St Kilda is the UK’s only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of only 39 in the world. Fragments of the past haunt these islands, now home to nearly 1 million seabirds, including the UK’s largest colony of Atlantic puffins.
There is no place like St Kilda. Towering out of the storm-tossed waters of the Atlantic Ocean, its cliffs and sea stacks clamour with the cries of hundreds of thousands of seabirds. St Kilda has its own unique wren, as well as a sub-species of mouse which is twice the size of a British fieldmouse. Internationally recognised for its birdlife, St Kilda is no less famous for its human history. A community existed here for at least 4,000 years, exploiting the dense colonies of gannets, fulmars and puffins for food, feathers and oil.
Evacuated on 29 August 1930 after the remaining 36 islanders voted to leave as their way of life was no longer sustainable. Now uninhabited, visitors can brave the weather to sail to the ‘islands at the edge of the world’ for the experience of a lifetime.
