Sixteen years ago, during my first visit to Hirta in 2010, I stood beside one of the old cottages pretending to be part of the famous St Kilda Parliament. At that moment a rather unlikely idea took hold. What if I could somehow gain permission to stay on the island for an extended period and experience, in some small way, what life might have been like for the St Kildans?
My thought was that if I could learn to weave traditional St Kilda tweed, perhaps the National Trust for Scotland might support such an idea. Returning home to Australia, however, life took over and the dream quietly faded away.
Then, two years ago, while back in Scotland to kayak the Great Glen, I casually mentioned the idea to a friend. That conversation changed everything.
Since then, an extraordinary number of people have helped turn a forgotten dream into reality. Jimmy and Erika at Newburgh Handloom Weavers encouraged the project and introduced me to Cheryl at Hilton Hill Farm, where I recently collected 30 kilograms of Soay fleece. Jane Cooper helped me trace a source of rare Boreray wool, leading me to Marianna and then Hazel and Norman at Airy Farm on Stronsay, where I collected another 40 kilograms of fleece. Along the way I learnt to weave, found a spinning mill in Duns to prepare the wool, and received a wonderful letter of support from Susan, whose ancestors left St Kilda in the mid-1800s and who, remarkably, lives in my hometown of Bendigo.
Each introduction led to another, each conversation opened another door, and together they resulted in the National Trust for Scotland granting me permission to live on Hirta for four weeks next year. During that time I hope to weave St Kilda tweed on the island once again—something that has not been done for almost a century.
The accompanying image is a little bit of fun. Using modern technology, ChatGPT placed me into the historic photograph of the St Kilda Parliament. While I was never there, it beautifully captures the moment in 2010 when this remarkable journey first began