An invited audience from all over Scotland attended a key event on 26th February to progress the St Kilda Centre – Ionad Hiort – in the Uig area of the Isle of Lewis.
This is an initiative to offer remote access to the UK’s only UNESCO dual world heritage site renowned for its natural and cultural significance.
Even in summer, physical access to this distant archipelago, about 40 miles west in the Atlantic from the Western Isles, is never certain. The plan is therefore to create a St Kilda Centre site remotely on Mangersta Head on the west coast of Lewis, west of the famous Standing Stones at Callanish. It will look way west of the headland to the distant isles for which it will serve as mainland representative, and offering all sorts of introductory and experiential material is one way of achieving several benefits through one effort.
This centre will add to the experience of visitors to Lewis and Harris, enabled to see and absorb some of the essence of a place farther west that few will ever see but which has become a widely known touchstone for the romance of living by the rhythms and moods of the natural world; and for the inspirational redoubtability of humanity.
One of the experiences the Centre is bound to offer is access to the video of a quite remarkable unique performance event, The St Kilda Opera – screened simultaneously in five European capitals in 2007 and featuring, memory says, French aerialists ‘dancing’ on ropes on the legendary cliffs of Hirta to the accompaniment of a composed score and a massive Gaelic choir whose sounds echo is the mind eight years later.
This is what we wrote of it at the time:
‘On 22nd June and on St Kilda Day, 23rd June, 200 performers at five locations across Europe, in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and Scotland, from Stornoway to Halstatt in Austria, will be performing an opera, ‘St Kilda, The Echo of Birds’, about the final leaving of the island’s residents in 1930. They will work to a common script and a libretto by Iain Finlay MacLeod and at each venue the performance will be backed by musicians and Gaelic singers. BBC Scotland are doing a live webcast. The initiative came from French theatre producer, Lew Bogdan who then recruited Proiseact nan Ealan, the Gaelic Arts Agency, to give a lead to a consortium of arts organisations securing funding across Europe. Check out the opera at http://www.stkilda.eu – and particularly the astonishing vertical cliff dance performed on the cliffs of St Kilda by the French dance company, Retouramont.’
As with so much, the idea and the reality outstripped the marketing capability by light years and although it was well enough seen, it ought to have set the world alight. Through Ionad Hiort it may well yet do just that.
The planned Lewis stepping stone to St Kilda at Mangersta Head
At last week’s event, James Rebanks, the consultant appointed with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise [HIE] to advise on the next stages of the project, presented his interim conclusions on the project’s business case. The final report is due at the end of March.
Mr Rebanks, from Cumbria, has an international reputation as the leading specialist in World Heritage tourism. St Kilda is the UK’s only double World Heritage Site and the Uig project is the official UNESCO case study on ‘remote access’ to World Heritage Sites in general.
The presentation took place in the council chamber of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar [Western Isles Council] in Stornoway followed by a site visit in Uig. The initiative to create an Ionad Hiort/St Kilda Centre came from five organisations – HIE, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, National Trust for Scotland, Visit Scotland and the National Gaelic Arts Agency.
In 2010, an ad hoc group invited communities to put forward proposals for the Centre. The clifftop site at Mangersta was unanimously selected, though it has always been clear that other communities in the Western Isles will be involved.
Since then, an enormous amount of work has been undertaken by the local community company that was established to define and advance the project. The project is being led by the community group and it has already explored potential markets as well as content and interpretation with a team from the Glasgow School of Art. HIE’s Innse Gall and Community Assets teams have also provided support for the transfer of the land and for previous consultancy work to help progress the project.
Iain Begg, Senior Development Manager at HIE, says: ‘This is a great example of a community taking the initiative to maximise benefits from local assets to boost the local economy. Clearly it is still early days and a lot of work still to do, but there is potential here to attract more visitors to the area and enhance their experience, as well as create local employment.
‘I am very pleased we are able to provide further support for the project. This will help Ionad Hiort produce a sound business case that will attract investment and make the most of their distinctive regional opportunity.’
James Rebanks has engaged widely with stakeholder bodies, the local community and many other interested and potentially interested parties. He has examined the economic feasibility of the project and the many associated issues involved in ensuring that it is a sustainable undertaking in every sense of the term.
Iain Buchanan, chairman of Ionad Hiort steering group, sys: ‘The response to this event has been excellent. It confirms how much interest there is, at national and international levels as well as locally, in St Kilda, its unique history and heritage.
‘This is an opportunity for our various partners to discuss this important study before it is concluded in March and will be a key milestone in the development of Ionad Hiort.’
Councillor Alasdair Macleod, Chair of Sustainable Development Committee at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, says: ‘Ionad Hiort is an exciting and innovative project and although there are many challenges ahead, with the support of the stakeholders and the professional and focussed input of the Project Team, the St Kilda centre could become an iconic, international tourism attraction in the not too distant future.’
Owned by the National Trust for Scotland, St Kilda is the UK’s only UNESCO dual world heritage site renowned for its natural and cultural significance. The evacuation of its native population in 1930 brought to a close an extraordinary story of survival.
Now, with around a million birds at the height of the season it is Europe’s most important seabird breeding area and is a national nature reserve.
And Argyll?
What about Argyll gearing up to focus on the wonderful Stevenson lighthouses, so many of which sit on dangerous reefs unseen well off our shores?
What about:
- Colonsay AND Mull hosting a centre for the Dubh Artach Light, on the Dhu Heartach skerry 18 miles out west of Colonsay and 15 miles south west of the Ross of Mull [it's shore base during construction was the Mull Isle of Erraid];
- Tiree offering remote access to the Skerryvore Light from its great Hynish centre – where the Stevenson shore barracks, signallng tower and harbour were built – in addition to the stunning physical boat trips 12 miles southwest out to the An Sgeir Mhòr reef which gave the Light its name;
- Morvern too offering remote access, with the forests of LochAline being the place to which many of the islanders from a treeless place were relocated after the evacuation for which they had asked in
Note: The photograph at the top is of Stac an Armin with Borera to the left, in the magnificent sea stacks of St Kilda. It is © Stephen Hodges and reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence. The photograph above - of a cleit above Village Bay on Hirta – is © Bob Jones and is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.
