Experience · Outer Hebrides

St Kilda by private charter

Forty miles west, when the swell drops.

A day boat to Hirta, the abandoned village and the highest sea cliffs in Britain.

Illustration: no verified photograph of St Kilda yet

About this experience

What to expect.

St Kilda is an archipelago forty miles west of the Outer Hebrides. Its people left in 1930. The village street on Hirta is still there, with its cleits and its church, under some of the highest sea cliffs in Britain and the largest gannet colony in the world on Boreray.

It is a National Trust for Scotland property and a World Heritage Siteverify. Day boats leave from Leverburgh on Harris and from Skye in the summer, if the sea allows. The crossing takes a few hours each way and can be rough.

We book a private or small-group boat and build the St Kilda day into the middle of a Harris stay, with two or three possible dates. The skipper makes the call on the morning; if it is off, we move it.

On Hirta there are a few hours ashore: the village street, the museum in a restored house, the ranger’s talk, the climb to the gap for the view over Boreray and the stacs. Then the boat runs round Boreray on the way home, through the gannets.

Routes

Routes built around it.

Real routes that include this experience. Each is tailored to your dates.

All routes
The pale curve of Luskentyre beach on Harris, turquoise shallows and a few white crofts under dark hills
Luskentyre, Isle of Harris

11–13 nights · Outer Hebrides · Wester Ross

The Long Island

Four ferries · Three causeways · One drive north

  • The long crossing from Oban to Castlebay, on Barra
  • North through Eriskay, South Uist and Benbecula by causeway
  • Four nights on Harris, with a St Kilda day held in reserve
  • Lewis and Calanais, then the ferry to Ullapool and Assynt

Suggested11–13 nightsTailored to your dates · no package price

View route: The Long Island

Where

The regions it belongs to.

Golden dune grass and shell sand on Harris, with a sea loch and bare hills behind
Isle of Harris

Outer Hebrides

Lewis and Harris

White beaches on the west side, bare rock on the east, and standing stones older than the pyramids.

The Old Man of Storr and its ridge on Skye above a small loch
Isle of Skye

Inner Hebrides

Skye and Raasay

The Cuillin, the Trotternish ridge and Raasay across the sound, out of season.

Speak to a specialist

Make it part of the trip.

We arrange it as part of a whole trip, with the crossings, the houses and the spare day it needs.

More private days?

All ten experiences
Plan a trip