THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

St Kilda – you don’t exist. Your name is just a faint cry made by the birds that make their home on the high cliffs at the furthest edge of the United Kingdom, beyond the outer-most of the Outer Hebrides.

Schalansky/Islands

For at least eight months of the year, St Kilda is subjected to frequent and severe gales and storms. Mary Cameron, daughter of one of the island’s last missionaries, recalls: “One particular storm left us deaf for a week. The noise of the wind, the pounding of the heavy sea, were indescribable. This storm was accompanied by thunder and lightning, but we could not hear the thunder for other sounds.” On one occasion the entire village was destroyed in a gale, and sheep were frequently blown over the cliffs into the sea below.

Steele/St Kilda