Scotland | St Kilda | interviews with islanders | Documentary Report | 1972

The cameras of Thames Television visit the remote archipelago of St Kilda that once was the home to a remote Scottish community. With exclusive interviews of former inhabitants of the island, we get a glimpse of what life was like for those living on such a remote island. First broadcast 04/04/1972
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Quote: VT 60265

[@HarryFlashmanVC]

It does us islanders good to remeber that we are an indigenous people with our own culture, our own tales and our own songs. We'vw been hwre since the ice retreated making our lives at the edge of the world. We don't see ourselves as superior to anyone but we have a culture and we want ro celebrate and remember.

[@annedavies2885]

Yes indeed. Good for you. Make sure you pass it on. This is very important 👍

[@Serenity07-10]

A very proud heritage ! Be proud of it!!

[@Beans999999]

I celebrated my 21st birthday on this island (1959) as a member of the Royal Signals attachment. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. I hope I can revisit one day.

[@alanroberts4060]

did you re visit

[@ianaddie7779]

www.gotostkilda.co.uk/tours/day-trip-skye-to-st-kilda/

[@thursoberwick1948]

Pity about the ethnic cleansing though.

[@Beans999999]

@@alanroberts4060 Not so far. I live in Australia & had it all planned to visit UK in 2020 but COVID stopped it. Health issues not likely to see it happening now,

[@crossleydd42]

@@thursoberwick1948 What ethnic cleansing? The folk living there asked, in 1930, to be relocated on the mainland, as they few who'd not already left voluntarily were no longer able to survive using traditional methods.

[@Carlton235]

A wonderful piece of history. My father, a radio operator on Fleetwood trawlers in the 1920s, would call at St Kilda. In February 1928, whilst serving on the ST Cuirass, he responded to a distress call from the steam trawler Briarlyn which had run aground off North Bay, Hirta, in bad weather. Four men were rescued, but sadly eight were lost without trace.

[@ColinMill1]

Very moving and, with the passing of the last St Kildan, Rachel Johnson, last year, this first-hand verbal history becomes even more important as a link to a time & place now so very much lost to us.

[@maaan8494]

The stories of how the inhabitants climbed the stacks to collect birds were insane. I went to St. Kilda recently and saw those stacks and trust me some of them are like 400 m high

[@puppy1584]

I’ve just finished reading two novels by Karen Swan, The Last Summer, and Few Stolen Hours. She painted a remarkable picture of these islands during the time of the evacuation. So now I have to read all I can about these people…

[@megvander2231]

Yes me too, they are great and very interesting reads

[@noble103]

this brought tears to my eyes watching this much respect to the people of St Kilda

[@fojnica2226]

i m croatian and far away from st kilda and i think like you....sad

[@KrisHughes]

Thanks for uploading this. I would also love to see the full, original film!

[@fojnica2226]

nice and sad story...like to visit this place....greetings from croatia

[@musicloverlondon6070]

Love the song at 5.18. It seems to emulate the actions and song of birds in the rise and fall melody and the little upward sweeps and darting high notes. I'm assuming it's Gaelic and the subject matter is birds since it's played on the segment of film dealing with the fulmers but I defer to someone who has a greater knowledge of the language/song. The song at 2.30 was powerful too. Great documentary. Thank you for posting.

[@joshuatabh]

The song at 5:18 is Gaelic, yes. The title is “Hion dail-a horo hi” by Joan Mackenzie 😊

[@Libruhh]

Such a shame they didn’t get to ever go back, and the man who said that they should have received government assistance instead of the evacuation was honestly right. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to transition from a centuries old lifestyle to 1930s Britain

[@erynn9968]

They couldn’t grow their own food due to land poisoning. Neither could they earn their living normally as the rest of Britain. So what do you mean by gov assistance? Getting everything for free? No man only animals in the zoo get this honour.

[@sophiabreidfischer6242]

Yes if only they couldve gotten help with their struggles. Twas a beautiful way of life

[@HarryFlashmanVC]

The reality was that the landlords the Macleods of Harris had been supporting the island for a long time by the 1930s. Much of the economic damage was caused by a smallpox outbreak in the 1730s that killed 80% of rhe population. The Rev John Mackay who was Minister from 1865 for 24 years was the final nail in the coffin of self sufficiency, his miserable joyless tyranny enforced the Sabbath from Friday sunset till Monday morning. The islands could not afford to lose 1 day of 7 let alone 2 so balanced was the calorific equation. This and the tourists who visited in the 19th C taking tetanus infantum with them saw infant mortality reach 80% in the 1880s. No community could survive all this... the islands were evacuated in 1930 but MacKay killed the way of life in 1864

[@asbjrnpoulsen9205]

werry sad i come from faroe islands my grandad told me storys abouth st kilda he loved the island its a hard like to live on small remote islands they did live in the same way they live in my country of the birds and wath sea can give harvesting nature in a sustainable way here they shared eggs and birds with the people ther cud noth go and harvest sad to se its abandoned the bigg mineland wanth to own us buth noth help us

[@elsizzle2000]

What language you speaking?

[@dmreid9620]

@@elsizzle2000 He is speaking English very well. He can also speak fluent Faroese which is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Keep you mouth shut elsizzel

[@livingalpujarras]

As a Sailor, I remember once it was a nightmare in August to sail to Harris, think about 110 miles of open Atlantic, these are some hardy people.

[@lisahaganLFC]

Would love to go one day, me fella is a Norwegian, and ive been many times over in Norway with him this do look abit the same and it looks lovely... ruff in the winter time doh, same as Norway is out by the sea country side where me fella grew up...we live in Liverpool now.

[@TheVote2010]

God bless the people of st Kilda. A lost generation.

[@sleepvertigo]

Thank you very much for uploading this.

[@janesmith3287]

I watched it in 1972 so was glad to see it again.

[@thayouth]

Thanks so much for uploading this!

[@Temptation666]

I saw someone in another newer video of St Kilda saying the last evacuate is now dead 😭 So this is the voices of historie. I hope the master tape is vel taken care of.

[@mrmensa1096]

Comment in this video said - Very moving and, with the passing of the last St Kildan, Rachel Johnson, last year, this first-hand verbal history becomes even more important as a link to a time & place now so very much lost to us.

[@Temptation666]

@@mrmensa1096 oh i must have been distracted. thank you

[@GCStalker]

It's some place. Have visited twice. Felt I didn't want to leave but it would have been a long Winter.

[@1258-Eckhart]

I wouldn't fancy abseiling down the cliffs to catch fulmers for food.

[@kevinadamson5768]

These were a tough breed of people to live in such harsh conditions without electricity or running water or any other creature comforts we take for granted today.

[@grandslam1998]

Very interesting and moving.

[@TheAnn2shoes]

The islanders accents are fascinating, because we know that English wasn't their first language.

[@krisanderson5636]

I know a Hebridean that speaks Scots Gaelic as his native language. He learnt English in school. These people still exist, they just don't live on the most remote islands.

[@theant9821]

It sounds like a blend of Scottish and Irish accent hearing them speak English. I've always wondered how language in such an isolated community evolved differently from the languages similar to it.

[@hypercomms2001]

St Kilda is remembered in Melbourne Australia.

[@hypercomms2001]

There is a suburb and an. AFL football team named after St Kilda.

[@maaan8494]

That's because a load of them emigrated to there in the 19th century

[@hypercomms2001]

@@maaan8494 No, it was named after a bost….”The Lady of St Kilda”…stkildamelbourne.com.au/about-st-kilda/

[@trickiewoowoo]

it was.......a far better place. well done! well done!

