soil
and coarse grass, but in winter the waves cast their spray over
the whole surface; no springs could be found, but there are
several pools with brackish water, where the Seals resort in
autumn with their young. Rocks dry half a cable off the West
and South-West points, but the East side is bold-to: the best
landing is on the North and South side of the East lump accord
ing to the wind, but it can only be effected with safety during
fine weather.
Haskeir Aag, the western of the two islands, may be said to
be composed of five bare rocks, with deep water channels be-
182
THE HEISGEIR ROCKS
tween; they are without a blade of grass or any fresh water, and
can only be landed on in fine weather. The highest is 83 feet
above the sea.
Other sundry reefs and rocks are indicated on the admiralty

chart for the area. There is no anchorage in the vicinity.
183
APPENDIX A
NATURAl HISTORY
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
I
SLANDS, particularly oceanic islands, provide the biologist
with fields of immense significance for plant and animal life.
In particular, such islands have played, and continue to play, a
crucial role in the survival of species of migrant and semi-migrant
fauna. St Kilda, now that it has been deserted for almost half a
century, offers one of the most interesting subjects in Britain for
the student of natural history.
For obvious reasons, the flora and fauna of the Hebridean out
liers are limited in their range. The flora of North Rona, for
instance, contains as few as forty-one species; and some of these,
such as the curled dock (rumex crispus) are cliff-dwellers brought
to the island by migrant birds. On Sulasgeir, a dozen or so miles
from North Rona, there are only seven plant species. The Flan
nans have twenty-two species and St Kilda, as might be expected,
offers the greatest variety with some 140 species. The fauna of the
islands can be said to be incidental, except those species such as
the Soay sheep, the St Kilda wren and field mouse, and the
Atlantic grey seal. The latter m ammal is the rarest of the world's
total of twenty-five seal species; it congregates at North Rona in
larger numbers than anywhere else. Of course, there are numer
ous seabirds, in particular Leach's petrel.
The St Kilda group of Hebridean Outliers, being the largest
of Hebridean sub-oceanic islands, has an interesting variety of
flora and fauna, though the latter is mainly confined to birds.
In addition, there are individual showings of particular interest.
It has been suggested that the escape of the islands from the
overall pleistocene glaciation resulte d in the survival of certain
species of flowers, such as the honeysuckle, vetch and lesser
celandine, as remnants of a past woodland flora. These, how-
185
APPENDIX A
ever may well have been introduced by migrant birds or human

agencies.
The following list of plant species recorded on North Rona
in 1939 is from Atkinson, Island Going.
Lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula

Creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens
Scurvy grass Cochlearia officina/is
Sea pearlwort Sagina maritima
Mouse-ear chickweed Cerastium triviale
Chickweed Stellaria media
Water chickweed Mantia fontana
Wild white clover Trifolium repens
Silverweed Potentilla anserina
Marsh pennywort Hydocotyle vulgaris
Lovage Ligusticum scoticum
Angelica Angelica sylvestris
Dai sy Bellis perenn is
Scentless mayweed Matricaria inodora
Autumnal hawkbit Leontodon autumnalis
Sea milkwort Glaux maritima
Buck's-horn plantain Plantago coronopus
Sea pink Armeria maritima
Orache Atriplex babingtonii
Sorrel Rumex acetosa
Cotton grass Eriophorum angustifolium
Needle sedge Eleocharis (Scirpus) palustris
Needle club rush Eleocharis (Scirpus) acicularis
Tufted sedge Carex goodenowii
Yorkshire fog H olcus lanatus
Matgrass Nardus stricta
Red fescue Festuca rubra
Meadow grass Poa pratensis
Adder's tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum
Sandspurrey Spergularia salina
Yarrow Achillea millefolium
Eyebright Euphrasia officina/is
Or ache Atriplex patula
Curled dock Rumex crispus
Knotweed Polygonum aviculare
Broad-leaved dock Rumex obtusifolius
186
APPENDIX A
Jointed rush ]uncus articulatus

Toad rush ]uncus bufonius
Creeping bent grass Agrostis stolonifera
Annual poa grass Poa annua
Decumbent triodia Sieglingia decumbens
ST KILDA FLORA
The flora of St Kilda island itself is characteristic of that

of the Outer Hebrides in general, although several plant species
in the St Kilda list are not given as growing in the island-chain.
It can be classed as maritime Alpine or sub-Alpine flora. Perhaps
the most remarkable point about the St Kilda flora is the low
station at which some decidedly Alpine plants are found. The
island is in the same latitude as Ben Wyvis in Ross-shire yet plants
found on this mountain mass at 3,000 ft are found in St Kilda at
500 ft. Perhaps this is the more remarkable in view of the fact
that there is an almost complete absence of Alpine or Arctic
conditions as regards elevation and climate. The latter, for the
latitude, is exceptionally mild. An insular or maritime situation
is often observed to have this effect on Alpine vegetation, prob
ably from the frequent mists and consequent diminished sun
shine, and also perhaps from the comparative want of compe
tition that would elsewhere keep them to their hill fastnesses and
the coldne5S of the heights. The high proportion of rushes and
sedges give a further Alpine character to the St Kilda plant
list.
The vegetation of St Kilda is simple but luxuriant. .The
meadowlands between the shore and the village have thick swards
of grass with admixtures of clover and bush vetch. In this area
the soil is deep, fine, well-drained and contains a dense popula
tion of earthworms. The flora includes many of the plants of
hill ground: sheep's fescue (festuca ovina), heather (calluna), bell
heather (erica cinerea), blaeberry (vaccinium myrtillus), cowberry
(vaccinium vitis-idaea). On the high slopes of the island are found
dwarf willow (salix herbacea), primrose (primula vulgaris), honey
suckle (lonicera periclymenum), lady fern (athyrium-filix-foemina),
and dandelion (taraxacum palustre). The maritime flora is rather
187
Island plan t s : yarrow (upper left), sea pink or thrift (upper right), Dutch
clover (lower left), whortleberry (lower right)
APPENDIX A
poor, the reason being that the gabbro rock does not support
other than the more common maritime plants, sea pink, sea milk
wort, orache, sorrel, and sea pearlwort, all of which are found on
North Ro·na. The turf and green vegetation on the other islands
in the St Kilda group, being smaller in area, contains fewer
species. In many places, the flying spray from the sea has pro
duced a type of salting vegetation.
ST KILDA INSECTS
There are no bumble bees on St Kilda. This lack is made up in

