St Kilda the Ghost town that was too hard to live in.

Hello All

St Kilda was one of remotest ghost Villages in the British Isles. St Kilda (Scottish Gaelic: Hiort) is an isolated archipelago 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom.

St Kilda was permanently inhabited for at least two millennia, its population probably never exceeding 180 (and certainly no more than 100 after 1851). The entire population was evacuated in 1930 due to the extreme hardship of island life of this remote island.

The predominant theme of life on St Kilda was isolation. When Martin Martin visited the islands in 1697,the only means of making the journey was by open longboat, which could take several days and nights of rowing and sailing across the open ocean and was next to impossible in autumn and winter.

In all seasons, waves up to 12 metres (40 ft) high lash the beach of Village Bay, and even on calmer days landing on the slippery rocks can be hazardous. Cut off by distance and weather, the natives knew little of the rest of the world. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, it was rumoured that Prince Charles Edward Stuart and some of his senior Jacobite aides had escaped to St Kilda.

An expedition was launched, and in due course British soldiers were ferried ashore to Hirta. They found a deserted village, as the St Kildans, fearing pirates, had fled to caves to the west. When the St Kildans were persuaded to come down, the soldiers discovered that the isolated natives knew nothing of the prince and had never heard of King George II either.

The St Kildans were fortunate in some respects, for their isolation spared them some of the evils of life elsewhere. Martin noted in 1697 that the citizens seemed "happier than the generality of mankind" as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty. No resident St Kildan is known to have fought in a war, and in four centuries of history, no serious crime committed by an islander was ever recorded there.

Perhaps there is a lesson for all of us there.

Hardluck.

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Hello Idaho Jones.

As you can see I'm burning the midnight oil again. 

It was a very hard poverty stricken life on this bleak windswept island with lack of medical services. Child mortality rate was very high due to lack of vegetables, the soil on the Island is very poor. Most food was sourced from the sea  and animals such as livestock and bird and bird eggs. By the 1930 the male population fell so low that there was not enough men to fish for food. A series of poor weather conditions made it impossible for the village to survive.

That said with all the hardships the hardy Scottish Gaelic speaking community could not speak English had a very bad time integrating into British Society. They however forged a very strong community spirit which was lost when they moved to the mainland, and even to this day many lamented in heartbreak that they had to leave their island.

Hardluck 

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 Look's likes a hard life but bet the crime rate was zero.

Hardluck been up all night again researching ghost towns. Thanks good stuff.

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Hello all

Thanks for the posts.

Idaho Jones: I always been intrigued with ghost towns the reasons behind why a community has failed. understanding, how social, political,financial, environmental structures work in these communities, may help us understand our own society and parallels we have today.

Seldom: You are right these communities virtually had no crime as they were highly dependent on each other for the basic necessity of survival. there was no leader on the Island as such, vastly different from all the clan system in the rest of Scotland. All the people would gather in the morning and decide as a group what needed to be done for the day. There was no system of money on the island and every islander did their share as did the community as a whole.

Sue: Occupation goes back over 2000 years and how they came to be living on this barren isolated island off the coast of Scotland is a mystery. Their language was Gaelic but different to the Main Landers as it was more Pictish in origin. They lived in odd structures called Cliets, a stone house with a corballed roof.

There was a recording of their language and songs done the 1930's which gives a glimpse into what Scotland may of been like in the 9th century.

Hardluck 

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No crime or war - sounds good to me

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