Albion
04-24-2011, 07:28 PM
http://www.kilda.org.uk/images/kilda_home_main_map.jpg
http://www.wild-scotland.org.uk/cmsimages/Stac%20Lee_245.JPG
http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/image/x/88/
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Dun%2C_St_Kilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Featherstorestkilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/St_Kilda-2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Boreray_and_the_Stacs.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Gun_D%C3%B9n_St_Kilda.jpg/800px-Gun_D%C3%B9n_St_Kilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Cleit_above_Village_Bay.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ropingpeg.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/The_Street.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Saint_Kilda_20090611_Hirta_-_Village_Bay_overview.jpg
St Kilda is a collection of islands off the west coast of Scotland. St Kilda has some very interesting history, geography and fauna and is the location of the highest sea cliffs in the UK.
The islands have been inhabited for 2000 years until being evacuated in 1930. The islands have never had a population exceeding 180 persons and the isolation of the place enabled some unique cultural quirks to develop.
Today only a handful of conservationists and scientists inhabit the islands along with a small military garrison.
St Kilda is a rich habitat for sea birds and numerous pairs breed on its cliffs. These birds were a source of food for the St Kildans who scaled the cliffs in search of the eggs.
Two endemic species to St Kilda are the St Kilda wren and the St Kilda field mouse.
Way of life: (from Wikipedia)
The predominant theme of life on St Kilda was isolation. When Martin Martin visited the islands in 1697, the only means of making the journey was by open longboat, which could take several days and nights of rowing and sailing across the open ocean and was next to impossible in autumn and winter. In all seasons, waves up to 12 metres (39 ft) high lash the beach of Village Bay, and even on calmer days landing on the slippery rocks can be hazardous. Cut off by distance and weather, the natives knew little of the rest of the world. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, it was rumoured that Prince Charles Edward Stuart and some of his senior Jacobite aides had escaped to St Kilda. An expedition was launched, and in due course British soldiers were ferried ashore to Hirta. They found a deserted village, as the St Kildans, fearing pirates, had fled to caves to the west. When the St Kildans were persuaded to come down, the soldiers discovered that the isolated natives knew nothing of the prince and had never heard of King George II either.
Even in the late 19th century, the islanders could communicate with the rest of the world only by lighting a bonfire on the summit of Conachair and hoping a passing ship might see it, or by using the "St Kilda mailboat". The mailboat was the invention of John Sands, who visited in 1877. During his stay, a shipwreck left nine Austrian sailors marooned there, and by February supplies were running low. Sands attached a message to a lifebuoy salvaged from the Peti Dubrovacki and threw it into the sea.[52] Nine days later it was picked up in Birsay, Orkney and a rescue was arranged. The St Kildans, building on this idea, fashioned a piece of wood into the shape of a boat, attached it to a bladder made of sheepskin, and placed in it a small bottle or tin containing a message. Launched when the wind came from the north-west, two-thirds of the messages were later found on the west coast of Scotland or, less conveniently, in Norway.
Another significant feature of St Kildan life was the diet. The islanders kept sheep and a few cattle and were able to grow a limited amount of food crops such as barley and potatoes on the better-drained land in Village Bay. Samuel Johnson reported that in the 18th century sheep's milk was made "into small cheeses" by the St Kildans. They generally eschewed fishing because of the heavy seas and unpredictable weather. The mainstay of their food supplies was the profusion of island birds, especially gannet and fulmar. These they harvested as eggs and young birds and ate both fresh and cured. Adult puffins were also caught by the use of fowling rods. However, this feature of island life came at a price. When Henry Brougham visited in 1799 he noted that "the air is infected by a stench almost insupportable – a compound of rotten fish, filth of all sorts and stinking seafowl". An excavation of the Taigh an t-Sithiche (the "house of the faeries" – see below) in 1877 by Sands unearthed the remains of gannet, sheep, cattle and limpets amidst various stone tools. The building is between 1,700 and 2,500 years old, which suggests that the St Kildan diet had changed little over the millennia. Indeed the tools were recognised by the St Kildans, who could put names to them as similar devices were still in use.
These fowling activities involved considerable skills in climbing, especially on the precipitous sea stacks. An important island tradition involved the 'Mistress Stone', a door-shaped opening in the rocks north-west of Ruival over-hanging a gully.
Whatever the privations, the St Kildans were fortunate in some respects, for their isolation spared them some of the evils of life elsewhere. Martin noted in 1697 that the citizens seemed "happier than the generality of mankind as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty", and in the 19th century their health and well being was contrasted favourably with conditions elsewhere in the Hebrides. Theirs was not a utopian society; the islanders had ingenious wooden locks for their property, and financial penalties were exacted for misdemeanours. Nonetheless, no resident St Kildan is known to have fought in a war, and in four centuries of history, no serious crime committed by an islander was recorded there.
