The Oban Times and St Kilda c

August 1930: The plight of the sheep. The bad weather prevented the Hebrides from taking the 600 or thereby sheep, which had been penned up in anticipation, and it is learned by radio that bad weather on Wednesday prevented the Dunara Castle also from taking off the sheep as hoped for. Without forage it will be difficult to keep them in condition, or even without some discomfort. There seems no chance of capturing the sheep on Borreray, that island of crags, rocks and precipices. It is only a young and vigorous St Kildan who can brave the dangers of capturing a sheep or trapping a fulmar. He can move and steady himself on the narrowest ledge of a dizzy precipice, where the slightest hesitancy would hurl him hundreds of feet to death. His marvellous power of equilibrium and the grasping power of his toes give him a confidence not possessed by any other people. Alas! The skilled cragsman of St Kilda will soon be a personage of history.

‘The Hebrides returned to Oban early on Monday morning and, after a few hours, proceeded to ship stock from Tiree for the Oban markets. Arriving again about seven o’clock on Tuesday morning, she left for Glasgow to be ready for her final trip to St Kilda on Thursday August 28. The Harebell, the Government ship for transport of the Islanders, or a number of them, to Lochaline, put into Oban from the south on Monday. She left for St Kilda on Wednesday.

‘There is ‘Mourning in the Isles’ from a correspondent. I have read with keen interest the letters in The Oban Times regarding the evacuation of St Kilda. My heart goes out to these poor people who have to leave their native isle. My own youth was spent in a remote island of the Hebrides and I know the wrench of leaving. The strange thing is that the call of the Hebrides does not lessen with the years but instead grows stronger and stronger, and we who know and love these Islands cherish a hope that some day we shall return and, when our time comes, we may be lulled to our last sleep by the sweet familiar sound of the Atlantic beating on our lonely shores. ‘Och, Ochan! mise ‘n diugh.’’

Letter 15 August: An Isleswoman’s Book on St Kilda, from Donald Maclean, 82 Belville Street, Greenock – ‘In this week’s issue of The Oban Times appears an announcement which gives me, and, I am sure, will give many other Gaels near and far, very great pleasure. I refer to a statement that the gifted St Kildan, Mrs Christina MacDonald MacQueen, is writing a book on Hirta. This is ‘glad tidings’ indeed, and as Mrs MacQueen has shown herself to be possessed of rare gifts we may look for a valuable and enlightening book. So far we have heard outsiders’, and, in my opinion, mostly misleading notions, about the tiny isle and the ways of its folk. There are two sides to every question, and to judge wisely one should ponder both.

‘I should like if Mr Calum MacPharlain, the accomplished bard, would write us a Gaelic song, and compose or adapt an air on the theme of the Last Farewell to Hirta. It would please and hearten Mrs MacQueen to have her prose sgeul of Hirta graced by the bard’s ‘sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not’. I am etc Donald MacLean.

August report: ‘One of the final scenes in connection with the evacuation of St Kilda took place in the West Highland Auction Mart, Oban, on Wednesday, when the sheep stock of the island were sold by public auction. The great interest which is being taken in this unique event was fully manifested in the crowds which thronged Ring No 1 at Messrs Corson’s Mart, but it was evident from the resulting prices that the greater number present were there merely out of curiosity.

‘Additional interest was given to the sale by the presence of Mr Tom Johnston, Under Secretary of State for Scotland, who was accompanied by his wife and daughter, Nurse Barclay and Mrs G A MacLeod, Oban. Mr Robert Mair, of Messrs Corson, introduced Mr Johnston, who was given a very cordial reception. Mr Johnston said he had been asked on behalf of the islanders to say a few words to explanation of this historic sale. There had already been many explanations offered as to the reasons for the evacuation of St Kilda. The press had been most kind and