Prostitutes on St Kilda: Unpacking the Myth & Reality of Survival & Scandal

What is Meant by “Prostitutes of St Kilda”?

The term “prostitutes of St Kilda” refers to a controversial and often misunderstood historical narrative suggesting that women on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda engaged in transactional sexual relationships with visiting sailors and tourists, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This label, largely applied by Victorian and Edwardian outsiders, oversimplifies a complex survival strategy rooted in extreme isolation, poverty, and a unique island economy based on barter. It does not describe organized commercial sex work as understood in urban contexts.

The reality was far more nuanced. St Kilda, located 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, was one of the most isolated communities in the British Isles. Cut off for months by treacherous seas, the islanders developed a subsistence lifestyle heavily reliant on seabirds (fulmars, gannets, puffins) for food, oil, and feathers. Their contact with the outside world was sporadic, primarily through:

• Fishing Boats: Mainly from the Hebrides and mainland Scotland, seeking shelter or trading basic goods.
• Tourist Steamers: Increasingly common from the mid-19th century onwards, bringing curious visitors.
• Occasional Government/Charity Vessels: Delivering supplies or officials.

With virtually no cash economy, the islanders relied on barter. Seabird oil and feathers were their main “currency.” When external ships arrived, the islanders, desperate for essential supplies like grain, meal, tools, cloth, and medicine, traded what they had. Some accounts suggest that for some women, sexual favors became part of this informal barter system with sailors and tourists, offered in exchange for goods crucial for survival. This practice was interpreted through a Victorian moral lens and sensationalized as “prostitution,” creating the persistent myth.

Was There Actual Prostitution on St Kilda?

Labelling the interactions as straightforward “prostitution” is a significant historical misrepresentation driven by outsider perspectives. There is no evidence of organized brothels, professional sex workers, or a cash-based sex trade on St Kilda. The reality involved informal, transactional relationships driven by dire necessity within the island’s specific socio-economic context.

Several factors challenge the “prostitution” narrative:

• Isolation & Lack of Cash: A formal sex trade requires a steady clientele and cash flow, both absent on St Kilda. Visits were infrequent and unpredictable.
• Barter Economy: Transactions were based on goods (tobacco, food, cloth) needed for survival, not money for profit.
• Cultural Context: St Kildan society had its own norms regarding relationships and pre-marital sex, which were likely more pragmatic than Victorian standards but not equivalent to commercial sex work.
• Power Imbalance: Sailors and tourists held the essential goods, creating a dynamic where islanders, especially women, had limited bargaining power.

Historians like Angela McCarthy and Andrew Fleming argue that the term “prostitution” was used judgmentally by outsiders shocked by the islanders’ poverty and their perceived moral laxity, failing to grasp the harsh realities of survival. It was more accurately a desperate form of barter, where sexuality was one of the few “resources” some women felt they could offer to secure vital commodities unavailable on the island.

Why Did the “Prostitution” Narrative Emerge?

The persistence of the “prostitutes of St Kilda” myth stems from a confluence of Victorian morality, sensationalism, misunderstanding, and the island’s inherent “otherness.” Visitors arrived with preconceived notions of civilization and morality, interpreting survival strategies through a lens of scandal and exoticism.

Key drivers of the narrative include:

• Victorian Prudery & Moral Panic: Victorian society was deeply conservative regarding sexuality. Witnessing or hearing about sexual activity outside of marriage, especially involving “primitive” islanders and outsiders, was shocking and easily framed as immoral prostitution.
• Sensationalist Accounts: Travel writers, journalists, and even some officials embellished stories of St Kilda for a fascinated metropolitan audience. Tales of “savage” customs and sexual impropriety sold books and newspapers. George Seton’s 1878 book, while sympathetic in parts, contributed to the circulation of these stories.
• Misinterpretation of Barter: Observers saw women receiving goods from sailors and assumed a purely sexual transaction, overlooking the broader context of a barter economy where *any* tradable resource was used.
• Cultural Clash: St Kildan society, while deeply religious (Protestantism arrived forcefully in the 19th century), likely had different historical norms around relationships and sexuality compared to urban Victorian Britain. These differences were misinterpreted as amorality.
• The Islanders’ Vulnerability & Poverty: Their extreme deprivation and dependence on visitors made them easy targets for exploitation and judgment. Their apparent acceptance of these transactions was seen as complicity rather than desperation.

How Did the St Kilda Economy Drive Such Behavior?