[@sirvidia]

A beautiful film, thank you for uploading it. I wonder what the music was

[@Beans999999]

Just watched the video to the end & interested to see the mail drop. During my time on the island we relied on the fishing trawlers bringing the mail out. My mailing address was: R.A.G.W.R. Det., St Kilda, ℅ Boston Deep Sea Fisheries, PO Box 99, Dock Street, Fleetwood, Lancs. The trawler could arrive at any time of the day or night. No one minded the blaring klaxon wake up in the middle of the night as the designated crew rushed down to the jetty to launch the boat. They came back with mail & fish galore! Afterwards I think some were issued with a tot of rum. I loved my time on the island (2 x 3 months stints), loved the weather & walking the hills. Only wish I'd had a colour camera at the time.

[@spangol87]

When was it you did the stints?

[@rianconnolly7033]

It's hard to imagine that people once lived here and it's so sad

[@nicosoup]

Not sure if it is so sad that they lived there.. more like it was sad that the rest of society would not accept them and evacuated them and made them abandon their way of life. By most accounts, the islanders were happier there.

[@alicemilne1444]

@@nicosoup That is not the case. It was nothing to do with the rest of society not wanting to accept them. It was the islanders themselves who asked to be evacuated in 1930. This was because the community had become too small to be self-sufficient because of the constant trickle of emigration throughout the preceding 80 years. By 1930 there were only 36 islanders left and very few of them were children or men of an age to continue the traditional birdcatching and sheepshearing activities. I've been to St Kilda, it's 110 miles away from the mainland. Incredibly remote. The only contact they had was summer tourists and the occasional trawler.

[@ClarenceCochran-ne7du]

So many young people and whole families had left the archipelago during the last 30 to 40 years they were there, that their life was no longer sustainable. Climbing those cliffs is not a job for weens and elderly. Contact with the outside world really doomed the settlement. That's a sad fact that's been repeated around the world whenever a primitive (in our eyes) culture has been discovered. Contact changes the culture, no matter the good intentions. One of the Pipers for the Scottish Folk band, the Tannahill Weavers, wrote a beautiful lament in memory of the St. Kildans. It's entitled "Leaving St. Kilda." It will bring tears to your eyes.

[@GetLostForeverWithMe]

My right ear loved this

[@CancerGaming56]

Left ear for me lol

[@3000waterman]

A very interesting documentary. Alas, it's peppered with ads. An ad or two would be fine, but the sheer number of ads in this is just greedy.

[@COIcultist]

Ad block is your friend. KZbin is demonetising content creators, demonetise KZbin.

[@giuseppenero110]

@@COIcultist Surprised that everybody hasn't heard of it

[@tosgem]

I hope they preserved the names of the houses and places on the island from those people. They would have known which family lived in each house and they would have had names for many parts of the island to say "I'm going up to xxx" I would love to know that.

[@snipper1ie]

It's funny that I read this tonight, as I have just e-mailed a map, showing all the houses and who lived where, of Inishtrahull Island, off the North of Malin Head, to a friend.

[@thursoberwick1948]

The local Gaelic dialect was murdered.

[@Dr.Gunsmith]

It's a shame they all left,they should of been giving help from the government and others to keep there heritage alive.

[@paulyrussell1585]

@Lord Rupert Yes, 150 crofters living a life of subsistence by utilising every part of a wild bird for all their needs, from lighting, to warmth, to food, for centuries, is really something the be unhappy about. What happens on the big island, with the 60 million people on it 100 miles away in terms of factory farming and coal powered power stations needn't worry us too much, the fulmers are at peace. I can see why you are happy about it.

[@Songbirdstress]

It wasn't possible. If you read the beautiful book, life was so difficult there, they had developed a truly communist lifestyle. However at a certain point all the children started dying., no-one knows why and the population could no longer do the hard physical work survival demanded. One thing they did was climb the cliffs barefoot to collect eggs and feathers to sell. It's impossible to accede to Hirta by boat a lot of the year, so sometimes they literally starved. A very beautiful place, but hard for humans.

[@thursoberwick1948]

The government did this so they could have a military base.