disturbing quantity by the myriads of earwigs and beetles which
are to be found around the deserted villages and among the small
cleits, or stone-built storehouses, higher up the slopes towards
Oseval and Conachair. Midges, the curse and plague of the
western Highlands of Scotland, are present in no small force on
the island. The ant (myrmica ruginodis) is also present. Some 130
species of beetle have been found, though there are no species
peculiar to the island. Butterflies, which are not numerous, include
Painted Ladies (pyrameis carduz) and Tortoiseshell (vanessa
urticae). The species of spiders found are those common to the
mainland of Scotland.
ST KILDA FAUNA
Justifiably, it is the fauna of St Kilda which has attracted the

greatest interest, more so now that the island, after some four
decades of desertion, has been allowed to revert to its former
natural state where characteristic species might find the right
kind of environmental conditions in which to further evolve. In
the St Kilda house and field mice is shown the ability of a remote
island to produce differentiated races of animals. It is supposed
that the house mouse (mus musculus muralis) was introduced
into the island within historical times. The long-tailed field mouse
(apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis) is undoubtedly a relic of an earlier
age. The habitat of the house mouse was, while the island was
populated by homo sapiens, around the villages houses except,
strangely, the Post Office. After the population withdrew from
189
APPENDIX A
the island in 1930, there was speculation as to the subsequent

fate of the species. ln 1933 the total population of house mice
did not exceed twenty-five head. Since 1938 the species has been
extinct. It is thought that the extinction was due to two factors:
the large number of cats left on the island in 1930 and the species
being nnable to survive without the normal trappings associated
with the island's firesides.
The St Kilda field mouse is rather larger than the type speci
men and is sometimes inclined to be brown or yellowish under
neath. The upper surface of its coat is a warm reddish brown.
It is a mainly nocturnal animal. It feeds largely on grass and is
found almost wholly below 400 ft. When mature, the mouse
weighs twice that of its mainland counterpart; it has a larger ear
and hindfoot. The mouse also occurs on Dun. There has been a
small increase in the number of mating pairs since evacuation.
The other species of St Kilda fauna which is unique is the
Soay sheep. This land mammal is a primitive breed of uncertain
origin, although believed to be directly descended from an early
stage in the domestication of the wild moufton. Soay island is
their last native habitat in Britain, and where they live in a half
wild state. Remains of the breed have been found in prehistoric
settlements on the European mainland and in the middens or
refuse pits of the Roman Fort at Newstead, near Melrose on the
Scottish Borders.
The existence of the species in St Kilda today is attributed to
the slow rate of improvement in the stock in the past : partly the
result of the small size of flocks, coupled with poor communica
tions. It is not known at what date the breed reached St Kilda.
Tradition says that a Viking named Calum brought in the first
sheep but there is evidence to suggest that the sheep were con
temporary with prehistoric settlements in the Hebrides long before
the Norsemen began their ascendancy in the islands of Scotland.
Probably the first description of the Soay sheep is that of Boece
(1527) who said that 'beyond Hirta there is another, uninhabited,
isle (Soay). In it are certain wild beasts not very different from
sheep. The hair is long and "tallie" (drab) neither like the wool
of sheep nor goat'. Boece also said that on Hirta itself there was
a breed of sheep with large horns and a long tail. In 1578 Bishop
190
APPENDIX A
Leslie made a reference to the sheep on St Kilda as being 'large

animals, neither sheep nor goat, neither have they wool like a
sheep nor hair like a goat, but something between the two'.
Martin Martin (1697) says of the breed: 'the number of sheep
commonly maintained in St Kilda, and the two adjacent isles,
does not exceed 2,000. Generally they are speckled, some white,
some philamort (yellow-brown) and are of a common size; they
do not resemble goats in any respect, as Buchanan was informed,
except in their horns, which are extraordinarily large, particu
larly those in the lesser isles'. It is suggested by Ryder in Scottish
Studies (1968) that the mention of white indicates the introduc
tion of improved sheep, though the characteristic large horns
remained.
Martin also mentions that the island of Soay offered grazing
for some 500 sheep which were hunted by the St Kildans. Each
ewe had two or three lambs at a birth; they lambed once each
year. Martin attributed the prolificacy of the breed to the fact
that the sheep were never milked, which is unlikely to have been
the true reason.
MacAulay (1764) also stated that Soay supported 500 sheep;
the animals were the property of the steward and were difficult to
catch. He estimated that there were 100 sheep on Hirta, which
were of the 'smallest kind' with short, coarse wool. Boreray was
said to support 400 cast ewes from Hirta. H. J. Elwes in an article
in the Scottish Naturalist (1912) quotes Do·nald Ferguson, who
was ground officer on St Kilda for some twenty years, as saying
that there had been no sheep with four horns during that time.
This is a reference to the recurring observation that sheep with
multiple horns were common through the centuries. Ferguson
also said that the laird used to claim every seventh ewe, and every
second ram, and put them on Soay, his preserve, and they were
hunted once a year for their wool. At that time there were not
less than 300 sheep on Soay: half were dark brown, half pale
brown. At present, only about a quarter of the total stock are
pale. Some of the light sheep have dark patches, and some of the
dark animals have white marks, particularly on the face;
occasional light sheep with white facial markings are still found
on St Kilda. Ferguson also stated that in his time the Soay sheep
191
APPENDIX A
were gradually becoming smaller, which is of interest in view of

the large size mentioned by sixteenth-century writers.
The Soay sheep has been associated with the Northern Short
tail type of Scandinavia. Modern Icelandic sheep have a horn
angle which is similar to that of the Soay. The present animals
are short-haired, small in size and have long legs which give them
a goat-like movement. The horns of the ram beast lift well up
from the head and take a full, wide curve. The wool of the sheep
is soft and has a tendency to rub off in late winter and early
spring. The tail is short, triangular and without wool. The char
acteristic feature, which distinguishes them from the usual breeds
in Britain, which are generally of Asiatic origin, is the dished or
concave face and the width of the cranium compared with other
facial measurements. The true Soay sheep were formerly confined
to the islands of Soay and Dun, and were the sole property of
MacLeod of MacLeod. The St Kildans themselves reare d a mixed
lot of sheep.
In 1932, two years after the evacuation, about 100 of the
stock resident on Soay were taken and landed on St Kilda, where
they are now carefully preserved. Estimates put the present total
stock in the region of 1,500 head, of which St Kilda has about
1,100; the remainder is on Soay and on Boreray. These sheep ,
as might be expected on the island terrain, are extremely agile
and active; they bound like sure-footed mountain goats along
narrow cliff-edges and across steep grassy slopes which fall to the
sea some hundreds of feet below. The sheep have been subjected
to a detailed study by a team of scientists organised by the Nature
Conservancy.
Though the Atlantic grey seal is common in the waters of St
Kilda, it does not breed anywhere in the island group, the high
cliffs defeating such a purpose. The low reaches of North Rona
are the nearest breeding grounds, as are some of the islands in the
Sound of Harris.
ST KILDA BIRDS
St Kilda possesses a unique species of wren: the St Kilda wren

