ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

St Kilda, the fall, and the call of Eden

• In Event: Searching for Eden in 20th-Century Ecological Thought

English Abstract

In this paper I will discuss the life and legacy of Scottish naturalist and conservationist John Morton Boyd (1925-1998), best known for his collaborative writings and relationship with Frank Fraser Darling, his expeditions to post-abandonment St Kilda and the later establishment of the St Kilda Soay Sheep Project in the early 1950s, and his influence on Scottish nature conservation through directing the Nature Conservancy. Boyd belonged to a broader community of postwar naturalists in the Hebrides influenced by both the lived experiences of military service and a complex relation to Modernity: for Boyd (and many of his contemporaries) critical engagements with the widespread destruction of nature were linked to an overall decline in morality and faith. In this paper, through the writings and accounts of Boyd's work on St Kilda, I explore the historical influence of Christianity on postwar ecology in the British Isles and explore its contemporary significance for nature conservation, land ownership, and environmental stewardship in the Outer Hebrides.

Author

• Adam Searle, University of Nottingham