 Another significant feature of St Kildan life was the diet . The islanders kept sheep and a few cattle and were able to grow a limited amount of food crops such as barley and potatoes on the better @-@ drained land in Village Bay ; in many ways the islands can be seen as a large mixed farm . Samuel Johnson reported that in the 18th century sheep 's milk was made " into small cheeses " by the St Kildans . They generally eschewed fishing because of the heavy seas and unpredictable weather . The mainstay of their food supplies was the profusion of island birds , especially gannet and fulmar . These they harvested as eggs and young birds and ate both fresh and cured . Adult puffins were also caught by the use of fowling rods . This feature of island life came at a price . When Henry Brougham visited in 1799 he noted that " the air is infected by a stench almost insupportable – a compound of rotten fish , filth of all sorts and stinking seafowl " . An excavation of the Taigh an t @-@ Sithiche ( the " house of the faeries " – see below ) in 1877 by Sands unearthed the remains of gannet , sheep , cattle and limpets amidst various stone tools . The building is between 1 @,@ 700 and 2 @,@ 500 years old , which suggests that the St Kildan diet had changed little over the millennia . Indeed , the tools were recognised by the St Kildans , who could put names to them as similar devices were still in use . 