Read more... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland)
http://www.wild-scotland.org.uk/cmsimages/Stac%20Lee_245.JPG
http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/image/x/88/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Inselsoay.JPG/800px-Inselsoay.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Dun%2C_St_Kilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Featherstorestkilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/St_Kilda-2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Boreray_and_the_Stacs.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Gun_D%C3%B9n_St_Kilda.jpg/800px-Gun_D%C3%B9n_St_Kilda.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Cleit_above_Village_Bay.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ropingpeg.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/The_Street.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Saint_Kilda_20090611_Hirta_-_Village_Bay_overview.jpg
St Kilda is a collection of islands off the west coast of Scotland. St Kilda has some very interesting history, geography and fauna and is the location of the highest sea cliffs in the UK.
The islands have been inhabited for 2000 years until being evacuated in 1930. The islands have never had a population exceeding 180 persons and the isolation of the place enabled some unique cultural quirks to develop.
Today only a handful of conservationists and scientists inhabit the islands along with a small military garrison.
St Kilda is a rich habitat for sea birds and numerous pairs breed on its cliffs. These birds were a source of food for the St Kildans who scaled the cliffs in search of the eggs.
Two endemic species to St Kilda are the St Kilda wren and the St Kilda field mouse.
Way of life: (from Wikipedia)
The predominant theme of life on St Kilda was isolation. When Martin Martin visited the islands in 1697, the only means of making the journey was by open longboat, which could take several days and nights of rowing and sailing across the open ocean and was next to impossible in autumn and winter. In all seasons, waves up to 12 metres (39 ft) high lash the beach of Village Bay, and even on calmer days landing on the slippery rocks can be hazardous. Cut off by distance and weather, the natives knew little of the rest of the world. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, it was rumoured that Prince Charles Edward Stuart and some of his senior Jacobite aides had escaped to St Kilda. An expedition was launched, and in due course British soldiers were ferried ashore to Hirta. They found a deserted village, as the St Kildans, fearing pirates, had fled to caves to the west. When the St Kildans were persuaded to come down, the soldiers discovered that the isolated natives knew nothing of the prince and had never heard of King George II either.
Even in the late 19th century, the islanders could communicate with the rest of the world only by lighting a bonfire on the summit of Conachair and hoping a passing ship might see it, or by using the "St Kilda mailboat". The mailboat was the invention of John Sands, who visited in 1877. During his stay, a shipwreck left nine Austrian sailors marooned there, and by February supplies were running low. Sands attached a message to a lifebuoy salvaged from the Peti Dubrovacki and threw it into the sea.[52] Nine days later it was picked up in Birsay, Orkney and a rescue was arranged. The St Kildans, building on this idea, fashioned a piece of wood into the shape of a boat, attached it to a bladder made of sheepskin, and placed in it a small bottle or tin containing a message. Launched when the wind came from the north-west, two-thirds of the messages were later found on the west coast of Scotland or, less conveniently, in Norway.
Another significant feature of St Kildan life was the diet. The islanders kept sheep and a few cattle and were able to grow a limited amount of food crops such as barley and potatoes on the better-drained land in Village Bay. Samuel Johnson reported that in the 18th century sheep's milk was made "into small cheeses" by the St Kildans. They generally eschewed fishing because of the heavy seas and unpredictable weather. The mainstay of their food supplies was the profusion of island birds, especially gannet and fulmar. These they harvested as eggs and young birds and ate both fresh and cured. Adult puffins were also caught by the use of fowling rods. However, this feature of island life came at a price. When Henry Brougham visited in 1799 he noted that "the air is infected by a stench almost insupportable – a compound of rotten fish, filth of all sorts and stinking seafowl". An excavation of the Taigh an t-Sithiche (the "house of the faeries" – see below) in 1877 by Sands unearthed the remains of gannet, sheep, cattle and limpets amidst various stone tools. The building is between 1,700 and 2,500 years old, which suggests that the St Kildan diet had changed little over the millennia. Indeed the tools were recognised by the St Kildans, who could put names to them as similar devices were still in use.
These fowling activities involved considerable skills in climbing, especially on the precipitous sea stacks. An important island tradition involved the 'Mistress Stone', a door-shaped opening in the rocks north-west of Ruival over-hanging a gully.
Whatever the privations, the St Kildans were fortunate in some respects, for their isolation spared them some of the evils of life elsewhere. Martin noted in 1697 that the citizens seemed "happier than the generality of mankind as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty", and in the 19th century their health and well being was contrasted favourably with conditions elsewhere in the Hebrides. Theirs was not a utopian society; the islanders had ingenious wooden locks for their property, and financial penalties were exacted for misdemeanours. Nonetheless, no resident St Kildan is known to have fought in a war, and in four centuries of history, no serious crime committed by an islander was recorded there.
Read more... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland)