The Cleit, a uniquely St Kildan Feature

The most distinctive form of architecture in S Kilda is the cleit. These primitive storehouses date back in design to prehistoric times but they continued to be built and used by the islanders until 1930. In them they dried peat, nets, corn, and preserved birds, meat, fish and eggs. There are still more than a thousand of them dotted about all over the island, some built on flat ground, others in the most precarious places, on the steepest hillside or half-way down a cliff.

A cleit looks like a huge skep built of small flattish boulders which have been made to overlap until they meet to form a dome. The top of the cleit was capped with green turf to keep the rain out, while its walls were built of plenty of cavities to let the wind through. This was the beauty of its construction, that made use of but at the same time defeated nature. It represented a small triumph of human ingenuity, and as such was the basic symbol of St Kildan life.