St Kilda mailboat

St Kilda mailboat

Highlands

By the late 1890s a unique system of mail dispatch had developed on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda. Letters were enclosed in a waterproof receptacle, usually a sheep’s bladder, attached to a homemade buoy, and launched into the sea in the hope that they would wash ashore on the mainland and be forwarded on by whoever chanced upon them. They were aiming for them to find land in the Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis, but depending on the current, it could take weeks or months for letters to reach their destination. There are records of mailboats washing ashore as far afield as Norway. Life of these remote islands was harsh and in August 1930 the island was evacuated on the request of the islanders and the archipelago abandoned. This mailboat came into the museum’s care sometime before 1938.

Scottish Highlands & Islands

objects,highlandlife

1930s

eulac3d

Physical Object

65

23/12/2021

West Highland Museum

find,57.8111196,-8.5677486;

West Highlands Museum

TEXT

201

organic, wood

1013