St Kilda - 90 years on

In three weeks' time, it will be 90 years since the last permanent inhabitants of St Kilda were evacuated from their island. On 30 August 1930, the residents went on board HMS Harebell, which subsequently dropped them off at Lochaline in Morven and the city of Glasgow. They had requested to be relocated as conditions in their islands had become untenable, with no boats able to approach St Kilda during the winter half year. Some left their houses with the bible open at the book of Exodus and a handful of grain beside it. The houses remain today, some with roofs restored to them, and the cleits, stone storage huts, still standing.

I have no inclination to visit. The scenery is stunning, but the community is dead and gone, and I don't like to gawp. Since 2009, there has been talk of a St Kilda Centre in Lewis (at Mangersta), Harris (Leverburgh) or North Uist (Cleitreabhal); St Kilda is 40 miles west of Uist and can easily be espied from the West Side of North Uist. To remember the culture of Hiort? The designs I have seen for the Mangersta site made me recoil with horror.

My opinion? Devote a section of Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway (in Lews Castle) to St Kilda. As for the rest, leave Hiort and the Hiortach where they belong. To rest in peace.