The cover I'm looking for was produced by the Royal Artillery Range Hebrides, Isle of Benbecula in Scotland during 1990 to mark the 60th anniversary of the evacuation of St Kilda in August 1930.

The cover displays a map of the St Kilda islands and bears both the red puffin philatelic cachet used on St Kilda related items at the time and a special black cachet worded; "60th Anniversary of Evacuation 1930-1990 29 Aug 90 St Kilda Western Isles". The stamp used on the cover was the Queen Mother 20p stamp cancelled by a Balivanich, Isle of Benbecula machine postmark dated 29th August 1990.

500 of these covers were produced by the Royal Artillery Range and anyone who has an example to offer is welcome to email scans or close up digital photos showing the cover's condition together with price required to: admin[at]gbstamp.co.uk

History of St Kilda and a Wildlife Connection to Recent Post & Go Stamps

St. Kilda - or "Hiort" in Gaelic - is an island group (archipelago) formed by some of the most westerly islands of the Scottish Outer Hebrides. The archipelago is located in the Atlantic around forty miles west of North Uist. Hirta, the largest island of St Kilda, was once inhabited and boasts the tallest sea cliffs anywhere in the United Kingdom. The nearby islands of Dùn, Soay and Boreray were once used by the local population to graze animals and hunt seabirds.

It is thought St Kilda could have been inhabited by up to 200 people for possibly 2000 years and the earliest written records of island life date from the Late Middle Ages. Life in St Kilda was undoubtedly tough and became increasingly unsustainable causing the entire population of Hirta to be evacuated to the Scottish mainland in August 1930. Today only Ministry of Defence personnel and conservation workers spend limited periods of time on Hirta and their visits are usually restricted to the summer months.

The entire St Kilda archipelago is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and became a World Heritage Site in 1986. Two different traditional sheep breeds have survived on these remote islands, the Soay - featured in the recent Sheep Breeds Post & Go Stamp Issue - and the Boreray and both share their names with islands of St Kilda used for grazing the animals. The islands also remain an important breeding ground for many seabird species including Gannets and Puffins which were also featured in the British Birds Post & Go Stamp series.

The dark coloured, horned Soay sheep farmed on St Kilda was one of the ancient British breeds recently included in this Post & Go stamp issue from Royal Mail

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