St Kilda

St Kilda or Hirta, island, Outer Hebrides, north-western Scotland, located 65 km (40 mi) west of North Uist, covering an area of 4.5 sq km (1.7 sq mi), and surrounded by smaller islands, the whole collective also being known as St Kilda. Remoteness has dictated these islands' history. From prehistoric times a self-sufficient community, racially augmented by Celtic and Viking invasions, it was administered by the St Kilda Parliament. Its survival was traditionally based on bird-hunting, often done with great skill on the high cliffs. St Kilda houses the world's biggest gannet population as well as being an important breeding-ground for many other seabirds.

From the 14th century until 1930 St Kilda was held by MacLeods, a representative of whom would visit annually. Following John MacDonald's 1822 visit, the community became the target of missionaries and later, of tourism, which brought economic dependence and irresistible diseases. The islands rapidly depopulated, especially in the 1920s, and were evacuated in 1930, whereupon their community dispersed. There are now only a few dozen research scientists living there. St Kilda group was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986; the designation was extended in 2004 to include the marine area around the archipelago.