The Last remaining former resident of St Kilda has died

[The Q]

The Last Remaining Resident of St Kilda has died.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-35985243

Gus am bris an latha

[O'Callaghan]

For a minute I thought you meant the St. Kilda in Australia. I believe they have their own football (soccer) team.

[NPG]

Certainly have to think those who survived on St. Kilda before the evacuation and before 19th century especially must have been a hardy people indeed. I hope to get out to Outer Hebrides on my visit next year, but I'm not sure I'll get as far as Hirta, I can only hope, I guess.

[Downunder Kilt]

For a minute I thought you meant the St. Kilda in Australia. I believe they have their own football (soccer) team.

Yes an Australian Rules football team known as the StKilda Saints, only ever having won one premiership,that being in 1966

[The Q]

So cut off from the world they were , back in earlier times when the British Navy dropped in to see if any Jacobites were there, they knew nothing about it and had no Idea who the King was. It's also reported that when at another time they were questioned about religion " they had very little Religion". ( The view of a post reformation minister)

When I lived in the Outer Hebridies in the 1980s there was a major power failure due to a storm and for a couple of days IF you had a battery radio that would have been the only contact with the outside world, the big bomb could have gone off and we would not have known,,,

[O'Callaghan]

Yes an Australian Rules football team known as the StKilda Saints, only ever having won one premiership,that being in 1966

St Kilda used to be on football pools in England. Beats me why people in England would gamble on an Aussie Rules team, but then some people will gamble on two insects crawling up a wall.

[Mike_Oettle]

Having read that life became unsustainable on Hirta in part because of changes to the structures of the islanders’ homes in the 19th century that rendered them uncomfortable and cold, I feel that they were the victims of an administrative bungle.
I suspect also that their reliance on supplies from elsewhere might have had to do with this diminishment of their traditional lifestyle.
Which goes to make their departure and, finally, the death of Rachel, to be sad indeed.

[The Q]

There were two sets of replacement homes for the people of Hirta.

Originally they lived in what were effectively souterrains, that is stone built homes half sunk into the ground turfed over with the only wood being a door as trees so not grow on Hirta. The door height was less than 3ft you crawled in, beds being alcoves in the stone walls.

These were replaced by the laird, who lived on Skye with "Black houses" the type of house lived in all over the Hebridies at the time, they are full height single story house thatched, but with no windows (or just one very small one) but no Chimney so the inside was always full of smoke hence Black house.

Then a few decades later they were replaced by normal, crofting houses, single story doors and windows built by builders from the mainland. The problem was there was no available paint to maintain the wood work and they used zinc for the roof which was cold and leaked, within 10 years the zinc was covered in tar paper which at least fixed the leaks.

The real reason for the abandonment of St Kilda was depopulation.

In 1727 there had been a smallpox epidemic, the Islanders having been isolated for hundreds if not thousands of years had no immunity the 28 distinct families on the island were cut to just 5.

The population had a terrible survival rate from birth, due to Tetanus (Lockjaw) and poor hygiene. If you did survive that you could expect to live into your 80s!!(if you didn't fall off a cliff).
When a nurse finally arrived on the islands in the 1880s the survival rate for the first week immediately rose from 3% to 30%, ten years later with a tetanus vaccine the islands survival rate became better than mainland inner cities.

But it was too late, in 1852 36 islander left for Australia, the laird tried to dissuade them, but when they still wished to go, he paid some of their expenses.

By that time visiting trawlers and very rich tourists were turning up in sailing and then steam ships, exposing the locals to money and wealth. Education had started and the Islanders were being taught English enabling conversation. In 1914 there was a serious case of influenza and the navy had to be sent in, with doctors and food, only 6 out of around 100 islanders were not bed ridden.

During WW1, the Navy set up on the island meaning regular contact with the outside world. It also meant the new wireless station got bombarded by a German submarine in May 1918.
With the end of WW1 the Navy left and the supply ships stopped and by 1930 with the great depression so did the tourists.
There had been an ever decreasing population as the younger people left to go to the bright lights of the mainland, connecting the Island people with people on the main land.

The islands had gone below the critical mass needed to have a self sustaining population, both in terms of replacing itself and having an economic economy.

So on 29th August 1930 the final 36 People left bringing an end to at least 2000 years of occupation of the islands.

So

[crash]

You know I wouldn't even know about St.Kilda if it weren't for Monty Halls and his series shown on our Knowledge channel. What a story of grit and determination though.

[The Q]

The St Kildans weren't the only people of the isles that evacuated their home islands around that time. People could see the easier life on the main land, the economics of the smaller islands had failed. Today the islands are heavily subsidised by Scotland by the UK and by the EEC, like all remote parts of Europe. The ferries to the islands on the west coast of Scotland receive £90 million subsidy per year, in the last report I could find.
Politically they are also subsidised, like other island groups, the Western Isles has it's own member of parliament for a population of 17,000, whereas the average UK parliamentary constituency is 72,400 in England, 69,000 in Scotland, 66,800 in Northern Ireland and 56,800 in Wales.