[@erynn9968]

We have better places to spend our taxes on

[@thursoberwick1948]

@@erynn9968 Tax was spent on ethnically cleansing the island, and now costs more money than it ever did while it had a native population.

[@giuseppenero110]

At the first sight of an automobile, they ran as fast as they could...wow

[@koosriedijk3872]

From 5.18 min onwards you hear the "St. Kilda Bird Song", I have it on record, shall look for the singer later.

[@sofiavelasco4978]

A great pity the names of the islanders are not featured. Nurse Williamina Barclay in her olde age is clearly recognisable but the others? I went to St Kilda in 2017 after 30 years wanting to do so and when you have read everything you can about it, you are familiar with its inhabitants. I miss the names

[@sophiabreidfischer6242]

Wow that mustve been a fascinating trip to go there!

[@stevenmilne5744]

I’m sure the lady weaving in the 1928 film of the occupants of the island is the same lady speaking at 1.18 in this piece of film what do you think?

[@elliegreen4738]

Steven Milne Yes! I recognised her too.

[@funktopp]

oh my, this is a moving film. about folk's like the pep's back home on Fugloy back in the day can someone please tell me what the song name of the Church scene ? 02:30 in the film, thank you

[@TGcomments]

I've heard this kind of singing before. I think it's referred to as surge song, however when I google it I get virtually zero results so it might have another name. I think the song is for a congretation that doesn't have hymn books or sheets or can't read. The minister would sing a line of the song and the congregation would mimic in their own way. The sound is more chilling than heart-warming for me. I thought the story of the mirror was funny though.

[@BND58469]

funktopp. I was affected by the haunting singing also. Discovered it's called Gaelic Psalm Singing and there are several KZbin videos which feature it

[@rayva1]

Their problem was not inhabiting the island. The island just needed skilled medical workers and even a small hospital to aid the sick.

[@matthewcoombs3282]

I read somewhere farming became harder and harder due to problems with fertilising what little arable land there was and in the end they were existing on bird meat and eggs what food could be imported.

[@ClarenceCochran-ne7du]

When regular contact was established, it was doom for the community. It's a very hard life, subsistence farming/gathering in such an isolated place. It was inevitable that Islanders would leave for what seemed to them, an easier life. The Aran Islanders (off the West Coast of Ireland) suffered similar conditions as emigration in the late 19th/early 20th centuries for much the same reason. At least there are still some Islanders on the Arans, but the Irish government has trouble getting people to move there to provide even basic services to the Islanders.

[@danielcaola6202]

This is edited down... any idea where I can see the rest of the footage?

[@pawshands9706]

Content & peaceful. That is all I'd need for peace. So sad their way of life is over. Harsh, but simpler times.

[@creatordreads6159]

Whats the song in the beginning?

[@slushpuppy5943]

Magical!....

[@joeboyd8702]

I love how the 2nd guy said that he moved from St Kilda to London. I suspect that he had a much better life than everybody else from there.

[@alicemilne1444]

Why a much better life? He was the one who said at the end of the film that St. Kilda was a better life. London back in the 1930s was a smoke and smog-filled noisy molloch where people worked 12-hour days for a pittance. Contrast that with the St. Kildans I remember hearing on the radio back in the 1960s/70s who had stayed in Scotland. Most of them lived on the coast or not far from the sea and got jobs in forestry, fishing or weaving and other crafts.

[@vtruescot]

It is sad to see the islandabandoned.