(troglodytes hirtensis). This bird was first mentioned by Martin
192
APPENDIX A
Jvlartiu in 1695 and then by 1\lacAulay in 1764. It is slightly

larger than its mainland counterpart. The nape and the head arc
a uniform grey brown; the rest of the upper parts are a bright
brown. The under parts are pale. Barring is more pronoll'nced
and there is a white superciliary stripe. The bird's song is sweeter
and less shrill than in the mainland form. It was this wren's
uniqueness which nearly killed it off. When the ornithologist
Seebohm first noted the bird as an important sub-species in 1884
it became a focal point of interest, particularly with hunters. By
1888, the wren was almost extinct, raids by egg collectors and
amateur taxidermists having brought the numbers to a danger
ously low level. But in 1904, Parliament passed the special Wild
Birds Protection (St Kilda) Act, specifically designed to protect
both the St Kilda wren and Leach's fork-tail petrel. In subse
quent years the numbers of the species increased. Present estimates
give some 100 breeding pairs, most of which are concentrated on
Hirt. The bird is, by preference, a dweller in the cliffs occupied
by puffins and fulmars.
In 1968, it was announced by the Advisory Committee on the
Protection of Birds for Scotland that the St Kilda wren was con
sidered to be in no danger of extinction or diminution. The bird
has now been removed from the top-priority category of protected
birds in Britain.
Not so fortunate was the now-extinct great auk or garefowl
(pinguinus impennis). This bird was large and unable to fly; it laid
a single egg. Its flesh was delicious, its oil was widely used for
lamps, and the feathers were a useful source of cash. It was widely
hu'nted in North America and became extinct there early in the
nineteenth century. In Scotland it was already in decline in the
seventeenth. Inevitably it was to be found only o·n the more remote
islands of the Hebrides. The last auk was caught and killed in St
Kilda in 1840, its captors being unaware of its identity. The
species now remains in a stuffed and inanimate form in a few
museums throughout the world.
The seabirds which now breed and find safe haven in St Kilda
have no fear of extinction. The island contains the world's largest
gannetry and the colonies of fulmar and puffin are more than
significant for survival of the species. The gannet or solan goose
M 193
APPENDIX A
(sula bassana) was once a source of economic return on the Hebri

dean outliers. It formed a principal source of human food. It
was used as dog and cattle food in winter. Gannet's grease was
highly valued for its medicinal properties, being regarded as a
sure-fire cure for catarrh and gout. It was also used as a lubricant
and considered excellent for treating boots, and for smearing
sheep. Nor were the feathers neglected. They were used as stuffing
for cheap pillows, cushions and feather beds. It was estimated that
the feathers from 240 yonng gannets were required to make up
one bed.
It is not surprising that the annual slaughtering of gannets in
the British Isles (St Kilda, Sulasgeir, Bass Rock, Noss and Mer
maness in the Shetlands, and Lundy Island) eventually led to
either the extinction of the species or the serious reduction in the
numbers of breeding pairs to below the limit for continued sur
vival. So far as the British gannetries as a whole were concerned,
however, the slaughtering which took place each year did not
seriously affect the population which was well able to make good
the loss each season.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, when other
sources of material to replace feathers and bird oil became
readily available, the birds have been left to breed and multiply.
The present gannetry on the island group of St Kilda contains
about 1 7,000 breeding pairs.
Of the birds of the auk tribe, the razorbill, the puffin, the
guillemot, the puffin is by far the most numerous. This bird
(uria aalge aalge), which prefers to live in tunnels underneath
a good turf, was also once the target of the St Kildans who could
catch some 400 in one day and many thousands annually. One
recent estimate suggests some 4,000,000 puffins exist between
the main islands in the group. The guillemot nests on cliff edges
and is not so numerous as the puffin. In comparatively fewer
numbers is the razorbill (alca torca) which tends to live in holes
in the cliff faces.
Other seabirds fonnd on St Kilda include gulls, kittiwakes,
fulmars, Man,x shearwaters, storm petrels, and Leach's fork
tailed petrels. At one time, before 1 878, the fulmar bred only
in St Kilda, but it has since spread outwards to other
194
APPENDIX A
breeding stations. The present population is in the region of

20,000.
Many migrant birds find St Kilda a useful stopping-off place.
This has resulted in many unusual sightings by visiting naturalists.
More common birds recorded include spotted redshanks, green
sandpipers, starlings and an occasional turtle-dove. W. Eagle
Clarke's Studies in Bird Migration (1912) shows the real wealth
of species which take advantage of these islands in their spring
and autumn movements.
NORTH RONA SEALS
The Atlantic grey seal is one of the rarest of the world's seal
species, with a total population of around 45,000. A quarter of
these live between Iceland and the Baltic, with a few on the coast
of Canada. The number on North Rona is about 9,000. The grey
seal has been protected since 1914; before that date it had been
hunted nearly to extinction. Since the Bill for its protection was
introduced, its numbers have increased steadily and it is now
colonising new rocks such as the more accessible ones in the St
Kilda group. Under legislative protection it has multiplied con
siderably on North Rona, which is its greatest stronghold. In
recent years, scientists of the Nature Conservancy have had many
opportunities to study the seal population there. One of their
annual tasks has been to catch and brand some of the 2,000 seals
born on North Rona each year to try and trace their movements.
(The mortality rate for pups varies from 15 to 25 per cent).
Branding and tagging has proved that young seals disperse widely
when they leave North Rona. Recoveries have been obtained
from Iceland, the Faroes, the coast of Norway, St Kilda and
north-east Scotland.
195
APPENDIX B
ISLAND PlACENAMES
ANY of the names given to the landscape and sea
M scape aspects of the islands in this book reflect both

