The Island of the saint who never was- A hauntingly beautiful and hugely thought provoking collection of photographic works by international renowned artist Craig Mackay. His work accompanied by the award winning poet Ian Stephen. The words form a poetic log and follows their journey to ‘The Island of the saint who never was’- St Kilda(being the collective name for the archipelago group of islands located fifty five miles west of the Butt of Lewis in the Atlantic Ocean.
The journey to St Kilda was done in the yacht El Vigo, a 28ft long racing boat built in the 1930’s. The return via the Flannan Isles, a 26 hour journey in force 7 gale.
Mackay’s photographic works look at these remote and hostile islands, at the ghost’s of the people that once existed. St Kilda being a fascinating case study for a paganistic civilization altered by the move to a Calvinistic Presbyterian dictatorship, far stricter than anything on the mainland. St Kilda’s way of life became a microcosm, a world in a grain of sand as the external world changed through modernisation and trade.
The civilization did not survive.
It’s people finally evacuated off the island,drowning their dogs as they left.