Evidence of Ancient Settlement Discovered on One of Europe’s Most Inhospitable Islands

16 June 2011

Archaeologists working on a Scottish island previously thought to be home only to seabirds and feral sheep, have found the remains of a permanent settlement which could date back to prehistoric times.

Less than a square kilometre in size, the remote St Kildan island of Boreray is situated over 65km west of the Outer Hebrides, in the Atlantic Ocean. It was previously thought that inhabitants of St Kilda’s largest island Hirta visited neighbouring Boreray only in the summer, to hunt birds and gather wool. This practice ended in the early part of the twentieth century, and in 1930 the last remaining inhabitants of St Kilda were evacuated from the islands – at their own request.

Now this latest discovery by archaeologists from RCAHMS and the Trust suggests that a farming community lived and worked on the steep slopes of Boreray before the 17th century, and perhaps as far back as the prehistoric era.