Norse and Gaelic elements; this is characteristic of
names in the Western Isles and on the western seaboar d of Scot
land. In particular, aspects of the land scene, as seen from sea
ward, are predominantly Norse; which might be expected in
view of the seafaring adventurous spirit of the mariners from
Scandinavia.
There has always been some difficulty in arriving at the correct
derivation of a placename. For a long time it was a matter of
guesswork, however intelligent. Nowadays, the professional
etymologist is needed to solve the mystery of names which have
been corrupted through centuries of use and misuse. Added to a
thorough knowledge of philology, a clear understanding of phon
etics is also needed. Topographical information is also important.
The processes called 'assimilation' and 'dissimilatio·n' often alter
a word so completely that the present form is quite different from
the original.
One of the most common suffixes in the islands' coast names i s
'ness', or, in its Gaelicised form, nish or nis. This is Ol d Norse
nes = a headland; it is sometimes used to denote the extremity
of the headland.
Small pinpoints of rock lying off a large land-mass may seem
insignificant; lying off a small island-mass, however, they become
important aspects of the seascape. The Norse word for island is
ey, expressed in Gaelic by aidh. One of the Flan
' nan Islands is
Soray, also written Soridh. This is commonly thought to mean
'farewell island' from the Gaelic soraidh. The island's name may,
however, be derived from its height above the sea, in which case
a Norse derivation could be ascribed to make 'high island', which
196
APPENDIX B
is common to the derivation ascribed to Harris in the Long

Island. Instances of Gaelic in the Flannans are seen in Eilean a�
Ghobha (Smith's Island), and in Eilean Tighe (House Island).
As might be expected from living in an island environment
closely circumscribed by the coastline, personal elements are
conspicuously present in many of the placenames. On North
Rona there is Geodha Mairi (Mary's Creek), Leac lain Tailleir
(rock-slab of lain the Tailor), Cladach Cro lain Dheirg (shore
land of the cattle of lain the Red). Some names indicate a long
past religious association: on the .Monach Isles there is Tigh na
Croic e (House of the Cross).
'The Irte, which is agreed to be under Circius and on the out
skirts of the world, beyond which there is found no land in these
bounds'. This was Fordun's description (c 1400) of the St Kilda
group of islands. The name 'Irte' was the old name and appears
in various fonns such as Hirt and Hirta. The origin of Hirt has
been laid at a Celtic door by Prof W. J. Watson who contended
the name meant death or gloom, in keeping with a land of spirits
beyond the far horizon and with the Gaelic h-lar-Tir = west
land. In later centuries, the name St Kilda became more common.
However, the first documented mention of the island is Hyrt, in a
Charter granted by John, Lor d of the Isles, to his son Reginald,
and confirmed by King Robert the Second after the middle of
the fourteenth century. 'St Kilda' itself is also a source of bother
to etymologists. Kilda, from the Norse kelda, meaning a well,
first occurs in a map dated 1558. Another origin is thought to be
Culdee, the name given to the early Christian missionaries of the
Celtic Church in Scotland. The Dutch fishing activity in the
western seas during the seventeenth century led to a Dutch map
maker adding the word 'saint' to his maps of the area. No saint
of the name Kilda has ever existed, however, and the origin of
the name by which the island group is known today is as ghostly
as the islands themselves.
Soay is derived from the Norse saudhr, meaning sheep isle;
there are many such names in the Western Isles. Boreray is the
north isle. Stac Lee is the hoary rock, and Stac an Armin is the
stack of the warrior.
The following short list of names and their elements is not
197
APPENDIX B
intended to be comprehensive but only a us eful guide to the more

obvious placenames of the Hebridean Outlier islands.
ST KILDA
Stac an Armin Stack of the Warrior
Rudh Briste Wreck point of the breaking
Gob na Tarnanach Mouth of the loud sounds
Gealgo Short geo or creek
Udraclete Stony ridge
Sgarbhstac Stack of the cormorants
Creagan na Rubhaig Bana Rocks of the white hemp thongs
(climbing?)
Am Plaistair Place of splashing (sea-wash)
Ceo Ruadh Red geo or creek
Gob a' Ghaill Mouth of the rock
Cnoc Glas Grey hill
Sgeir Mac Righ Lochlainn Rock of the King of Norway's son
Stac Dona Bad stack
Ceo Chalum M'Mhurich Creek of Calum MacMhurich (Murch-
ison)
The Cambir Place of burial
Ceo na h-Airde Creek of the height
Loch a' Ghlinne Glen loch
Sgeir Dhomnaill Donald's rock
Stac a Langa Long stack
Rudha Chill The boy's point
Sgeirnan Sgarbh Rocks of the cormorants
Oiseval Steep sloping hill
Rudha an Uisge Point of the water
Ceo dh' Clann Neill Creek of Clan Neill
Seilg Ceo Hunting creek
Mullach Sgar Ruaival Summit of the clefted red hill
Rudha Mhuirich Point of the MacMhurichs
Mullach Mor Big summit
NORTH RONA
Lisgear Mhor Big grey rock
Sgor na Lice Moire Rock of the big slabs
Leac M hor Fianuis Big rock-slab of Fianui�
Geodha a' Stoth Creek of steam (sea-drift)
Geodha Mairi Mary's creek
198
APPENDIX B
Sron na Caorach Sheep's nose

