Our intrepid traveller Ian Dunn makes the Island Hopper Scotland team envious with his trip to the idyllic St Kilda.
It’s a long way. Four and a half hours through rough choppy seas in a fast boat. But if your stomach can't stand it, seeing St Kilda rear out of the sea is a truly magnificent sight.
It feels like the end of the earth, and on a clear day, the sky blue and the sea swirling, it’s hard to imagine a more savagely beautiful sight.
Disembarking on the main island of Hirta, it’s easy to see why the only inhabitants are a few hardy military operators of a radar site, and National Trust volunteers who generally stay only for the summer. This is a hard place to live, the rising up off the sea like the land itself has been swept up by the wind.
Despite the remoteness, St Kilda was continuously inhabited for two millennia or more, from the Bronze Age to the 20th century. The last natives left in 1930. The helpful National Trust guides will give you a tour of their abandoned dwellings, many of which have now been restored.
The brutally of their life in winter is hard to imagine, yet somehow the near endless cold and dark did not break the St Kildans'. Though their story is ultimately a troubling and sad one of exploitation.
Yet scrambling up the hill to the sheer cliff ledge on the other side of the island and looking out at the great stacks home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds, it’s hard not to feel in awe at the place – and the people who lived there.
Several tour companies operate trips to St Kilda, these include:
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