9 Sept 2024

From the edge of the world 2024 – part 4

Written by Sue Loughran, St Kilda ranger

Cuddly toy puffins and neatly folder scarves fill a wooden shelving unit at the side of a shop area. At the far end of the space are lots of St Kilda t-shirts displayed on hangers.

Our new St Kilda Club shop on the island

The latest instalment of our St Kilda blog series celebrates exciting news about the St Kilda Club shop.

The shop on the island is run by the St Kilda Club, an independent charity who work alongside the National Trust for Scotland in promoting public awareness of the outstanding beauty, archaeology, culture and natural history of the archipelago. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in the islands. The club organises an annual reunion and have a Facebook page where they share regular updates and news. New members are always very welcome.

All profits made by the shop are donated back to the Trust specifically for work to preserve and enhance St Kilda (for example, donations towards jetty repairs, the kirk roof and seabird monitoring work). We are extremely grateful for the assistance with all of these costly projects. The shop manager, Marion Petschi, works closely with the rangers and comes on to the island at the beginning of every season to discuss products, pricing, new lines, etc. The ethos for many years has been to strive to supply sustainable products from local sources.

Back in the swing of things here on Hirta, we have been busy with the logistics of ensuring that the kirk roof project gets underway, whilst at the same time ensuring that the shop continues to trade. Ironically, the shop has been ‘evicted’ from its former premises in the school due to its own endeavours to support the kirk roof repair project!

A woman wearing a red hard hat pushes some wooden church pews across the floor in a small church.

Sue in a hard hat, moving benches in the kirk

Following the pandemic, in 2021 the shop had to be moved from its original home inside the Manse in order to protect Trust staff living there. It was moved into the school (alongside the church), where it ran very successfully as an honesty shop for 3 years. This summer, a significant conservation project to repair the kirk roof began, which means the church and school will not be open to visitors for the duration of the work.

We are delighted that the kirk roof project is taking place, but it left us with the dilemma of where the shop could be located. The church and school had to be cleared for the roof work, and we didn’t have anywhere on the island that would be suitable. The boat shed was mooted, but was found to be constructed of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), putting it ‘out of bounds’.

So, we sought permission from the local authority, and a shipping container was purchased (with some funding from the St Kilda Club) and brought over on the landing craft. Prior to delivery, it was wood-lined and floored, and had electrics and lighting fitted. This was sited in front of the boatshed and was carefully engineered into position with the skilled help of our friends in QinetiQ.

No sooner was it in place than, with the help of volunteer Andrea Gobbi, we started to fit it out with the shelving and shop furniture from the Manse.

A fork-lift truck manoeuvres a large blue shipping container into place on some concrete that overlooks Village Bay in St Kilda. Another container-like shed stands just behind the container.

Inside an upgraded shipping container that has a door and window at the narrow end. It is also lined with wood on the walls and ceilings, and has a lino-type floor. A strip light runs along the ceiling.

Curver boxes of retail stock are piled up in front of empty wooden shelving units in a newly fitted retail area. A small red post box perches on top of the boxes.

We soon had it looking good, with plenty of space to display the stock and the chance to return ‘old favourites’ into their rightful positions – the red St Kilda mailbox, the postcard writing bench (made by volunteer Nev Oldroyd in 2019), the wooden gannet (made by Jonathan Grant in 2020 to remind everyone of the 2m social distancing rule). For the first time, part of the puffin mural (painted by Mick Reed in 1992) is now on display. It had been above the bar of the Puff Inn until 2019, and we salvaged it before the demolition of the old MoD base.

From the edge of the world: part 10

Cuddly toy puffins and neatly folded scarves fill a wooden shelving unit at the side of a shop area. At the far end of the space are lots of St Kilda t-shirts displayed on hangers.

Looking along the wood-lined wall of an upgraded shipping container that has become a shop. A wooden bench runs along the wall, with postcards displayed on top. A small red post box stands beneath. A painted mural of puffins on a cliff top fills the wall between the bench and the door.

A large 2D model of a gannet is displayed on the wood-panelled wall of a shop. The gannet is shown in flight and its wingspan of 2m is noted in the middle. A red hard hat and various tools lie on the shelving units below.

A man installs a panel of a large mural onto a wood-lined wall of a shop. The mural features lots of cheerful puffins sitting on a clifftop.

The new shop has proved popular with visitors and island residents and has continued to bring in revenue for the Club. Our next tasks will be to attach strapping, to ensure security for the winter season (wind speeds can reach over 100mph), and to paint it a specified shade of green.

If you are visiting, please do pop in! Alternatively, there is an online shop, which sells a selection of the shop merchandise.

Thank you for supporting the shop and helping to fund conservation and restoration work on St Kilda.