Country diary: This is as wild and remote as Britain gets – a trip to St Kilda

I am on a boat on the ocean, not far from the Outer Hebrides islands, travelling towards St Kilda. St Kilda is the most remote group of islands in Britain. It is also a special place because it is a Unesco world heritage site for two reasons. The islands have very high, steep cliffs that rise from the sea. We can see dolphins and many seabirds like gannets and auks.

We arrive at Hirta, the biggest island. Above the beach is an old, abandoned village of traditional houses. These houses are from a time when people lived here permanently. Now, the only permanent residents are a type of small bird called the St Kilda wren. Each old house has a plaque that shows the name of the last family who lived there.

One house belonged to Mary Ann and William MacDonald and their many children. It is hard to imagine now, but for many years, their families lived here, used to the difficult and isolated life. This continued until 1930 when the last people living on St Kilda were moved away at their own request.

What is left on the island is very interesting. Around the houses are small fields with grass, protected by stone walls. There are also unique, beehive-shaped stone structures called cleits. People used these in the past to store food like seabirds and eggs, and also peat for fuel. Today, these cleits are used by birds called wheatears to build their nests. You can hear their calls in the quiet air.

We walk up the steep hills of Conachair, the highest point. Here, small, tough Soay sheep eat grass. The low plants on the ground hide small orchids and other interesting plants. You can hear loud bird calls from larger seabirds like bonxies and the singing of snipes.

Suddenly, we reach the edge of the cliffs, about 1,000 feet above the sea. In front of us are very large rock towers in the Atlantic Ocean. These are Stac an Armin and Stac Lee. Nearby are the large cliffs of Boreray. Almost a million seabirds live on these islands during their breeding season. We also see large sea eagles flying above us. It feels like standing on the edge of the world.