The island has been uninhabited since it was evacuated in 1930. It was always very isolated, being significantly out from any other inhabited land and too small and harsh to support more than a couple hundred people at best. As contact became somewhat more regular in the 18th to 20th centuries, diseases brought to the island just about wiped out the population, and the last people there decided to collectively leave for the mainland
These days it's a nature reserve. You can go across and stay on the island for a summer, though! People go to help restore and preserve the village each year
@Skua@PugJesus@StopSpazzing the original inhabitants were put under enormous pressure to leave the island. They refused them the most basic services like a postal service or a ferry and made their life impossible. However 10 years later they discovered actually it was habitable because they located a military base there.
It's against the deer, mostly. We killed all the wolves centuries ago and now there's heaps of antlery bastards that run about and eat every sapling
...that said, Hirta is its own case. There's been nobody living there to plant any trees for almost a century, and trees have seemingly never grown there. It's a pretty harsh and rugged place
8 Comments
StopSpazzing@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 275d
So like, can i move there?
Skua@kbin.earth · 6 pts · 275d
Only if you're a puffin!
The island has been uninhabited since it was evacuated in 1930. It was always very isolated, being significantly out from any other inhabited land and too small and harsh to support more than a couple hundred people at best. As contact became somewhat more regular in the 18th to 20th centuries, diseases brought to the island just about wiped out the population, and the last people there decided to collectively leave for the mainland
These days it's a nature reserve. You can go across and stay on the island for a summer, though! People go to help restore and preserve the village each year
peterbrown@mastodon.scot · 2 pts · 274d
@Skua @PugJesus @StopSpazzing the original inhabitants were put under enormous pressure to leave the island. They refused them the most basic services like a postal service or a ferry and made their life impossible. However 10 years later they discovered actually it was habitable because they located a military base there.
A dreadful story.
ikidd@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 275d
Is it against the law to plant a tree in Scotland?
FishFace@piefed.social · 6 pts · 275d
It fuckin wimdy
Skua@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 275d
It's against the deer, mostly. We killed all the wolves centuries ago and now there's heaps of antlery bastards that run about and eat every sapling
...that said, Hirta is its own case. There's been nobody living there to plant any trees for almost a century, and trees have seemingly never grown there. It's a pretty harsh and rugged place
KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 274d
It's a combination of too many herbivores with no carnivores to balance their population, and thousands of years of deforestation
argueswithidiots@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 275d
Make sure you pick one of the stone houses with a new roof.