The archaeology of St Kilda
The Norsemen who named the islands associated them with shields or stags, and for many people nowadays the name 'St Kilda' continues to have both tragic and romantic connotations. For some, the islands are a memorial to a lost island utopia 'on the edge of the world', while others see their decline and eventual abandonment as emblematic of the inevitability of economic change. Bill Bryden's 1982 film 'Ill Fares The Land' dramatised the final stages of settlement on the islands, and attempted to capture something of both of these views, and a host of books have since been written which continue to explore the islands' unique heritage.
Now, at the invitation of the National Trust for Scotland, RCAHMS is planning a three-year partnership project with the Trust to map the archaeology of the main islands of the St Kilda group in detail. The work will build on the survey of Village Bay and the east side of Gleann Mor undertaken by RCAHMS in the early 1980s (see RCAHMS 1988 Buildings of St Kilda and RCAHMS Broadsheet 4 1998 St Kilda: settlement and structures on Hirta) and will incorporate the results of a further two decades of archaeological survey and excavation, which have revealed a wealth of new information about the history of settlement on the islands. As well as mapping the archaeological remains, the project will also catalogue and consolidate RCAHMS' holding of archive material relating to St Kilda and make it more readily available via RCAHMS' website.
Further details on ordering the St Kilda broadsheet, priced £1.50, are available on the publications page of our website.