Abandoned

Considering it is the most remote of British islands, humans have surprisingly lived here since prehistoric times, until the last permanent residents left in 1930. Village Bay was the only possible location for the community to live, due to the dramatic island topography and natural bay that was accessible only in calm conditions.

The islanders lived on ‘Main Street’ - a row of 16 houses. To the right, the grassy bank slopes down to the bay via plots of land and to the left, common ground, sheep pens and distinctive drystone storage structures called cleits have been built. Over 1,400 of them scatter the island - they were used to store and dry birds, eggs and feathers, harvest crops, and peat and turf were used for fuel.

Hiking above Main Street, you get a sense of just how organised this community once was and had to be to survive and thrive in such harsh conditions. Sheep are dotted throughout the landscape - it is just the humans that have left.