[@spiritflower6640]

They did all that to set up the soldiers on the island they could have helped The Islander stay there and made a viable way for the young people to keep making their life there in and or to travel back and forth from their there... would have been ways to help save the the culture valuable to all and the community of people who had lived there for centuries!! it's just so sad that resources weren't pulled together for that yet the resources are available for the military... story worldwide... a bit disheartening!! If they have been helped to stay there I bet they're tweed today would fetch a pretty penny :) also I'm wondering why there wasn't more mention of them making use of food from the sea seems like between the animals that naturally live there and they domesticated animals they could have had a really good way of life was just some assistance for some technologies and ways of doing things that would make life easier and easier on the island... and also maintain the uniqueness of living on the island which is remote and is harsh but beautiful

[@Automedon2]

All over the world - Italy, Russia, Japan, America - young people leave small villages. The people who lived on the island knew nothing about the outside world, so they suffered the hardships with no options. The saying is "once you've tasted Paris"

[@spiritflower6640]

@@Automedon2 I hear what you're saying, and, from watching this video but many others about St Kilda, and, reading histories and personal accounts the people loved living there! if there could have been more connection with the outside world with more boats going there more often, with some support to develop other ways of income and connection to the outside world... maybe the st. Kildians could have survived as a thriving Old World/ New World culture and community...I see those possibilities. I mean, the going idea is that they ran out of resources/life was too hard and youger ones leaving...as if they had no other options... and yet, when it came time to set the military up on that island there was a power Generating Station and a hospital and everything they needed... maybe those resources could have been used to support the people who had been living there for Generations, who had a culture and a way of life that was worth saving.... that's the way I see it

[@kevinadamson5768]

@@spiritflower6640 sadly the army didn't arrive till many years after the Islanders were resettled on the mainland.

[@SunnyRomanova]

Does anyone knows the title of the song sung at the very beginning? Thanks

[@mr.rockperson3213]

Shame that the interviewees aren't identified.

[@welfarebeast8576]

It is stated by the commenter that : «after the U-boat attack... » with no mention of this attack before or after, so I suppose this is cuts from a longer television broadcast, put together?

[@davo171]

Id love to go there, is it open to tourists?

[@TeamGoSteve]

yeah, thats a good idea. Thousands of people visiting each year. Buying postcards and dropping letter.

[@simonsmanor]

Join the military. Then you might get to got there

[@1951anette]

Fed udsendelse

[@fokkerfilms560]

Yes. It's quite expensive but there are boat day trips that leave from Harris. You can also stay in one of the National Trust cottages.

[@garychynne1377]

just like when they resettled the towns in newfoundland canada. the people even look the same.

[@donlake7583]

The only thing better would be closed captions. The accents are hard to understand for some of us.

[@tessieoshea6904]

There is no mention of which clan. One lady says her father was the Laird but again no mention on a clan. The also said the people who left the island had a hard time. How? Did the people on the main land help or ignore the St. Hila's?

[@1258-Eckhart]

The islands belonged to the Clan MacLeod estates.

[@wadeslea]

Like watching the 19th century in colour

[@amateurtorque6709]

What happened in 1930, why did the islanders have to leave?

[@faisalahmed1089]

Amateur Torque just a combination of things, the young people were moving and the old were getting too old to sustain their lifestyle, so they evacuated for a better life

[@robokill387]

Also diseases introduced by tourists made them have a high mortality rate and they had to move closer to medical facilities.

[@elliegreen4738]

I suspect that the Laird who owned the island was told by the Government to evacuate it because they wanted it for some reason. The Government or the Laird probably told the Nurse to encourage them to leave because she says she was the one who told them they should leave.

[@yvesguillo4913]

what is the song at 2.30? can someone tell me?

[@cairistionamacleod3154]

It is a Psalm

[@mrmensa1096]

it's called Gaelic Psalm Singing and there are several KZbin videos which feature it - another person commented

[@kingharold8639]

Whyd they keep cutting the video 😤😤

[@panspermiahunter7597]

So sad they left and I think there are very many who would swap their lives to live on St Kilda, no need for money his you have food and shelter.

[@erynn9968]

Until you need medical emergency.

[@Ruby_Moon777]

What a wee shame. The latter and last years on this wee island sound really bleak because they just had to get prepared for Church on a Sunday, a 3 hour service. Their last 24 years there could have been so much happier as the kids weren't even allowed to play. Did have a wee chuckle at 15.15 mins in though. 😊

[@pjo113]

Audio doesn't work

[@oddities-whatnot]

Creepy "children of the stones" soundtrack at 2:22

[@MichelleStaunton-l4b]

I would rather be on kilda than living in London !