Leac lain Tailleir Rock-slab of lain the Tailor
Geodha na Breatuinn Creek of the Britons (Bretons?)
Pollan Uisg Little water pool
Stac a' Phriosuin Prison stack
Leac na Sgrob Rock-slab of the scratches
Buaile na' Sgrath Herding place of the lowing or bleating
Bogh' a Mheadhon La Sunken rock (middle distance)
Caolas Loba Sgeir Rock of the narrows or strait
Caolas Harsgeir Strait of the sea-rock
Harsgeir Sea-rock
Marcasgeo Sea-drift creek
Cladach Cro lain Dheirg Shoreland of the cattle of lain the Red
Leacan 's Jar West rock-slabs
Cro Mhic lain Clwinnich Cattle of Kenneth's lain (MacKenzie?)
Geodha nan Gall Creek of the strangers
Geodha Blatha Mor Creek of the big sea
Geodha Blatha Beag Creek of the little sea
Geodha Leis Leeward creek
Pol a' Chleirich Pool of the cleric (priest)
Geodh' an Tuill Creek of the running tide
Lisgear Grey rock
Boghanan Sunken rocks
SULASGEIR
Bogha Corr Sunken rock
Boghannan s' Jar West sunken rocks
Pol a' Chaitainich Pool of the (Caithness-men?)
Tham na Sgeir Tongue rock
Geodha Phuill Bhain Creek of the white rounded stones
Ge odh' a' Bhun Mhoir Creek at the river mouth
Sgeir an Teampuill Temple rock
Bealach an t-Suidhe Glen of the resting-place
Creag Trithaiga Rock of the (three houses?)
Sron na Lice Nose of the rock-slab
Pa irc a's Jar West park
Cnap Geodha Blatha Beag Little hill of the creek of the little sea
Tigh M haoldon�ich House of Mhaoldonuich (Maol = votary)
probably hermtt
Geodha Blatha Mor Creek of the big sea
Lamha Cleit Lamb's cliff
199
APPENDIX B
Da Bogha Lamha Cleit Two sunken rocks at the lamb's cliff

Bogha Leathainn Broad sunken rock
Gralisgeir Grey rock
FLANNAN ISLES
Gealtaire Mor Big white (bright or clear) land
Gealtaire Beag Small white land
Dearc na Sgeir Rock cave
Sron na Faing Nose (promontory) of the vulture
Eilean Tighe House Island
H amasgeir Ocean rock
Geodh' an Truillich Creek of the (worthless person?)
Skiopageo Creek of the ship (skiff)
Eilean Mor Big Island
Tom na Geodha Hill of the creek
Meall Meadhonach Middle Hill
Soray Farewell Island (?) has the terminal ay (ey, Norse) = island
Sgeir Toman Hill rock
Roareim Anguish Point (rudha doruinn)
Poll nan Ron Pool of the seals
Brona Cleit Protuberance (belly) of the reef
Eilean a' Ghobha Smith's Island
MONACH ISLES
Stogay Rudder Island (Stoc = stock of a ship's rudder)
Ru' na Marbh Death Point
Port Roidh Seal Harbour
An Ceann Ear East head
Cladh na Bleide Burying place
Giortinish Edge of the ness or promontory
Sgeir Mhor Big rock
Crois Shithinis Ness of the Peace cross
An Ceann Jar West head
Tigh na Croice House of the Cross
Hearnish East Point
Sillay Rainy Island
na Diurabegs Small hard (difficult) rocks
200
-BIBliOGRAPHY
Many writers throughout the centuries have written about the

Hebridean islands. Some speak of an island's personality. R. L.
Stevenson said :
On all this part of the coast ... (the Outer Hebrides) these
great granite rocks that I have spoken of go down together in
troops to the sea, like cattle on a summer's day. There they
stand, for all the world like their neighbours ashore; only salt
water sobbing between them instead of the quiet earth, and
clots of sea-pink blooming on their sides instead of heather,
and the great sea-conger to wreathe about the base of them
instead of the poisonous viper of the land.
Some writers have written descriptions of their visits to the

islands and fallen into the trap of comparing the environment of
the island community with that of an urbanised society. Others
have extolled the 'freedom' of an island community from the
various influences which impose stresses and strains on urbanised
communities-yet they would have probably thought twice about
choosing an island as a place in which to live permanently. Per
haps those deeply interested in natural history have done most
justice to the islands and their communities, for the reason that
their specific interest allowed only cogent observations of the
human element into their writings. But missionaries, teachers,
naturalists, archaeologists, tourists, factors and owners, and
journalists have all contributed to the relevant literature.
The first writer on the outlying islands of the Hebrides, who
has left a record of his work, was Sir Donald Monro, High Dean
of the Isles; he wrote in 1549. His conceptions of size and distance
leave much to be desired, but his work tells us much of life in
these islands. Next came the 'Gentleman from Skye', Martin
Martin. His book was first published in 1698 and is still a much
thumbed volume on library shelves. His work was detailed and
accurate, and is invaluable to the student of natural history today.
201
BIBLIOGRAPHY
John MacCulloch, the 'Stone Doctor', was a fluen t geologist who

travelled among the Western Isles between 1811 and 1821. His
descriptions are often rather high-flown and for natural history
he is secondary to l\1artin, but his literary eloquence filled four
volumes in 1824.
Enthusiasm is the keynote of the band of nineteenth-century
naturalists, headed by Harvie-Brown and who are perpetuated in
the Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland series. These include J. Swin
burne, T. E. Buckley, M. E. Heddle, and R. M. Barrington. The
work deals not only with natural history but acts as a useful
guidebook and includes some of the first photographs ever taken
in Scotland's remote small islands.
The present century has also seen its full share of visitors
to the islands. J. Wilson Dougal, the geologist, T. S. Muir, the
ecclesiologist, and J. Sands, the tourist, have all made their con
tribution. In particular one must mention Malcolm Stewart who
visited most of the remoter islands and rocks and recorded his
observations in a book and in papers. Stewart was also responsible
for gathering together a group of modern scientific papers on St
Kilda and publishing them as a volume. In later years, no doubt
encouraged by Stewart's work, writers like Robert Atkinson and .
Frank Fraser Darling fulfilled lifelong ambitions to land on the
islands and have left accounts which are most absorbing to
read.
With the exception of St Kilda, however, the bibliography of
the Hebridean Outliers is not particularly extensive. North Rona
ceased to be socially significant when it became deserted, an event
which occurred before its many visitors had recorded their impres
sions. Sulasgeir has been written about in the contexts of its
geology, natural history and the social link it had, and still has,
with the north of Lewis. The range of the Flannans' literature
is similar to that of Sulasgeir. The Monach Isles have been the
subject of a novel, but otherwise have not been the specific aim
of literary ambitions. St Kilda, perhaps because of the size of its
community and its distance from the west coast of Scotland, and
thus civilisation, has been subjected to the close scrutiny of visitors.
The result has been a spate of words in the form of official reports,
general articles of an informative and entertaining nature, personal
202
BIBLIOGRAPHY
reports and documents, novels, sketches, newspaper items, topo
graphical and social descriptions and so on.
The following bibliographical list of some 170 titles is reason
ably comprehensive and indicates the extreme range of topics
dealt with. Though some titles are concerned specifically with St
Kilda, others of a more general nature deal, sometimes in passim,
with the other Hebridean islands. Many of the titles, of the books
in particular, are out of print and are available only in the older
established public libraries, in University libraries and in private
collections of Highland books. Occasionally these titles crop up,
often unexpectedly, in the book lists of second-hand book dealers;
though a reasonable price must be paid. Even so, for the enthusi
ast, a price of some 6 gns (£6·30) is not too much for the first
edition (1878) of Seton's St Kilda-Past and Present.
The titles marked with an asterisk are of particular interest to
those readers of the present book who wish to study the Hebridean
Outliers in greater depth. Their various authors viewed the
islands through a very wide spectrum of interests and have
recorded not only facts, but their impressions. Often they had a
genuine concern for the islanders with whom they invariably
made fast friends. Reading through the centuries from, say, the
eighteenth century to the last poignant farewell to St Kilda in
19 3 0, one begins to realise how and why these outer Hebridean
islands cast their spell, so strong even now through the medium
of the printed page, but especially so during those last decades
when the whole world seemed to beat an inquisitive trail to St
Kilda's very doorstep.
BOOKS
ADMIRALTY. West Coast of Scotland Pilot. London, 1934

