Overview of St Kilda

St Kilda, comprising the main island of Hirta together with Dun, Soay and Boreray, lies 40 miles (64 km) west northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and 100 miles (160 km) from the Scottish mainland.

This volcanic archipelago provides spectacular landscapes and includes some of the highest cliffs in Europe, which offer a refuge for colonies of rare and endangered bird species. Forming a unique ecosystem, the islands support their own sub-species of wood-mouse and wren, together with the world's largest gannet colony, the largest British colony of fulmars and half of Britain's puffins.

The islands have a great wealth of archaeology, including evidence of Bronze Age occupation and evidence of Viking visits. They are thought to have been more or less continuously occupied for around 2000 years with habitation concentrated at Village Bay and Gleann Mor, although the small area previously cultivated has now reverted to grassland. For much of the last 800 years the islands were owned by the Macleods of Macleod, with two successive settlements being constructed in 1836 and 1865. The inhabitants harvested seabird colonies and grazed up to 2000 sheep. The islands were visited by Martin Martin in 1697. The first tourist ship was the Glen Albyn in 1834, but modern cruise ships now pass regularly and occasionally land.

Following a series of external influences, including disease, malnutrition and emigration of many of the young men, the remaining population were finally evacuated in 1930. The following year the islands became the property of the Marquess of Bute, who maintained them as a wildlife sanctuary.

In 1957, St. Kilda was left to the National Trust for Scotland by John Crichton-Stuart, the 5th Marquess of Bute (1907-56), and is now managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. A small part of Hirta was leased to the Ministry of Defence for the construction of a radar station to monitor the Benbecula missile range to the east. The population today is restricted to transient personnel associated with the radar station, a seasonal warden and occasional visitors and scientific workers with special permission.

Declared a National Nature Reserve (1957), a Site of Special Scientific Interest (1981), a biosphere reserve (1976), the islands were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and designated a Special Protection Area in 1992.