A sad anniversary – St. Kilda evacuated 80 years ago today

Hiya

Today is a sad anniversary as it is exactly 80 years ago that the remote island of St. Kilda, a World Heritage Site, was evacuated after about two thousand years of human habitation.
It is a cautionary tale of the nefarious impact of so-called civilisation on a subsistence way of life that had been able to survive the harshest of conditions.
The Last of the St. Kildans (see Sunday Herald, 26 Jun 2005) is a moving account of the last true St. Kildan man's visit to the islands
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20050626/ai_n14694855/pg_2/?tag=content;col1).
It describes how "Every inhabitant was shackled into this cruel economy because in that environment your very survival depended on everyone else. The summers were spent in the dangerous pursuit of the cliff birds. In winter, the inhabitants were cut off from all other communities, with the wind whistling through the roofs and the rain running down the inside walls."
As the Wikipedia article amply describes and illustrates, boats from the mainland brought diseases, among them childhood tetanus and influenza, which decimated the population. The boats also brought tourists and religious zealots that kept the islanders from gathering food to see them through the winter months.
While some aspects of life became easier, illness and hunger drove many St. Kildan's to emigrate. Eventually, on "29 August 1930, the remaining 36 inhabitants were removed to Morvern on the Scottish mainland at their own request."
It was on Iona in 2005 that I first heard of the island when Scottish poet, author and radio presenter Kenneth Steven told us of St. Kilda – the collective name for the four islands of Hoirt, Dun, Soay and Boreray – and the sorry fate of its inhabitants.
I would have liked to go visit but I don't think I will: Having been hailed the Macchu Picchu of the northern Atlantic, St. Kilda finds itself on the eroding path of world tourism and visitor pressure is fast becoming a serious problem.

The Carpow Log Boat

Hello again

It's been a while, sorry. I was in Scotland recently. On my drive back to Glasgow I tuned in to BBC Radio Scotland and heard a very familiar voice, that of the wonderful Scottish poet, Kenneth Steven. He was interviewing an archaeologist about the late-Bronze Age log boat that was found in the River Tay, the so-called Carpow Log Boat, probably some three thousand years old!

More about the boat can be found, among a number of other sites, at:
http://www.stonepages.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1566
and the earlier
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001988.html

Unfortunately, the BBC Radio Scotland website doesn't seem to have the programme online, but there are some audio and video links at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/--> search for "logboat" in BBC Audio & Video