Ultima Thule – St Kilda and Pabbay. Two remote landscapes in the Hebrides скачать в хорошем качестве

Ultima Thule – St Kilda and Pabbay. Two remote landscapes in the Hebrides

St Kilda is perhaps one of Europe’s most famous remote cultural landscapes. While a narrative of romance and mythology became dominant from the 1950s (and arguably very much earlier), the results of a recent archaeological survey suggest that the islands were intensively exploited for their rich seabird resources. Far from presenting an opportunity for the discovery of rare or lost ancient sites, St Kilda’s landscape has been continually remoulded, and the present density of structures is incomparable in other rural settings. By contrast, the island of Pabbay is almost invisible in literature and media. Once the larger part of a medieval rental with St Kilda, it is equally rich in archaeological sites, including Bronze Age cairns, a 17 broch, a medieval centre, numerous houses and a rather fine 16th century church. The effects of a huge sandstorm in the 17th century left the once rich farmland bereft. By the 1830s Pabbay was seen as another potential sheep farm and its population of 300 were moved, many finding their way to Cape Breton. The story of Pabbay is very much the natural counterpoint to that of St Kilda, yet only one small book has been written, in comparison to some 700 for St Kilda itself. In the comparison of these two islands, once intimately linked by tradition, culture and economy, a number of questions are raised. How did St Kilda come to be seen as a lonely island, set apart and ‘remote’ from its traditional partner? Why did the story of these islands diverge to such an extent in the 1830s – one becoming a sheep farm, the other a thriving crofting settlement? What lenses have affected our understanding in the past, and should we strive to escape them in the future? And finally, ‘how is our experience of these islands mediated through convention and control’? George Geddes Session 4: Rural Heritage and Landscapes (2) CHAT Annual Conference Orkney 2016: Rurality