St Kilda National Trust Campsite

St Kilda National Trust Campsite offers simple tent camping on Hirta, the main island of an Atlantic archipelago recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for both its natural and cultural importance. Run by the National Trust for Scotland, the campsite has shared toilets, showers and drinking water, but a stay here requires careful preparation and self-sufficiency. Pitches must be booked ahead by contacting the Trust by email; boat transport needs arranging separately. Crossings from the Western Isles can take three to six hours, depending on the vessel, weather and tides, and poor conditions can disrupt travel.

Bring a cooking stove, all your food and enough additional supplies to cover a delayed departure. Warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy footwear are essential for exploring this exposed island. Boots and equipment must be scrubbed free of mud before landing to help protect its wildlife, and pets cannot be brought ashore.

Hirta’s village gives a tangible sense of the community that lived here until the evacuation in 1930. Its crescent of houses and cultivation plots sits among hundreds of cleits: distinctive drystone structures once used to store food, feathers and fuel. Beyond the village, steep grassy slopes, cliffs and sea stacks define the landscape. The archipelago supports important breeding populations of puffins, gannets and fulmars, while ancient-breed Soay sheep graze on Hirta. These natural features and the surviving traces of island life give visitors plenty to explore without treating this demanding destination as an ordinary camping holiday.