The extreme isolation and fragile subsistence economy of St Kilda created a desperate need for outside goods, forming the bedrock of transactional relationships. Traditional barter (feathers, oil) was insufficient and unreliable; sexual barter emerged as a stark adaptation to fill critical gaps.

The St Kilda economy was precarious:

• Primary Resources: Seabirds (meat, eggs, oil for fuel and export, feathers for mattresses/quilts – their main export), limited crofting (potatoes, oats on poor soil), sheep.
• Vulnerability: Bird populations fluctuated; crops failed; winter storms prevented hunting/fishing. Famines were not unknown.
• Lack of Cash: Money was almost useless on the island itself. Its value was solely in purchasing goods from the outside world during infrequent visits.
• Essential Imports: The islanders relied on imports for staples (meal, grain, sugar, salt), tools (metal, wood), clothing materials, medicine, and tobacco.

When a ship arrived, it represented a fleeting opportunity to acquire these life-sustaining items. The islanders would rush to trade. Men offered bird products, wool, or labor. For some women, offering sexual favors became a direct, albeit desperate, method to secure goods when traditional barter items were insufficient, unavailable, or not valued by the visitors. Tobacco, in particular, was a highly sought-after commodity reportedly exchanged in these encounters. This wasn’t a chosen profession; it was a survival tactic born of profound economic vulnerability and lack of alternatives.

How Did the Island Community View These Practices?

Understanding the internal St Kildan perspective is challenging due to limited direct sources, but evidence suggests a complex mix of pragmatism, resignation, religious conflict, and internal tension. It was likely seen less as “prostitution” and more as a grim necessity or an unfortunate consequence of contact with outsiders.

Factors shaping the community view:

• Pragmatism of Survival: In a community constantly battling the elements and scarcity, actions ensuring survival might be viewed with a degree of pragmatic tolerance, however reluctantly.
• Religious Influence: The strong Protestant faith instilled by missionaries in the 19th century preached strict morality. This undoubtedly created significant internal conflict and shame associated with these encounters, but the desperation for goods often overrode religious strictures. The minister would have vehemently condemned such behavior.
• Focus on Community Need: Goods obtained (like meal or cloth) often benefited the wider family or community, not just the individual woman, potentially mitigating individual stigma within the close-knit group.
• Resentment Towards Outsiders: While dependent on them, the islanders were also wary and sometimes resentful of visitors who exploited their vulnerability, looked down on them, and disrupted their lives.
• Lack of Alternatives: With no other viable means to acquire essential items during a ship’s brief visit, the community may have tacitly accepted this as one of the harsh realities of their existence. Silence, rather than open approval, was likely the dominant response.

Oral histories and accounts from descendants often express deep sadness and anger about this period, viewing it as exploitation by outsiders taking advantage of their ancestors’ plight, rather than evidence of inherent immorality.

How Do Historians Interpret This Aspect of St Kilda Life?

Modern historical scholarship has moved away from the simplistic “prostitution” label towards a more nuanced, empathetic, and contextual understanding. Historians now emphasize the transactional nature within a survival economy, the agency (however constrained) of the women involved, and the role of external exploitation and judgment.

Key interpretations include:

• Survival Strategy, Not Commerce: It’s framed primarily as a desperate adaptation within a non-cash, barter-based economy under extreme duress, distinct from urban professional sex work. (Scholars: Angela McCarthy, Andrew Fleming).
• Exploitation by Outsiders: Emphasis is placed on the power imbalance. Sailors and tourists, holding coveted goods, exploited the islanders’ vulnerability. The women were victims of circumstance, not willing participants in a free market. (Scholars: Roger Hutchinson, Tom Steel).
• Victorian Moral Construct: The “prostitution” narrative is seen as a projection of Victorian anxieties and a tool for “othering” the St Kildans, reinforcing a sense of superiority. (Scholars: John MacLeod, Mary Harman).
• Complexity of Female Agency: While acknowledging the constraints, some historians explore the limited agency women might have exercised – choosing to engage in this trade to obtain specific goods for themselves or their families, making a difficult choice within terrible options.
• Symptom of Wider Decline: This practice is often viewed as a symptom of the increasing unsustainability of traditional St Kildan life and their growing, corrosive dependence on the outside world in the late 19th/early 20th century, culminating in the 1930 evacuation.

The focus has shifted from scandal to understanding the harsh social and economic forces at play.

What Role Did Tourism Play in Perpetuating the Myth?

