Tomorrow marks the 90th anniversary of the evacuation of St Kilda, when the remaining 36 inhabitants left the island archipelago for the last time. This film was made two days before the evacuation and shows the islanders preparing to leave > https://movingimage-onsite.nls.uk/film/0793?search_term=st%20kilda&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes

Archaeological evidence shows that people had lived on St Kilda for over two thousand years but, by the early years of the 20th century, life had become too difficult to sustain. In 1930, the islanders wrote a letter petitioning for help to leave and settle on the mainland.

The spectacular and remote island archipelago known as St Kilda is made up of Soay, Boreray and the main island, Hirta. It lies out in the windswept Atlantic, one hundred miles from the Scottish mainland.

Plan of St Kilda, att. Robert Stevenson, (c.1818)

A unique aspect of life on St Kilda was that islanders subsisted on the tens of thousands of seabirds that returned each year to breed on the islands. The birds were used for food, clothing and oil and were collected by 'cragsmen' as seen in 'St. Kilda' by Norman Heathcote (1900)

Today, St Kilda is rich in wildlife and is home to nearly a million seabirds, including the largest colony of Atlantic puffins in the UK. This film clip from 1967 explores some of the bird and animal life on the archipelago > https://movingimage-onsite.nls.uk/film/0911?search_term=st%20kilda&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes @nlskelvinhall

Life on St Kilda never allowed much time for leisure. Alongside housework, the women were responsible for fetching water and carrying fuel and provisions from supply boats. In summer, they walked twice a day to milk the cows and ewes, sometimes knitting as they went.

Photo taken c 1860s-1880s by George Washington Wilson in the MacKinnon Collection, jointly held with our friends @NatGalleriesSco

In 1986, St Kilda became one of Scotland’s six World Heritage Sites, and is one of the few in the world to hold mixed status for both its natural and cultural qualities.

(As above, image taken c 1860s-1880s by George Washington Wilson in the Mackinnon Collection).

This film from @nlskelvinhall shows daily life on St Kilda in the 1920s. It was added to the Unesco Memory of the World register in 2010 > https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/0418?search_term=britain%27s%20loneliest%20isle&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes

Thanks for reading our St Kilda thread ahead of tomorrow's anniversary.