Final preparations are being made around the country to celebrate the first ever St Kilda Day.
The events will mark the evacuation of the archipelago's final inhabitants in 1930, with their lives and legacy remembered in music, words and pictures.
Perceived by many historians as a utopian haven, whose lifestyle was destroyed by outside influence, the residents had a harsh existence.
The last residents were exiled to mainland Scotland in August 1930.
Among them was five-year-old Norman Gillies. The death of his pregnant mother from appendicitis was the catalyst for the evacuation.
Now 84 and living in Ipswich, he is one of the last remaining native St Kildans.
Mr Gillies said: “The story of it is fascinating and also quite contentious. There are those who think of St Kilda as some kind of utopia. My goodness! What sort of utopia was it?
“It was a very hard place in which to stay but at the same time there were a lot of values and ideas which prevailed there, which could never prevail in the ‘New World’ into which they found themselves precipitated, catapulted into.”
A host of events will take place around the country to commemorate St Kilda Day including music, song, and exhibitions will celebrate the legacy of the islands, which now have World Heritage and Cultural status through UNESCO.
The success of the 2007 St Kilda Opera and a gravity-defying dance piece brought the story to an international stage.
It is hoped that St Kilda Day will be become an annual event leading to a permanent celebration of a long lost and unique way of life.
