Experience Explore the UNESCO Site in the Outer Hebrides

Where to start

Off the west coast of Scotland, the Isle of Lewis and Isle of Harris form the main island in the Outer Hebrides. They may sound like two separate islands, but Lewis and Harris are actually two parts of the one island, with the largest town Stornoway on the east coast.

You can learn a lot about the islands of St Kilda from the larger islands of the Outer Hebrides. With dramatic landscapes, a unique Gaelic culture and fascinating history, this is a great place to start your Hebridean adventure. You will be blown away by wild mountains, immense white beaches, rugged coastlines and lunar landscapes.

If you’ve come from the UNESCO designations in the north of Scotland, you’ll arrive into Stornoway from Ullapool on the Calmac ferry.

Islands to base yourself:

• Lewis
• Harris
• Barra
• North Uist
• South Uist
• Benbecula

Why it’s special

St Kilda is the UK’s only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of only 39 in the world.

It was made a World Heritage Site in 1986 for its natural heritage, but this was extended in 2004/5 to include the surrounding marine environment and its importance as a cultural landscape.

St Kilda is remarkable not just for its striking landscape and fascinating human story. Its unique geographical position and oceanic climate allow it to support a dazzling array of inter-dependent ecosystems. An extraordinary biodiversity can be observed, both on its windswept lands and beneath the sparkling surface of its coastal waters.

It’s special for how the landscape influenced but didn’t stop the progress of life and culture for the islanders and the wider community of the Outer Hebrides.

Type of designation:

World Heritage Site

How long to stay:

At least 3-4 days

Be aware that this heritage site is a protected environment, so it can’t accommodate a large number of visitors. Tours by boat are available but space is strictly controlled.

If you are one the lucky few to visit St Kilda, even if it means just observing it from the deck of a boat, you experience will be all more richer if you take the time to learn all you can about St Kilda.

Fortunately, there is a wealth of online resources and literature for you to delve into. Start with this succinct but fascinating article compiled using original photographs and contemporary accounts collected by National Trust for Scotland’s St Kilda archives. It offers a compelling introduction to the nature and history of this fascinating archipelago. There is also an important collection of photographs belonging to the University of Edinburgh.

For a more in-depth picture, get your hands on a copy of St Kilda: The Last and Outmost Isle by Angela Gannon and George Geddes. This book which offers a vivid introduction to the history of the archipelago. Painstakingly researched, it explores the importance of St Kilda to the development of Western Isles and Outer Hebrides.

It’s hoped in the future that a visitor centre will be developed on the main islands, but more information is not yet available.

Things to do

Seallam Visitor Centre

Learn about the social and natural history of the Hebrides and their communities, including St Kilda, at the Seallam! Visitor Centre in Northton on Harris, which is home to extensive archives.

Are you related to a St Kildan? The centre is also home to Co Leis Thu?, a genealogy research centre run by Bill Lawson, who has specialised in family history for the past 40 years. He’s created over 25,000 family charts, looking at the family tree of those who lived on the islands over at least the last 200 years. You can explore census returns, birth, marriage and death certificates plus much more.

Explore Seallam! Visitor Centre.

Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre

If you’ve wondered what community life was like on secluded islands on St Kilda, the brilliant Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre on the neighbouring Isle of North Uist offers some idea. Get to know this local community and culture at this hub where people can meet, share ideas, learn new skills and experience exhibitions, live music, creative workshops and community outreach events. A café, shop and outdoor sculpture trail feature alongside its fascinating museum and arts centre.

Check out the events programme, and explore the Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre.

Museum nan Eilean

Uncover the history of these islands and find out how it has shaped the way of life today at the Museum nan Eilean in Lews Castle. Learn about the distinctiveness of the Outer Hebrides, which has been shaped by the unique combination of land, sea and people, and discover what island life is actually like. See how people have lived and worked from the earliest times to the present day, and how that culture is expressed through the Gaelic language, religion and community life. Six of the iconic Lewis Chessmen are on permanent display here too, after they were uncovered in Uig on the west coast of Lewis in the 19th century.

