When walking along Hirta Main Street keep a count of the houses and look for houses 7 and 8. Follow the wall that marks their plot border towards Hirta Bay until it stops, a few yards in front is the remnants of the cist. That is the easy way, I on the other hand decided that almost every neuk and crannie had to be explored.
Not much remains except for some stones set on edge, the loose lintels have probably been placed in one of the nearby walls.
When you look up and all round from this location you can see what a huge amphitheatre this place is, just how high the hills are and just how good the prehistoric folks nautical skills were. Then a helicopter interrupts, look slightly to the east and the view is of large tanks of the fuel variety. Prehistory and modern life in the space of a second.
Visited 2/8/2017.
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Posted by drewbhoy
12th September 2017ce
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Our first stop, on a gloriously warm day on St Kilda, was the probable remains of a souterrain built into a wall in an enclosure. It has been also described as a subterranean feature or a cist. If a cist whoever was interred must have been huge. During the 1800's land had been cleared for agricultural purposes so it was dug up and built into a wall. The remains of the underground feature are only a few metres from were they once had been place.
From the pier walk east and find the track which leads to the Main Street of Hirta. Once on the track heading west, the army base is nearby, go into the second enclosure. Being a dry stane dyker myself I appreciate that the one thing the later peoples were good at - building walls. The site is in the north east corner of the enclosure.
D. MacGregor in the 1960's said this site was Neolithic which, for us, meant an excellent start to the St Kildan trek.
Visited 2/8/2017.
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Posted by drewbhoy
11th September 2017ce
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