*ATKINSON, RoBERT. Island Going. London, 1949
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Brit Birds-British Birds
Brit & For Med-Chir Rev-British & Foreign Medico-Chirurgical
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Brit Med Jour-British Medical Journal
Caledonian Med Jour-Caledonian Medical Journal
Edin Mag-Edinburgh Magazine
Entomol Man Mag-Entomological Monthly Magazine
Geog ]our-Geographical Journal
Geol Mag-Geological Magazine
Jour Anim Ecol-]ournal of Animal Ecology
Jour B'ham Nat Hist & Phil Soc-journal of the Birmingham
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Jour Bot-Journal of Botany
Jour Ecol-]ournal of Ecology
New Phil Jour-New Philosophical Journal
Proc Nat Hist Soc Glasgow-Proceedings of the Natural History
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Proc Roy Phys Soc Edin-Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society
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Proc Soc Antiq Scot-Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
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Proc Zoo Soc Lou-Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lon-
don.
Scot Geog Mag-Scottish Geographical Magazine
Scot Mount Club ]our-Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal
Scot Nat-Scottish Naturalist
Trans Bot Soc Edin-Transactions of the Botanical Society of
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Trans Geo Soc £din-Transactions of the Geological Society of
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206
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212
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have to acknowledge the valuable help given by many people

in the preparation of this book. In particular, the following have
given specific assistance in varying degrees in either providing
source material or illustrative matter: James �IcGeoch,
Avi emore; Walter Aldebert, Cromarty Lighthouse; Mrs Anne
Turner, Lochwinnoch; Donald MacDonald, Glasgow; Sam
Longbotham, of the Stornoway Gazette; Mrs F. MacDonald,
Fort William; and Frank Thompson, Stornoway, my father who,
over a decade ago, provided a set of photographs of North Rona
and Sulasgeir little knowing they would be adding an extra
dimension to the text of this book.
I am also grateful to the following for permission to quote from
their own works: Malcolm Stewart, Ronay; Frank Fraser
Darling, Island Years; Robert Atkinson, Island Going; and
Roland Svensson, Lonely Isles. My thanks are also due to the
trustees of Carmina Gadelica.
I have finally to thank my wife who provided most of the line
drawings in the book.
213
INDEX
Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations
A c
Ackland, Sir Thomas, 37 Calum Mor's house, 101

Active, 67 Carmichael, Alexander, 60
Adamson, William, 113 Cas-chrom, 80, 84
Admiralty, 116 et seq. Ceann Ear, 144, 175
Agriculture (St Kilda), 79-82 Ceann Jar, 175
'Amazon', 59, 100-1 'Charing Cross', 173
An Carra, 23 Cholera, 26, 67
Archer, 169 Church of Scotland, General
Ardtornish, 119 Assembly of, 45
Atkinson, Robert, 156 Clach an t-Sagairt, 23
Clach "MhicLeoid, 23
Cleits, 37-8, 79
B Climbing ropes, 49, 77, 78
Clothing, 38-9
Barclay, Williamina, 115 Cloth-making, 92-4
Bedford, Duchess of, 145 Clydesdale, 88
Beehive houses, 101, 146, 148 Collins, William, 110
Benbecula, 23 Communications (St Kilda),
'Black house', 33, 146, 148 94-7
Board of Agriculture for Scot· Conachair, 19, 21, 22, 38, 109
land, 93 Connell, Robert, 42, 46, 59, 81,
'Boat cold', 68 83, 85
Bogha Corr, 151 Corbelling, 34
Boreray, 19, 22-4, 23, 36, 75,
102, 192, 197
Breach of promise (St Kilda), 49 D
Breascleit, 164, 172
Brenhilda, 153 Daily Mirror, 97
Brona, Cleit, 163 Darling, Dr Frank Fraser, 148
Buchan, Alexander, 45, 63 Death rites (St Kilda), 49-50
Buchanan, George, 109 Department of Agriculture, 114,
Bute, Marquis of, 103 116
215
INDEX
Department of Health, 115, 117 Flann, 164; Flannan, 164;

Diet (North Rona), 129-30; (St lighthouse, 126, 163-4; light
Kilda), 85-6 house mystery, 168-7 1; place
Disruption of 1843, 46 names, 196-7, 200
Domestic economy (St Kilda), Folklore (St Kilda), 51-9
84-6 Forestry Commission, 1 19
Dougal, John Wilson, 156, 159 Fowling techniques, 76-9
Duigan, 26, 58-9 Free Church, 46-7, 50, 179
Dun, 19, 22, 42, 99, 190 Fulmar, 75-6, 77-8, 193
Dunara Cast le, 87, 88, 116
G
E
Gaelic, 25, 33, 60, 140, 196-200
Earth dyke (St Kilda), 102 Gaelic School Society, 63
Earth houses (St Kilda), 99 Gannet-hunters, 107, 10 8, 157 -
Education (St Kilda), 63-5 60

