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Hirta (Scottish Gaelic: Hiort) is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The name "Hiort" (in Scottish Gaelic) and "Hirta" (historically in English) have also been applied to the entire archipelago.
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The island measures 3.4 kilometres (2.11 mi) from east to west, and 3.3 kilometres (2.05 mi) from north to south. It has an area of 6.285 square kilometres (2.427 sq mi) and about 15 km (9.3 mi) of coastline. The only real landing place is in the shelter of Village Bay on the south-east side of the island. The island also slopes gently down to the sea at Glen Bay (at the western end of the north coast), but the rocks go straight into the sea at a shallow angle and landing here is not easy if there is any swell at all. Apart from these two places, the cliffs rise sheer out of deep water. However, sea kayakers can also land for a break on a small boulder beach backed by cliffs in the north of the island, just before the north-east side where the highest summit in the island, Conachair, forms a precipice 430 m high (1,410 ft). St Kilda is probably the core of a Tertiary volcano, but, besides volcanic rocks, it contains hills of sandstone in which the stratification is distinct.
Dùn is separated from Hirta by a shallow strait about 50 metres (55 yd) wide. This is normally impassable but is reputed to dry out on rare occasions.[2]
Although the islands had been continuously populated since prehistoric times, the original inhabitants were evacuated in 1930, due to disease and outside influences.[5][6]
Viking burials have been found there. St. Kilda was part of the Lordship of the Isles, then a property of the MacLeods of Dunvegan from 1498 until 1930. There were three chapels on St. Kilda, dedicated to St Brendan, St Columba, and Christ Church, but little remains. There are also the remains of a beehive house, known as the 'Amazon's House'.
The islanders had a tough life, and survived by exploiting the thousands of sea birds which live on the islands. There are a large number of 'cleits', huts used for storing dried sea birds, fish, hay and turf. The islanders had a very democratic system, and decisions were taken by an island council, made up of all the menfolk. The present village was set out in the 1830s above village bay, but in the 1880s some of the population left for Australia, and the remaining inhabitants were finally evacuated in the 1930s because of hardship and storms which had cut off the islands for weeks.
The island was bequeathed to The National Trust for Scotland in 1957 and was designated as Scotland's first World Heritage Site in 1987. It is possible to visit the island. The Ministry of Defence established a base on Hirta for tracking missiles fired from the station on South Uist. [7]
Hirta is surrounded by a number of small stacks. Bradastac, Mina Stac and Sgeir Domhnuill lie under the cliffs of Conachair to the east and Sgeir nan Sgarbh further south under the heights of Osieval. An Torc is west of Ruabhal and Sgeir Mhòr is further north under Mullach Bi.
There are also various large stacks in the narrow strait between Hirta and Soay - Stac Dona, Stac Soay and Stac Biorach.
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