St Kilda is a small archipelago of four islands, the largest of them being Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom. The other three islands Dùn, Soay, and Boreray are used for grazing and seabird hunting. Hirta had been inhabited for more than two millennia but has been abandoned since 1930. The last residents of the island left the traditional Scottish coastal village requesting an evacuation to the mainland. The village bay is now a ghost town left to ruin.
People had inhabited the island for at least 2000 years, maybe more.
They used small boats to move between the islands and there was a thriving communal life. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the islanders left their traditional ways of living and moved to the mainland or other countries for various reasons. The young men of Hirta, for example, lost their lives in World War I, which affected the island directly. The economy and the daily life took a hit. Diseases had followed after the war and the population declined even more.
Eventually, the last 36 islanders asked to be evacuated to the mainland in 1930 to get access to better healthcare and living conditions. The last former resident of St Kilda, which was evacuated when she was 8 years old, died in April 2016.
The islands are a double UNESCO World Heritage Site today, for both cultural and ecological reasons since they also host globally significant bird colonies. Also, the islands are home to Soay sheep, the rarest breed of sheep in the United Kingdom. The National Trust for Scotland owns the entire archipelago now.
