Community Chat

[Oznell]

It's summer, so time to think about cool, remote, almost uninhabited islands, ha.

This time-- the St. Kilda Archipelago in the Outer Hebrides, way up, off of northwestern Scotland, but not as north as the Orkneys, etc.

It's a cluster of scenic, cliff-bound islands lashed by the North Atlantic, with Hirta being the largest one.

Even though off the beaten track, it was permanently inhabited for 2000 years.  The last permanent villagers were evacuated in 1930.

But it still hosts military personnel, researchers, and volunteers and others, so, at any given time, it seems that the St. Kilda group of islands does have "residents".  That's somehow reassuring.

The only village on Hirta was called Village Bay.  There's the Manse, the white building below.  It was damaged by a German U-boat in 1918 in World War I, but has been restored.

There's the St. Kilda Church and school room, also still preserved, thankfully--

Interior of church--

Ruins of houses and buildings in Village Bay--

The British Ministry of Defense has built a modern structure, the Accommodation Block, to house personnel.  It's clad in Siberian Larch and planted with St. Kildan grasses on the roof--

It's built low to merge into the landscape and withstand the punishing Atlantic gales--

Outside, the puffins are an endless delight--

So cute!

Such a fascinating, almost forgotten corner of the world.

[Desertdi]

Avalon, Catalina CA is about as far as I'm willing to go.    

[We rescue cats]

Amazing!!!!!!  I would love to visit there!! I always enjoyed visiting off the beaten track locations when I owned the travel agency. . .I even camped on tha Amazon and was one of the first agency groups to visit China when they opened their doors in 1978.

[Oznell]

I love all the different aspects of the St. Kilda archipelago.  Here, rather austere--

....and here, beautiful and limpid--

[Oznell]

Wow, @We rescue cats ,  either of those adventures would be epic-- and you did both!

[Kachina624]

@Oznell.  I saw this picture and read the caption under it and thought, "they really knocked themselves out providing fancy accommodations".  I eventually concluded they were referring to another photo.  I wonder what this rock hut was?

[manny2]

The church and schoolroom are quiet survivors of time. Beautiful!

[Oznell]

Ha, ha, @Kachina624 ,  the British military might be tough on their recruits, but let's hope not THAT tough...

Those little rock structures, which are all over Hirta, are called "cleits" ( sp?) in Gaelic.  They apparantly had multi-uses-- as food pantries, places to store peat, etc.

[nwbabs]

Thank you for sharing this @Oznell. These off the beaten path places are so interesting. Visually and historically. Cheers! 

[Bonkers1]

Not interested but I do love the Puffins.