Arnish Lighthouse

the villagers of St Kilda were packing up their belongings, before leaving the island of their birth forever. Some left a bowl of grain on the table, with the Bible open at the chapter of Exodus. A community, a culture, a way of life was coming to a close after thousands of years. Life on their outpost in the Atlantic had become untenable, to their minds, and the Hiorteachs had requested their own removal. The steamer Harebell took them to Oban, thence on to Lochaline or on to Glasgow.

A lot has been written about St Kilda, with insights changing as the years and researches progress.  Someone has recently mooted the idea to repopulate the islands with permanent inhabitants - an idea that is as fanciful as it is unrealistic. Even today, with modern, powerful boats, it is not always possible to cross the sea to the islands. In the past, there would be no communication with St Kilda for 8 months of the year, due to the severity of the weather and the ocean. That has not changed.

Work is in progress to establish a St Kilda Centre at Mangersta in Lewis, where culture and history of St Kilda will be remembered. For it is no longer alive.

Image courtesy planetware.com

On August 29th this year, it will be 80 years ago since the people of St Kilda left their native isle, never to return (to live there). They had requested to be removed as life there had become untenable. It is perhaps noteworthy to read the submissions to the Napier Commission, which visited St Kilda in June 1883. The replies by the three people who were called to give evidence have been transcribed into separate postings on the blog. Read the entries first, then return here, I ask.

In order to get an idea of the attitude of the “have’s” versus the “have-nots” of the day, I copy a few lines from a submission from the factor for St Kilda, in effect the landowner’s manager of the islands. John T. Mackenzie was not a bad man, as he did not pressurise any people if they could not pay the rent. Others in his position  would have their tenants evicted in case of default.

[...] the ” land question” to a great extent is in the hands of educated people, who know the danger of breaking the law, and who are responsible for their own actions. The crofter grievance is the ” land question ” in another form, but in the hands of a class who, fancying they have some hardships, know not what to do, but who are under the guidance and advice of irresponsible and, I am afraid in many cases, of thoughtless leaders, eager to gain notoriety through the simplicity and credulity of their followers

If you feel anger when seeing condescension and arrogance at such a breathtaking degree, stop for a minute and reflect upon the era we’re talking about. In the Great Britain of 1883, there was a gaping divide between classes in society. St Kilda people were regarded as “noble savages”, who could not look after themselves, and needed the benevolent hand of an educated and munificent landowner to guide their ignorant ways. Looking at this from a 21st century perspective, it is in fact the landowners who contributed in no mean proportion to the plight of their tenants - as the Napier Commission was finding out in 1883. Not all lairds were bad and evil, and neither were all their agents.

I can tell you that I have found the attitude, stated in the blockquote from John T. Mackenzie above, echoed to this day in certain quarters of those studying the social history of the Highlands and Islands. I am still angry at the Scottish First Minister who hailed the achievements of the emigrant Highlanders overseas, without making reference to the fact that many of them were kicked out under the most excruciating circumstances. Achievements that certainly deserve to be acknowledged - but why were they not allowed to make them at home.

I’ll get off my high horse now.

Spoke to someone from the St Kilda Centre Development Group earlier this week. The website for the centre has gone live, which (as Lewis based blogger) I would like to highlight. The centre is to be constructed on cliffs overlooking Mangurstadh, on the road just north of Islibhig.

It has also come to my attention that the locations that lost out in the bidding process are still not accepting defeat. Whilst recognising that the link with St Kilda is not as strong from Mangurstadh as it was in relation to Leverburgh; and that the view of the archipelago is most prominent from North Uist, I would like to appeal for some common sense in this saga. The Western Isles are an archipelago of only 25,000 people, and continuing the unseemly squabble over the St Kilda Centre will benefit nobody. In fact, it will only serve to put the island group as a whole in a bad light.

