When we arrived and landed on St Kilda it was quite dark and we couldn’t see much. More so, we could already sense that something wasn’t quite right. Not wanting to pitch tent at 3am, we took shelter in St Kilda International Sea and Air Lunge. Then as soon as we woke up, few hours later, we were eager to start to admire what’s supposed to be the dual World Heritage Site. We were quite impressed, indeed.This was first thing we could see from the island.
Never mind we told ourselves. Lets go to see somebody from National Trust for Scotland to find out where we can pitch our tent. On our way there, we were welcomed by this sight.
At that point we were not sure if we actually landed on the island we intended to land on. Fortunately the ranger confirmed that we have. Slowly we started to get familiar with St Kilda, and what streaked us most, was the language used here. Slowly we stopped calling it the Village Island and renamed it the Island of Not Allowed.
It also seems that the class system is still much alive here. According to where people are staying, they are or aren’t allowed to do things. So the MoD that was once based here has a bar. People working at the base can do a lot and have access to the bar whenever they want. The NTS people can also do quite a lot, they can access the wifi and go to the bar. Members of their work party have some things they can’t do, yet, they are invited and can go to the bar.
The Campers can’t do much, certainly not access the wifi or even look towards the bar.
The Day Visitors, no one really speaks to, and at some point, thanks to the second work party members, they couldn’t even access the toilets. We, because we slept in the tent (no one offered us a bed) were in the Campers category. At some point I thought to my self “Some one calls me camper one more time! And ….”.
I have to admit, we divided people in completely different categories based on what transport they have available to leave the island with. So we only had two categories – independent and dependent. And I am sure I don’t need to say, which one we thought the superior one to be.
Fortunately we soon found new friends and also what we really came here for.