St Kilda is a fascinating place. It’s an archipelago – a group of islands – where a hardy (but small and ever-dwindling) community lived until it finally was abandoned in 1930. It’s also one of the most remote places in Britain. It has the highest cliffs, too.
I had the good fortune to visit St Kilda back in 2015. It isn’t the easiest thing to do. We had to get a boat from the isle of Skye early one morning, and I’m sure it took a good few hours to get out there. Nevertheless, it was worth it.
Before I go on to share a few of our photos from that trip though, I wanted to talk about the island’s newly found fame in the world of podcasting.
Recently I was delighted to come across St Kilda getting some love in the space. I’m often late to the party with this stuff because I don’t follow social media.
In any case, I have Sarah Golding to thank. Sarah plays Helen in A Scottish Podcast and she runs more podcasts than I can keep up with. One of her newer shows is the excellent Indie AF, and she was joined on there for a chat by the creators of a series titled The Secret of St Kilda.
In this supernatural thriller series, listeners will follow Lockie, a charismatic con man who escapes to St Kilda with the promise that this time he’ll change his ways.
Unfortunately the island and its unusual inhabitants have other ideas. He seeks redemption and they seek a saviour, but you know what they say – no change without sacrifice.
This one sounds intriguing and I’m looking forward to taking a proper listen. I imagine the premise sounds appealing for any fans of A Scottish Podcast, too.
The aural trips to St Kilda don’t stop there, though. I found another extremely creative sounding show by podcast network The Big Light. It’s called Atlantic: A Scottish Story.
is an 8-part musical drama inspired by the true stories of Scotland’s most remote and forgotten island – St Kilda. This exciting new podcast is written by award-winning musical theatre partnership, Noisemaker (Hi My Name is Ben, My Left/Right Foot, Oor Wullie) and produced by The Big Light. The series features a soaring original score and traditional Gaelic song, immersing listeners in a story about a community out on the edge of the world.
And as any listeners to our own podcast might’ve suspected, St Kilda was a big influence behind one of our season 1 storylines. This came in the form of the fictional island of “St Caillic”.
St Caillic was said to be a remote abandoned island that lay many miles North West of the Scottish mainland. It too had been long abandoned by the small community who lived there. Unlike St Kilda though, the reasons were a lot darker. A lot more… Lovecraftian.
I should also mention, finally, that if audio drama on Scottish islands is your thing, then…
- It’s worth checking out Perfect Retreat by Dashing Onions. This one’s created by Fiona Thraille who plays Jane in A Scottish Podcast.
- A few years ago we took part in Campfire Radio Theater’s epic production Ghosts of Flannan Lighthouse. The Flannan Isles aren’t far from St Kilda at all, either.
It’ll be good to take a long-overdue jaunt back to St Kilda (albeit in a fictional audio form) via the soundwaves of Atlantic: A Scottish Story, and The Secret of St Kilda. In the meantime though, here are some photos from my trip in 2015. It’s an old cliche, but the pictures really don’t do the place justice, either.
A Brief Tour of St Kilda
A Scottish Podcast is a serialised modern audio drama. It chronicles the story of Lee, a washed-up former radio DJ who launches a paranormal investigation podcast. Subscribe on your podcast listening app of choice.