Rather than rolling in the streets like fighting tomcats in March, isn’t it an idea to work together to make this a success story that all of the islands involved could benefit from? How about a satellite centre in Leverburgh and one at Cleitreabhal (North Uist), referred to from Uig. I’m probably naive…

The unseemly squabble over the St Kilda Centre continues, with the supporters of the Cleitreabhal site in North Uist threatening to open their own centre. Meanwhile, the Ionad Hiort working group in Uig has started work towards making the centre at Mangurstadh a reality. A website is to be set up shortly, and I refer to the Comunn Eachdraidh Uige for further updates and details.

Meanwhile, I would also like to recommend for contemplation this letter by a South Uist resident. I agree with each and every point raised.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar have decided this evening to site the proposed St Kilda Centre in Mangurstadh, in the Uig district of Lewis.

Apparently, there was a lively debate (read: the feathers fairly flew) where those in favour of Uig said there was nothing wrong with the way the decision was reached, and those against (mainly North Uist and Harris representatives) said there actually was something wrong. The final vote afterwards showed 17 votes against and 14 votes in favour of running the entire selection process again - so Mangersta it is.

Two pillars of the local economy came into focus today. Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Hebrides News reports, has approved a 25-year lease for the site of the proposed salmon processing plant at Arnish. This could generate 100 jobs, a veritable bonanza of employment by Western Isles standards. When putting the link through a URL shortener, it made me smile because the title came out as:
Arnish Lighthouse caledonia lease.

What has been annoying me over the last couple of weeks is the unseemly squabble over the site of the St Kilda centre. There are three contenders: Mangurstadh (Lewis), Leverburgh (Harris) and Cleitreabhal (North Uist). A consultancy firm has conducted a survey of the three bids, and Mangurstadh came out on top, as I reported a few days ago. The Harris and North Uist bidders are now calling on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to reject that advice when its tourism committee meets in the next couple of days.Yes, let’s carry on fighting like ferrets in a sack. At the end of the day, there are quite a few places inside AND outside the Western Isles where the St Kilda Centre could be located. I recently read a piece by a man from Ness, who argued that his area in North Lewis had the strongest cultural link to the St Kildans of old: they still go hunting for birds, to name but one argument. How about Glasgow, from where the steamer used to depart? How about Lochaline in Morvern, where the St Kildans landed after they were evacuated in 1930?

However, each of the three bidders has a lot to lose by not getting the Centre, so this fight will carry on to the bitter end.

Over the past couple of weeks, a controversy has been raging in these islands over the recommendation for the St Kilda Centre to be sited at Mangurstadh, in Uig, Lewis. Two other locations in the Western Isles, Leverburgh (Harris) and Cleitreabhal (North Uist) are also in the running. Upon learning of the recommendation, those backing the bids by Leverburgh and Cleitreabhal suggested that the scoring criteria had been altered after the bids had been submitted. The consultants, hired to research and formulate the recommendation, have now recalculated their scorings on the three bids according to the first set of standards, which still show Mangurstadh to be the most suitable location.

I can only hope that this is the end of the controversy, but with so much at stake for the winning location, that hope could well be a vain one.

Cliffs at Mangurstadh

BBC Highlands & Islands announced this afternoon that the St Kilda Centre is to be sited at Mangurstadh, Uig in the west of Lewis. There were two other sites, Cleitreval (North Uist) and Leverburgh (Harris). There is also to be a St Kilda trail throughout the Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of St Kilda itself, 45 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, makes the siting of the centre in that island unpracticable.

All sites were commended by the working group for putting forward a strong case for themselves, as all 3 sites had great development potential. I am pleased that Mangurstadh, one of the remotest townships in Lewis (40 miles from Stornoway), will be the site of this centre. It will also boost tourism and visitor numbers to the district of Uig.

A series of events takes place in Lewis and Harris this week surrounding St Kilda and its culture. Street theatre will feature on the streets of Stornoway on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 12 and 12.30pm. The mainstay of the event is St Kilda, a European Opera. This will be performed on Friday evening at 20.10 GMT, which is 21.10 BST, and can be viewed LIVE on-line on www.bbc.co.uk/stkildaopera. This link will not be operational until the night of the performance.

The week’s events are highlighted on a dedicated website, which has all the latest information.