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Home"St Kilda - The Lonely Islands" DVD
(Playable worldwide except USA / Canada unless DVD player is compatible with PAL format)
Treaures from the National Library of Scotland...
"St Kilda - The Lonely Islands" (1966)
The definitive Films of Scotland documentary, recalling Martin Martin's book based on his visit in 1697 with MacLeod's factor from Skye. Includes a dramatic reconstruction of his account of the balancing ritual of a St Kilda cragsman on the 'Lover's Stone', where a young man must prove his manhood to his betrothed. The island's history is shown in a specially researched still of the 'Earth House', 'Callum Mhor's House', the graveyard, cleits and lazybeds. Rare wildlife is abundant: a wren singing; a fieldmouse grooming; gannets and puffins by the 10. Not to mention the wild Soay sheep. Finally there is tourism, the dependancy on which hastened the end of the islanders way of life.
"Fair Isle - The Happy Island" (1978)
The famous Bird Observatory is quiet in June, but we snitch puffins and catch a family of eiders heading seawards. Great and Arctic Skuas nest by the air strip; fulmars soar at the cliff top; kittiwakes gather at the South Light. Watch Fair Isle knitting at incredible speed and cold tar road making to an outlying croft; we attend 'Sheep Hill' with almost the entire population at shearing; visit the 15 pupil school, and church on Sunday. The midweek mailboat and the morning plane arrive; a boat of piltocks is landed at south harbour; the district nurse goes on her rounds. A barbecue on the beach and a dance in the Old Village Hall, with a pram park, explain the film's title in music and laughter.
Commentary by Christopher Mylne.