St. Kilda

St. Kilda

St Kilda is a world heritage site which is the only one in the UK which holds dual status for being both a natural and cultural heritage site. It is an isolated Scottish archipelago situated far to the west of the Isle of Benbecula (an island in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides). St Kilda consists of four islands (Hirta, Dùn, Soay and Boreray) and some of the UK’s highest sea stacks Stac Lee (172m) and Stac an Armin (196m). The nature of St Kilda is incredible as it is home to rare animals such as the wren and almost one million seabirds and houses the UK’s largest colony of Atlantic Puffins. Additionally, the world’s largest colony of gannets nests on Boreray and the sea stacks. St Kilda has a rich cultural history which should be preserved. As St Kilda is incredibly isolated, it is impressive that a community existed and thrived here for at least 4,000 years. Locals had to climb and hunt on the high sea stacks to procure gannets, fulmars and puffins for food. Eventually, much of the population started to leave the island, perhaps because life was easier on mainland. In 1930, the remaining 36 islanders were evacuated as they had requested the government to evacuate them as their way of life on St Kilda was no longer sustainable.

wordlheritage2022

lj77

Site

455

21/04/2022

05/03/2022 11:42:02 am

https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/st-kilda

cm x cm x cm

https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/st-kilda

current,57.83451713056898,-8.534728987142445;

St. Kilda

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Archaeological

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