Eilean a' Ghobha, 16 1 Gannets, 74-5, 76, 78, 89, 193-4,
Eilean Mor, 126, 143, 161, 168, see also Guga
170 Geikie, 22
Eilean Tighe, 143, 161, 165 Geodha a' Stoth, 7 1
Evacuation (St Kilda), 25, 112- Geodha Phuill Bhain, 157
20 Gibson, W. W., 171-2
Exports (St Kilda), 73-4 Gillies (surname), 29
Glasgow Herald, 59, 81
Gleann Mor, 33, 52, 59, 99,
F 100-2
Goats, 82
Fairies, 52 Godetia, 1 17
Fearchar Mor, 26, 58-9 Gralisgeir, 15 1
Feast Days, 57-8 Granville, Lord, 178
Ferguson (surname), 29 Great Auk, 96, 193
Ferguson, Alexander, 93 Guga, 107, 108, 157-60
Ferguson, Neil, 96 Guitlemots, 72, 76, 194
Fianuis, 71, 121 Gulls, 194
Fiddes, Rev Angus, 47, 68-9, 96
Fishing, 83-4
Flann, 164 H
Flannan, 164
Flnnnan Isles, 125, 126, 143, Hamilton, Duke of, 178
161-74, 162; chapel, 165; Harebell, 117, 118-19
216
INDEX
Harris Tweed, 92 K
Harsgeir, 123
Harvie-Brown, J. A . ' 133 ' 135 , Kittiwakes, 194
142, 155
Heathcote, Norman, 64, 91
H eb r id ean , 8 7
Heisgeir Rocks, 1 04, 144, 180-3, L
181, 182
Hesperus, 169 Lady Ambrosine, 87
Lady Grange, 104-9, 105
Highland & Agricultural Society
Leach's petrel, 123, 194
of Scotland, 117
Leac Mhor, 121
Highlands & Islands Distress
Leac na Sgrob, 124
Committee, 113, 114
Leprosy, 66
Highlands & Islands Fund, 117
Lighthouses, 126, 163-4, 168-71,
Highland Society, Ladies
179
Association of, 63, 179
Livestock (St Kilda), 82
Hirt, see St Kilda
Loba Sgeir, 123
Houses (St Kilda), 32-7, 82
Local carriage labels, 96-7
Huxley, Sir Julian, 23
Local Government Board, 67
Loom, wood-beam, 118
Lover's Stone, 56--7, 86
I
Illegitimate births, 30
Imports (St Kilda), 73 M
Inflexible, 179
Inverness-shire County Council, MacAulay, Rev Kenneth, 45, 5 6,
117 102
Inverness-shire Education Auth· MacBrayne, David, Ltd, 87
ority, 64 MacCrimmon (surname), 29
Iron Duke, 154 MacCulloch, John, 19, 84, 132,
140, 141
MacDonald (surname), 29
J MacDonald of Sleat, 103
MacDonald, Rev John, 45
Janet Cowan, 104 MacDonald, Malcolm, 133-5
Jeffs, J. G., 118 MacGeoch, James, 160
John, Lord of the Isles, 103 MacKay (surname), 29
Johnson, Dr Samuel, 60 MacKay, lain, 146, 147
Johnston, Tom, MP, 6 5 , 114 et MacKay, Rev John, 46-7
seq. MacKay, Murdoch, 133-5
217
INDEX
MacKenzie, Sir George, 130, Muir, T. S., 146, 147, 153, 155
141 Munro, Rev Dugald, 115
MacKenzie, Rev Neil, 30, 34,
37, 45-6, 48, 49, 58, 66, 76
MacKinnon (surname), 29 N
MacLean, Lachlan, 44, 111
MacLeod (surname), 29 National Nature Reserve, 160
MacLeod, MacLeod of, 25, 40, National Trust for Scotland, 24,
41, 73, 103 96
MacLeod, Captain Alexander, Nature Conservancy, 24, 25, 195
103 Ness, 157 et seq.
MacLeod, Donald, 132 Norse, legend 52; influence, 127,
MacLeod, Sir Reginald, 103 159; placenames, 177, 196,
MacQueen (surname), 28, 29 197
MacQueen, Rev Allan, 178 North Rona, 53, 122, 121-150;
MacQueen, Christine, 120 church, 54, 147, 147-50; diet,
Mallet, David, 111 129-30; Fianuis, 71, 121;
Manx shearwaters, 194 guillemots, 72; houses, 54,
Marram grass, 175 146; language, 140; National
Marriage, 48-9 Nature Reserve, 160; natural
Martin, Martin, 30, 66, 74, 77, history, 123, 185, 186; offered
99, 100, 136, 166, 180 as penal settlement, 132;
Matheson, Sir James, 132 placenames, 197, 198-9; pro
Mayflower, 160 duce, 129; Ronan, 124; seals,
McCullum, Orme & Co Ltd., 87 89, 195; village, 146; west
Ministry of Defence, 17, 25 cliffs, 71, 72
Monach Isles, 144, 175-80, 176; North Uist, 28, 175
church, 179; crofts, 178; ferry
ing cattle, 144; land use, 178;
lighthouse, 179; monastery, 0
177; nunnery, 177; owner
ship, 177; placenames, 200; Oats, 80, 130, 132
plant life, 175; population, Orde, lain P., 177
178; Post Office, 179; school, Oseval, 21, 189
179; schoolhouse, 144
Monro, Donald, 44, 109, 128,
155, 165, 177, 180 p
Moray, Sir Robert, 24
Morison (surname), 29 'Parliament' (St Kilda), 43, 77,
Morison, Rev Daniel, 136 78
Morison, John, 166 Pastimes, 50-1
218
INDEX
Peti Dubrovacki, 104 112-20; Feast Days, 57-8;

Placenames, 196-200 first settlement, 100; house
Poetry (St Kilda), 59-62 furnishings, 37; housing, 18,
Pole Star, 163, 172 32-7, 33, 82; illegitimate
Pomfret, Lieut-Comdr A. A., birth, 30; imports, 73,
118 exports, 73-4; Lady Grange,
Porcupine, 84 105, 104-9; laws, 43; live
Post Office (Monach), 179; (St stock, 82; marriage, 48-9;
Kilda), 95-6, 115 medical services, 65-9, 115;
Potato, 80 natural history, 187-95;
Pride of Lionel, 159 ownership, 40-3; 'Parliament',
Protection of Wild Birds Act, 43, 77, 78; physiology, 76;
158 pier, 25, 98; placenames, 197,
Puffin, 76, 78, 193, 194 198; poetry, 59-62; popula
tion, 26-8, 27; Post Office,
95-6, 115, 189 ; produce, 70;
R rent, 73; school, 63-5; second
sight, 58; sex differentiation,
Ramsay, T. B. W., MP, 113 28; speech, 32; stamps, 96;
Razorbill, 76, 194 stones, 55-7; surnames, 29;
Rent (St Kilda), 73 village, 17, 37, 98; wells, 57;
Roareim, 161 tourists, 86-92
Rocket-firing base, 25 St Ronan, 123-4, 146, 153
Ronan, 124 Sands, John, 39, 46, 47, 84, 92
Ross, Alexander, 88 School (Monach), 144, 1 79; (St
Ross, John, 43, 91 Kilda) 63-5
Sco, 159
Scott, Prof W. R., 93
Scottish Office, 118
s
Seals, 89, 123, 181, 195
Second sight (St Kilda), 58
St Kilda, 20, 36, 53, 19-120;
Selfridge, H. Gordon, 97
agriculture, 79-82; breach of
Seton, George, 46
promise, 49; characteristics of
Seven Hunters, see Flannan
natives, 29; churches, 44-50,
99; clothing, 38-9; cloth Isles
making, 92-4; communica Sgarbhastac, 23

