Ultima Thule? Reconnecting St Kilda and Pabbay

Abstract

This paper further challenges the understanding of St Kilda as an ultima Thule, a distant place beyond the borders of the known world. It does this by comparing the World Heritage site and iconic emblem of Scottish culture with the uninhabited island of Pabbay in the Sound of Harris. In the historical period these islands were owned by the Macleods of Dunvegan, Skye, and farmed as a single unit; the famous stories of St Kilda involve Pabbay and its people. As the Macleod estate waned under financial strain, the stories of the islands dramatically diverged in the 19th century, St Kilda becoming a community of crofter–fowlers and Pabbay a lonely sheep farm cleared of 300 occupants. While St Kilda was lauded for its past and present from the 1860s onwards, Pabbay was cleared before tourism, photography and archaeology took hold and never attracted the same attention. The result, a sense that St Kilda is culturally and even archaeologically isolated, is an unwitting echo of the upheaval in the Outer Hebrides from the late 18th century. It should not be seen as the historical norm. This paper outlines the breadth and depth of the historical links before exploring the post-medieval archaeological landscapes, providing a description of Pabbay based on recent surveys. After exploring the way in which the two islands were alienated, the reasons behind this are explored, as are its effects. It is argued here that an understanding of the ‘wider world’ of St Kilda, at least in the post-medieval period, could begin with its closest and most important neighbour, Pabbay.