Editing St Kilda, Scotland (section)

=== Post-Medieval structures ===
The Head Wall was built in 1834 when the medieval village was abandoned and a new one planned between Tobar Childa and the sea some {{convert|700|ft}} down the slope. This came about as the result of a visit by [[Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet|Sir Thomas Dyke Ackland]], one of the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] for [[Devon (UK Parliament constituency)|Devon]]. Appalled by the primitive conditions, he gave money for the building of a completely new settlement of thirty new [[blackhouse]]s. These houses were made of [[dry stone]], had thick walls, and were roofed with turf. Each typically had only one tiny window and a small opening for letting out smoke from the peat fire that burnt in the middle of the room. As a result, the interiors were blackened by soot. The cattle occupied one end of the house in winter, and once a year the straw from the floor was stripped out and spread on the ground.<ref>Steel (1988) pages 72–3.</ref>

In October 1860, several of the new dwellings were damaged by a severe gale, and repairs were sufficient only to make them suitable for use as [[byre]]s. According to [[Alasdair Alpin MacGregor|Alasdair MacGregor]]'s analysis of the settlement, the sixteen modern, zinc-roofed cottages amidst the black houses and new [[Factor (Scotland)|Factor's]] house seen in most photographs of the native islanders were constructed around 1862.<ref>MacGregor (1969) page 129.</ref>

[[File:Featherstorestkilda.jpg|thumb|left|The Feather Store, where fulmar and gannet feathers were kept, and sold to pay the rent]]
One of the more poignant ruins on Hirta is the site of "Lady Grange's House". [[Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange|Lady Grange]] had been married to the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] sympathiser [[James Erskine, Lord Grange]], for 25 years when he decided that she might have overheard too many of his treasonable plottings. He had her kidnapped and secretly confined in [[Edinburgh]] for six months. From there she was sent to the [[Monach Isles]], where she lived in isolation for two years. She was then taken to Hirta from 1734 to 1740, which she described as "a vile neasty,<!--sic--> stinking poor isle". After a failed rescue attempt, she was removed on her husband's orders to the [[Isle of Skye]], where she died. The "house" on Hirta which carries her name is a large cleit in the Village meadows.<ref>Quine (2000) page 48.</ref><ref>Steel (1988) pages 31–2.</ref><ref>Keay & Keay (1994) page 358.</ref><ref>[http://www.kilda.org.uk/frame5.htm "St Kilda: Fascinating Facts"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081009053305/http://www.kilda.org.uk/frame5.htm |date=9 October 2008 }} National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 19 August 2007.</ref>

[[James Boswell|Boswell]] and [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]] discussed the subject during their 1773 tour of the Hebrides. Boswell wrote: "After dinner to-day, we talked of the extraordinary fact of Lady Grange's being sent to St Kilda, and confined there for several years, without any means of relief. Dr Johnson said, if M'Leod would let it be known that he had such a place for naughty ladies, he might make it a very profitable island."<ref>{{cite web |last=Boswell |first=James |year=1785 |url=http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/boswell/james/b74t/ |title=Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. |access-date=6 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428010642/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/boswell/james/b74t/ |archive-date=28 April 2007}}</ref>

[[File:Notquiteheathrow.jpg|thumb|This "International Sea & Airport Lounge" is situated adjacent to the [[helipad]] and landing craft slipway.]]
In the 1860s unsuccessful attempts were made to improve the landing area by blasting rocks. A small [[jetty]] was erected in 1877, but it was washed away in a storm two years later. In 1883 representations to the [[Napier Commission]] suggested the building of a replacement, but it was 1901 before the [[Congested Districts Board (Scotland)|Congested Districts Board]] provided an engineer to enable one to be completed the following year. Nearby on the shoreline are some huge boulders which were known throughout the [[Highlands and Islands]] in the 19th century as ''Doirneagan Hirt'', Hirta's pebbles.<ref>Quine (2000) pages 29–30.</ref>

At one time, three churches stood on Hirta. Christ Church, in the site of the graveyard at the centre of the village, was in use in 1697 and was the largest, but this thatched-roof structure was too small to hold the entire population, and most of the congregation had to gather in the churchyard during services. St Brendan's Church lay over a kilometre away on the slopes of Ruival, and St Columba's at the west end of the village street, but little is left of these buildings. A new [[kirk]] and [[rectory|manse]] were erected at the east end of the village in 1830 and a [[Factor (Scotland)|Factor's]] house in 1860.<ref>Maclean (1977) page 31.</ref><ref>Quine (2000) page 37.</ref>