tions, 95-7; death, 49-50; Sgeir Righinn, 161
diet, 85-6; dividing fulmar Sgeir Toman, 161
catch, 18, 41-2; domestic Sgoth, 159
economy, 84-6; education, Shiantelle, 155
63-5; evacuation, 25, 35, Shivinish, 175
219
INDEX
Sillay, 175, 179 T

Skiopageo, 170-1
Smallpox, 26, 28, 66 Taylor, John, 158
Soay, 24, 103, 197 Tetanus infantus, 68-9
Soay sheep,92, 190-2 The Scotsman, 98, 114
Soray, 161 The Times, 158
South Uist, 25 Thomas, Capt, F. W. L., 38
SSPCK, 45, 63 Thomson, James, 110
Stac an Armin, 19, 67, 75 Toa Rona, 53, 121
Stac na Biorrach, 24 Tobar Childa,100, 101
Stac Dona, 24 Toombs, Jennifer, 96
Stac Lee, 19, 22,53, 75 Tourists (St Kilda), 86-92
Stac Levenish, 19, 22 Tunnel Cave, 121
Staller's House, 102-3 Turner, Dr, 69
Stevenson, D. & C., 163
Stevenson, R. L., 163
Stewart, Malcolm,145, 156
Stogay, 175 v
Stones (in St Kilda folklore),
55-7 Vanstable, 179
Storehouses, 37-8 Vigilant, 134
Storm petrels, 194 Village Bay, St Kilda, 37, 98
Stornoway Gazette, 158 Vulcan, 87
Stuart, Prince Charles Edward,
154
Sulasgeir, 90
, 107, 121, 12!1,
151-60, 152; Brenhilda, 153; w
chapel, 153; gannet-hunters,
107, 108, 158; gannets, 89, Walker, John, 178
152, 158; National Nature Water-bull, 55
Reserve, 160; natural history, Wells (in St Kilda folklore), 57
151, 185; placenames, 199- Wild Birds Protection Act, 193
200 Wilson, James, 75, 80
Svensson, Roland, 14 Wireless transmitter (St Kilda),
Swinburne,John, 154 97
220

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ST.

New York · Washington

Published in the United States of America m 1970

© 1970 in London, England, by Francis Thompson

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced,

Library of Con gress Catalog Card N u m b e r : 76-112024

Printed in Great Britain

Rona, Ewan, Fay and Eilidh,

1 St Kilda: Island and Society 19

Eilean Mor, Flannan Isles (W. R. Aldcbert) . 126

Schoolhouse and cottage, Ceann Ear 144

Sketch map of the Outer Hebrides, showing the positions

support one or more sheep, or which is inhabited by man.' This

who must on the one hand satisfy the dictates of an economically­

His counterpart in many European and Scandinavian countries

The assistance given to outlying islands and isolated com­

Today, in Scotland, more than one hundred islands, once in­

tunities for personal fulfilment which only an island environment

Page 18 : (above) Families outside the houses in Main Street, St Kilda

T of the western extreme of North Uist in the Hebrides.

Sketch map of St Kilda and its satellite islands

St Kilda� Dun, Stac Levenish

t atio n , from the head of which a straight valley runs south­

Nowhere among the Inner Hebrides, not even on the south­

The islet of Dun is a remarkable ro cky ridge which at one

side is steep, green and grassy. Dun is penetr ated by a natural

fr o m St Kilda only by 100 yd or so, landing is extremely diffi cult

Boreray, Stac Lee, Stac an Armin

weather. The coast-line consists of high, black cliffs, many of

ing stones are An Carra, on South Uist; an oriented stone o n

sea rock in existence'. It lies about 600 yd west of Boreray. It is

The Present Day

able state of preservation; in this respect St Kilda is an interesting

bases on which to found new communities and we may well see

The following figures show the decline in the St Kildan popu-

1697 180 1838 92 1884 77 1928 37

The smallpox epidemic in 1730 reduced the population to

to be Archibald (Gillespie) Dhu, who murdered his two legitimate

On another occasion, a visiting boat had no sooner left the

He was astonished at the length of the voyage, and of the

first being cut, and afterwards sewn, was no small wonder to

ll ouses and Store-houses

of it was sloping ground. It had, however, two fertile glens, fresh

Typical layout of an old St Kilda cottage c 1850

They consisted of stone-walled pits with compartments. The

severely limited by the builder's skill in corbelling the walls. Some

constructed of rough stones built without any art, or mortar, save

Another early nineteenth-century description IS contained m

the Notes of the Rev MacKenzie:

Of their most ancient houses several still remain entire.

Soon after the date of this description, the settlement in Village

as they are literally scattered up the slopes of Conachair and stud

Mentioning that this was the construction of 'one of the rudest

simple shoe of folded cow-hide, tanned and softened with native

The St Kildans are warmly clothed, which probably accounts

The St Kildan social organisation was similar to that of that

of property, communal work and the preservation of discipline

In fishing, too, the St Kildans are socialists. As a rule, two

who must on the one hand satisfy the dictates of an economically

The assistance given to outlying islands and isolated com

Today, in Scotland, more than one hundred islands, once in

t atio n , from the head of which a straight valley runs south

Nowhere among the Inner Hebrides, not even on the south

island children went without their books. "Vrote Sands of Mac

however, they separate, and some of those who seemed com

The medical history of St Kilda is full of paradoxes. For in

In 1832 there was an epidemic of cholera, though the popula