Letters posted to commemorate Scottish archipelago evacuation wash up on Norwegian beach after decade at sea

A small mailboat that was filled with letters to mark the 80th anniversary of the evacuation of a Scottish island has been found in Norway nearly a decade after it was put to sea.

The last 36 people living on St Kilda, an archipelago to the west of the Outer Hebrides, left their island homes on 29 August, 1930, because life there was becoming untenable.

Eighty years later, an archaeologist working for the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), which has been in charge of the islands since 1957, decided to pay tribute to the islanders by posting seven letters in a boat he had made out of pine.

Ian McHardy’s design was based on mailboats which the inhabitants of St Kilda used in attempts to get their mail to their intended destinations.

By sending the boats to sea, the islanders hoped their letters would be picked up by ships or would wash up in better-connected places.

Mr McHardy followed their example by posting seven postcards inside his boat, including letters to the Prince of Wales, a patron of the NTS, and Norman John Gillies, who lived on the archipelago until he was five.

In April this year, four children found the boat and its messages on an island in the Vesteralen archipelago off the Norwegian coast, more than 1,000 miles from St Kilda, where it was launched.

Geir Soreng, who is the grandfather of the children who discovered the mailboat, said: "My four grandkids found a treasure at the beach on Andoya, north of Norway. It was a postboat in wood, sent from St Kilda in 2010.”

"Emil, nine, Ask, nine, Tiril, six, and Erling, four, were excited when they found a secret room in the boat, with seven cards. We had never heard of this fabulous island and are fascinated by the story,” he added.

Mr Soreng followed the request written on one of the postcards by sending them to the NTS in July.

The conservation organisation then forwarded the cards on to the correct addresses, where they arrived this month.

John Gillies, the son of Norman John Gillies, who died in 2013, was among those who received a letter in the post.

Describing its arrival as a “surprise”, Mr Gillies, said: "My dad died in 2013 but he would have been really chuffed to have received it. For me to get it all these years later, it's quite touching really.”

"Even though he left when he was five he had very vivid memories of the island,” he added.

In response to the postcard he received, Prince Charles, who visited St Kilda in 1971, said: "In such a fast-moving world it is touching to know that the tradition of a simple mailboat from the remote island of St Kilda can safely travel so far."

Mr McHardy, who made the mailboat, said he always hoped it would be found.

"I was just really excited to find out it had travelled all the way to the north of Norway,” he said.

Additional reporting by PA