Visit Museum nan Eilean.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

Among the 8,000 exhibits which make up the eclectic collections of this vast museum and art gallery in Glasgow, there is a permanent St Kilda exhibition. In addition to life on St Kilda, the museum also boasts a wealth of material to relating to early settlements across the islands and Scotland as a whole.

Explore Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery.

St Kilda boat tours

Many of the boat operators from Harris and Uist know the area intimately and have strong links with the island, whether through the fishing industry, local stories, or family connections. By meeting locals, you can learn why St Kilda occupied a place of special importance in the history of the Outer Hebrides, both as a rich fishing ground and source of employment, as well as a site of great cultural and historic value.

If you do go onto the island, the advice is to follow the network of trails please follow the advice of the Rangers for the best chance to responsibly experience the landscape and wildlife.

Keen scuba divers can explore what is regarded as one of Europe’s premier diving sites. Delve below the crystal-clear waters of the shoreline for the chance see an array of ocean flora and fauna, including whales and even basking sharks.

Life on St Kilda

St Kilda has the largest and most diverse seabird colony in the North Atlantic. During the breeding season thousands of gannets, puffins, fulmars, and other species descend upon cliffs.

There’s also plenty happening below the waves. Thanks to an extraordinarily rich marine environment created by an unusual confluence of oceanic forces and geology, both northern and southern underwater species are able to thrive.

Back on dry lands, the topography of St Kilda meant a hardy and self-reliant existence for the islanders which saw the development of a unique form of subsistence farming and hunting seabirds, which endured for thousands of years until the community left in 1930. This human story is documented in a museum housed inside a 19th century house of the Isle of Hirta. Here, artefacts relating to St Kilda’s natural and anthropological history are stored

The church and schoolroom has also been restored based on archival photographs and original plans to show how they might have looked in the early 20th century.

There are also hundreds of cleits scattered around the village area. These are drystone storage structures unique to St Kilda and found across all the islands and stacks in the archipelago. They were used to store and dry birds, eggs and feathers, harvested crops, and peat and turf used for fuel.

Top tip:

For those that do visit St Kilda, it is of vital importance that visitors leave absolutely no trace. This includes bringing your own supply of drinking water and using toilet facilities aboard the vessel, where possible.  

Food & Drink

Follow the Eat Drink Hebrides Trail the length and breadth of the archipelago to discover the islands’ outstanding local producers for yourself. Much of the produce on the island is unique to the Outer Hebrides, and almost entirely made or prepared by hand by the islanders themselves.

The quality of the seafood reared or caught in the waters off the islands is world-renowned, with salmon, scallops and lobsters among the typical island fare.

Aside from fish, the Outer Hebrides’ landscapes ensure that livestock have plenty to feed on. Hebridean mutton boasts a distinct, delicate flavour due to the heather the hill sheep graze on.

Follow the Eat Drink Hebrides Trail.

Settle in next to a roaring peat-burning fire (with its own unique smell) and sip on one of the many local drinks, from the Crofter IPA ale of the Loomshed Hebrides Brewery to Isle of Harris Gin of the Harris Distillery or the Barra Atlantic Gin of the Isle of Barra Distillery.

Local tips

Communities in Lewis and Harris follow a strong religious observance on Sundays, meaning that most shops and businesses are closed on that day.

You can read about the story of St Kilda before you visit. St Kilda: The Last and Outmost Isle by Angela Gannon and George Geddes offers a fantastic introduction to the history of the archipelago. Painstakingly researched, it paints a vivid and comprehensive picture of St Kilda and its significance to the Outer Hebrides.

Visitors can also look forward to Slighe Hiort, a project which aims to develop an Outer Hebrides St Kilda Way which will create a waymarked route connecting three future St Kilda interpretation centres. It is hoped this will help place St Kilda within a broader historical context, showing the extent it influenced the culture and development of the islands as a whole.

Walks and ways to travel around

Follow the 185-mile Hebridean Way Cycling Route and pedal over 10 islands in the archipelago, passing some incredible attractions and scenery along the way.

You can also choose to walk sections of the route, and enjoy Pit Stops along the way with places to stay, eat and shop.