Tucked away in a remote Scottish archipelago is the remnants of a once-thriving town, abandoned by all its residents. The island of Hirta in the Outer Hebrides was inhabited for 2000 years, but in the 1930s, the last of its residents fled the island due to health concerns.
It’s so remote that it’s frequently left off the map entirely and can only be accessed by boat – when the weather is right. It’s one of 40 islands in the archipelago of St Kilda and is now home to the world’s largest gannet colony and some of the largest colonies of puffins. Back when people still lived on the island, they relied heavily on these birds – not just for food but for trade.
They sold every part of the birds from feather to flesh.
Now, the people have gone but a few military buildings remain dotted about the island, dwarfing the ruins of the traditional stone cottages that would have been home to the residents.
The buildings line what would have once been the main street of Hirta – now only sheep remain.
Life there was incredibly tough, with brutal weather and few resources to cope.
In order to keep warm over the long winters, residents would bring animals inside their primitively built huts and allow the excrement from cows and sheep to act as insulation.
At it’s peak in 1851, Hirta was home to 112 people but this rapidly began to decline over the years.
Medical care was always very limited on the island, and as people began to visit the remote island as tourists, they brought with them unfamiliar diseases that the islanders were ill-equipped to handle.
In the 1930s, after the death of a young woman from appendicitis and pneumonia – something which may have been treatable on the mainland – the residents of Hirta made the tough decision to evacuate the island.
The people were evacuated by ship in August of the same year and taken to mainland Scotland. In step with their local tradition, islanders left behind a plate of oats and an open bible in each home before boarding the ship.
The last remaining former resident of St Kilda, who was eight when the island was evacuated, died in 2016.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
