Braving the elements to protect St Kilda kirk

Transcript

Three speakers: Clare Henderson, archaeologist; Tyrone Oakley, Laing Traditional Masonry; Sue Loughran, ranger

Clare
One of the really exciting things that we've got happening this season on the island is that we're finally in a position where we can undertake some very much needed repair work to the kirk.
It's suffered quite a lot with wind and weather damage, the usual attrition of age on a building.
So, what we're planning to do this summer is we're going to fully strip and re-slate the roof and do a lot of the external repair work to make the building wind- and water-tight again.
The roof was actually last done quite recently in the 1970s by the Ministry of Defence, but it was previously repaired in the late 50s when the Trust acquired St Kilda.

Every element that makes up the landscape of St Kilda contributes to the legibility of the story of people's life on the island.
What survives, that we manage, a large quantity of it is ruinous.
We have some structures that have been roofed or that are in use but very few of them retain a lot of the character that the St Kildan community would have known.
The church and school room are quite exceptional in that, because those interiors have never been modernised or altered, bar very small touches.
When you go into the church, you get the sense of the building as they would have experienced it.
And I think that's very powerful for the visitors.
In terms of the island itself, any account you read will talk about the importance of faith to the St Kildan community.
And so I think making sure you're appropriately caring for and preserving their kirk is a very big part of our responsibility on the island.

When you deal with a historic building in an old structure, the way that it was constructed originally and the tools that were used and the materials all contribute to the way that the building appears and the way that it ages.
Times move on and materials change, but when you're then repairing a building like that, it's very important that you try as far as possible to work with the same materials and therefore the same skills.
Having the craftspeople who are able to come out and work with that type of building is exceedingly important.
The fewer of these buildings that survive, the harder it then becomes to sustain and support that craft.
With a building like the church and a lot of the work we do on St Kilda, details down to the exact type of sand and lime mix that you use, the colour of the slates, the way that they're nailed -- every last little detail is, as far as we can, the way that it would have been done originally.
That is the best and most appropriate way to maintain those buildings.

Tyrone
I think the reason it's so important to use traditional methods on a building like this, when it's a Scheduled Monument, is just out of sympathy to the building.
It needs to remain traditional throughout and not have any modern interferences so that the archaeology is correct going forward. You're still looking at the same building.
We use more or less the same tools as they would have used when the various crafts were first done, but just modern adaptations of these tools.
The company I work for is great because you would expect these traditional crafts to be done by dusty old men in boiler suits, but we've got a lot of youngsters that work for us.
I'm actually one of the older ones now! I've worked for LTM for 11 years and I'm one of the old heads now, but it wouldn't be the same in a lot of other traditional conservation companies.
In stonemasonry companies around Scotland, the craft is really dying out, but we have a young squad so we've got a lot of hope for the future of traditional skills.

St Kilda is a special place and I didn't really realise ... I've worked on many islands with the company ... I didn't realise how in touch with the culture of the people who used to live there you feel when you're here.
You really feel like you're walking on top of their footsteps, more so than other places I've been.
It's a special place.

Clare
Everything that you do on St Kilda requires a much longer lead-in time, and a lot more thought in terms of the logistics of getting the personnel and the materials on site.
Because, especially for a project of this magnitude, where you're talking full-height scaffolding and large quantities of heavy materials like slates.
We basically started at least 12 months ago to plan the dates that we could get those deliveries out here, on the landing craft runs and then to get the people on site.
And then it's just ... you're in the hands of fate with the weather beyond that.

Sue
This is a really important project for us and it wouldn't be possible for us to do the repair work to our kirk without the help of the following funders.
Thank you so much for your help.
We hope to have our church back to its former glory very soon. Thank you.