0:00:30 > 0:00:3240 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean
0:00:32 > 0:00:36lies a group of islands which have an almost mythical status.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38St Kilda.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45It's a place of superlatives.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48The biggest sea cliffs in Britain,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51the largest sea bird colonies
0:00:51 > 0:00:54and the remotest village street.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Regular lines of stone walls and houses are still standing,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05but the last native St Kildans left in 1930.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Increasing contact with the industrialised world
0:01:09 > 0:01:11had destroyed their traditional way of life.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Today the houses are empty, except in the summer months,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19when they are home to a band of conservationists,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22dedicated to preserving the past.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29I love the island, I love the isolation, I love its location.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32The pure beauty of the place.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35I'm Samantha Dennis.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I'm here as the archaeologist for the National Trust of Scotland.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42My job here really is to look after
0:01:42 > 0:01:44all the cultural material on St Kilda.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48I go around checking on the buildings,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51also rebuild some of the walls when they're falling down.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Basically, just keep the standing structures, the buildings.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57One of the best things about being on St Kilda
0:01:57 > 0:02:01is the number of people you meet, the variety of people
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and the skills that you learn from people passing through.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Everything from handling puffins to reslating rooves
0:02:07 > 0:02:09to fixing a blocked drain.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12You kind of feel a feeling of you belong somewhere.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14You've done something for someone else.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20SEA BIRDS CALL
0:02:35 > 0:02:37The islands of the Outer Hebrides
0:02:37 > 0:02:41are bursting with archaeology and ancient monuments.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45But the most enigmatic of them all
0:02:45 > 0:02:48are the magnificent standing stones at Callanish on Lewis.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Put up around 3,000 BC by Neolithic farmers.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15You can speculate to your heart's content
0:03:15 > 0:03:17about what these stones were for,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22but the thing that gets me is just how old, old, old they are.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26It's 5,000 years old. That means before there was anything.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Before there were cities, before there were roads,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31before there were big populations.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Before there were pyramids in Egypt, there was this.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Many stone circles are probably associated with the sun and stars.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43But the layout of Callanish
0:03:43 > 0:03:47is more likely linked to the movements of the moon.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49That's the theory,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53although we will never know what was in the mind of the communities
0:03:53 > 0:03:55that gathered here for generations.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:03:59 > 0:04:00E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk