People have been living on St Kilda for thousands of years. You can still see some of the things they left behind and bits of the buildings they built. Life was tough because the islands are so far away from everywhere else. The windy weather and the difficulties in catching and growing food also made life hard. People lived on St Kilda until 1930 when they asked the government for help to leave because many things were making their life there difficult. Many people had already left or died and it became impossible to keep their way of life going. The people who were left hoped they might have a better life on the mainland. The government agreed, the people were evacuated and the village became deserted.