The rise of tourism from the mid-19th century onwards was instrumental in both facilitating the transactional encounters and cementing the “prostitution” myth in the public imagination. Steamship day-trippers treated the islanders as exotic curiosities, creating a dynamic ripe for misunderstanding and exploitation.

Tourism’s impact was multifaceted:

• Increased Contact: More frequent visits meant more opportunities for the transactional exchanges to occur and be observed.
• Commodification of the Islanders: Tourists viewed St Kildans as primitive spectacles. This dehumanization made it easier to view their actions through a lens of scandalous exoticism rather than human desperation.
• “Souvenir” Hunting: Tourists sought “authentic” experiences and souvenirs. Sexual encounters became a perverse form of dark tourism “souvenir” for some visitors.
• Demand for Sensational Stories: Tourists returned home with titillating tales of “savagery” and immorality, feeding the Victorian appetite for sensational travelogues and reinforcing the stereotype.
• Disruption & Dependency: Tourism disrupted traditional work patterns. Islanders spent time interacting with tourists or preparing goods for them, sometimes neglecting essential subsistence activities, ironically increasing their dependence on the goods tourists brought. The expectation of gifts or payment (in kind) for being viewed or photographed also developed.

George Seton, writing in 1878 after visiting on a tourist steamer, noted the islanders’ eagerness for tobacco and other goods, and alluded to the “immoral conduct” of some sailors, contributing to the public perception without fully grasping the economic drivers from the St Kildan side.

How Does the “Prostitution” Narrative Fit into the Overall Story of St Kilda?

The controversial narrative of transactional sex is not an isolated scandal but a tragic and revealing chapter within the broader saga of St Kilda’s struggle, resilience, and ultimate demise. It highlights the corrosive impact of external contact on an isolated, vulnerable culture ill-equipped to handle exploitation or judgment.

Its significance lies in illustrating:

• The Fragility of Isolation: Shows how contact, initially seen as potential salvation (through trade), could bring destructive elements (exploitation, disease, moral judgment).
• The Limits of Subsistence: Underscores the sheer desperation that could arise when traditional methods failed to meet basic needs, forcing extreme adaptations.
• Cultural Misunderstanding & Bias: Serves as a stark example of how outsider perspectives can distort and damage a community’s reputation and self-perception.
• The Human Cost of “Progress”: Represents the dark side of increased connection (tourism, trade) for a community lacking power or representation.
• A Precursor to Evacuation: This aspect of dependence and degradation contributed to the growing sense, both internally and externally, that life on St Kilda was becoming unsustainable and demoralizing, paving the way for the community’s request for evacuation in 1930.

Understanding this complex element is crucial for a complete, honest, and empathetic picture of St Kildan life in its final decades, moving beyond romanticized notions of noble savagery to confront the harsh, often brutal, realities they faced.

What is the Legacy of the “Prostitutes of St Kilda” Story Today?

The legacy of this narrative is complex, involving ongoing historical debate, ethical reflection, and a powerful cautionary tale. It remains a potent symbol of exploitation, cultural misunderstanding, and the resilience of marginalized communities in the face of overwhelming hardship.

Key aspects of its legacy:

• Historiographical Debate: Continues to be a focus for historians refining our understanding of the economic, social, and gendered realities of life on St Kilda and similar isolated communities.
• Reassessment & Empathy: Modern perspectives increasingly emphasize the agency within desperation and condemn the exploitation by outsiders, fostering greater empathy for the St Kildan women involved.
• Ethical Tourism: Serves as a stark reminder of the potential negative impacts of tourism on vulnerable communities, informing modern ethical tourism practices that prioritize respect and mutual benefit.
• Cultural Sensitivity: Highlights the dangers of judging other cultures through an external lens and the lasting damage caused by misrepresentation and sensationalism.
• Symbol of Resilience & Exploitation: The story endures as part of St Kilda’s powerful mystique – a testament to human endurance in the face of unimaginable hardship, but also a permanent marker of the exploitation they suffered at the hands of the “civilized” world they depended on.
• Museums & Interpretation: Sites like the Museum nan Eilean in Lews Castle, Stornoway, and the National Trust for Scotland’s St Kilda Centre on Hiort (St Kilda, Hiort) grapple with presenting this aspect of history sensitively and accurately, moving beyond the simplistic myth.

The story of the so-called “prostitutes of St Kilda” is ultimately not about vice, but about vulnerability, survival, and the harsh collision of two very different worlds. It forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about power, poverty, and how history is written.