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Caption: St Kilda Spring 2016
Caption: The archipelago of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, lies 41 miles (66 kilometres) west of Benbecula in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.
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Caption: The village remains..
Caption: St Kilda was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1986 in recognition of its Natural Heritage; for its exceptional natural beauty and for the significant natural habitats that it supports
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Caption: The St Kildans lived in a village on the main island, Hirta, and it was rebuilt on different sites on several occasions.
We know little about the early St Kildan dwellings. There are remains of early stone-built corbelled structures.
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Caption: Village church
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Caption: Village school
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Caption: Martin Martin wrote in 1697 that the houses were:
"low-built, of Stone, and a Cement of dry Earth; they have Couples and Ribs of Woodcover'd with thin earthen Turff, thatch'd over these with Straw and the Roof secur'd on each side with double Ropes of Straw or Heath, pois'd at the end with many Stones: their Beds are commonly made in the Wallof their Housesβ¦.to make room for their Cows which they take in during the Winter and Spring."
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Caption: In recent years DNA (deoxyribo-nucleic acid) has been extracted from blood or tissue samples taken from over 1000 individual Soay sheep on St Kilda. This has enabled researchers to compare the genetic make-up of the sheep with the number of parasites the sheep carry and their survival rate. It also shows which rams fathered which lambs. Most Soay rams father only one or two lambs, but 'Old Green 23' had 27 lambs. A super ram!
Caption: Soay sheep, from the island of Soay, are a unique survival of primitive breeds dating back to the Bronze Age
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Caption: St Kilda has one of the most extensive groups of vernacular building remains in Britain. The layout of the 19th-century village remains to this day, and over 1,400 stone-built cleitean for storing food and fuel are scattered all over the islands, and even on the sea stacs
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Caption: St Kilda has the largest colony of fulmars in the British Isles β nearly 65,000 in 1999
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Caption: Seabirds formed a major part of the St Kildan diet, especially gannets, fulmars and puffins. At one time it was estimated that each person on St Kilda ate 115 fulmars every year. In 1876 it was said that the islanders took 89,600 puffins for food and feathers
The St Kildans used to eat puffins for a snack β just like a packet of crisps!
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