The Western Isles has had a history of depopulation from the Highland Clearances of the 18th century to the evacuation of Isle of St. Kilda in 1934 and even in more recent time with the complete depopulation of Scarp in 1971. This early research explores the notion of growth and (de)growth and identity through the development of a St. Kilda heritage centre on the Isle of Lewis. This centre is being planned to not only commemorate and preserve the cultural memory of St. Kilda but also to stymie the eventual loss of population of the community of Uig on Lewis. Through the research of the development of a new type of ‘heritage space’ of an abandoned isle a new way of understanding the current loss of people within the Western Isles is generated. Thus, this project is at a fundamental level about how a rural community is rallying together to save itself from the same fate that has befallen the communities around them and what this means to not only the Western Isles, but all island communities of the Northern Seas.