[@sarahlouise7163]

“100 miles west of bugger all” 😆

[@Tamar-sz8ox]

Is the sheep population still there ?

[@1258-Eckhart]

The sheep were originally kept on the island of Soay but now they have been introduced to Hirta, where they roam freely. Interestingly, as time goes by, the sheep are becoming smaller.

[@nick260682]

Marcomanseckisax I bet they’re delicious.

[@Holly-ro2sy]

@@nick260682 do love carnivores and their humour

[@nick260682]

Hali Karley Not really meant to be a joke. I genuinely think they’d taste amazing.

[@Holly-ro2sy]

@@nick260682 i personally hate the taste of fried animal flesh but each to our own i guess

[@prosodiclearning]

Graveyard is the future of the original fauna, Partition some land from the sheep....The sheep are introduced, after all . .,

[@graemesharp1982]

No one is mentioning the feet??

[@Keith-p8c2b]

I noticed in the old photographs, very few of the old population wore shoes ,probably too expensive😊 i’m from Australia. A lot of people don’t wear shoes here.😅

[@andrewoneill5898]

I have a few stories to tell iwas in the royal engineers 6 months on stkilda so if you grab a sandbag I’ll begin

[@andrewoneill5898]

I suppose my stories are only for me now but I was dry happy there

[@endeckerBM]

I'm sure we'd be happy to hear anything you have to share.

[@lauracullen3895]

It is all hidden in the loch along with the sound. That's why the people abandoned the place, no sound!

[@lyndseygreig6424]

Try it with headphones on.

[@lpcookie1]

Terrible sound. Can't hear anything☹

[@lyndseygreig6424]

Much better with the headphones on.

[@ElisabethBenn-g6i]

Life was not sustainable. Contact with the outside world made them realise they need not suffer hardships. I read about the terrible death rate due to tetanus of 60% of babies. Preventable, and a terrible death. Then the migration of the able bodied men to Australia, leaving the old, the young and the women, meant the old subsistence means of living was over. It’s tempting to be sentimental, and it is a loss of a unique culture, but seriously, people would not want that hard life again. Not to mention the harsh form of Religion that oppressed them.

[@andrewsmith-cm9qw]

People have live there since God knows when in a community and their lives must never be consigned to history it must be brought to the fore and celebrated every day in Scottish life. A small prayer a thought that’s all. Don’t forget them. The church singing is what was taken to America and became with expansion the scenes we all know where they all get up and dance and sing.

[@waynewells5665]

the video had no sound

[@kevinadamson5768]

Should have subtitles, it's a hard accent to understand.

[@TheWorld-of7dd]

Maybe it is a good thing to repopulate the island again now, maybe with today's tech it will be much easier for the new inhabitants

[@balmacarascotland9106]

Alba gu bràth

[@synthpop1505]

I disliked St Kilda and the St Kildaians ; the place I found wet and the people rude. They had the fine qualities which bore me - thrift and industry and long-faced holiness, and the young women are mostly great genteel boisterous things who are no doubt bedworthy enough if your taste runs that way. (One acquaintance of mine who had a St Kilda clergyman’s daughter described it as like wrestling with a sergeant of dragoons.) The men I found solemn, hostile, and greedy, and they found me insolent, arrogant, and smart

[@mhcronje]

Do they all have the same surname? 😏

[@titaniumrocklobster]

Bizarre accent

[@OrthodoxChristian809]

You can always have elocution lessons.

[@flyinspagettimonstah]

The accent of the man at 3:11 reminds me so much of the accent that the people that live in the village Sumba have. Sumba is the southest village in the Faroe Islands. Sumba is also the first land/village the Scottish people saw when they sailed up north.

[@janesmith3287]

A lost one these days. Was their original tongue Gaelic with English a second language?

[@robokill387]

@@janesmith3287 Yes.