Orkney Islands
The
Orkney Islands, usually called simply
Orkney, are one of the 32
council areas of
Scotland. Orkney consists of about 70 small
islands 16 km north of
Caithness in northern mainland
Scotland. The largest island in the group is known as
The Mainland, with approximately 20 being inhabited.
Orkney's administrative capital is
Kirkwall on "The Mainland." Home to the
St Magnus' Cathedral, it has about 8,500 inhabitants and a large port. The only other
burgh is
Stromness at the western end of "The Mainland", with a population of only about 2,000. The third largest settlement (c. 550) is
St Margaret's Hope, on South Ronaldsay.
Orkney is also a
former county, and a
Lieutenancy area, and the
Orkney constituency of the Scottish Parliament.
The largest island in Orkney is known as
"The Mainland". An older name for it is Hrossey (Horse-island). Other islands can be classified as north or south of "The Mainland." The islands north of "The Mainland" are known collectively as The North Isles, those to the south as The South Isles. The remote
Sule Skerry and
Sule Stack lie around 60 km west of the archipelago, but form part of the council area.
The North Isles
The northern group of islands is the most extensive and consists of a large number of moderately sized islands, linked to "The Mainland" by ferries. Most of the islands described as "
holms" are very small.
*
Auskerry*
Calf of Eday*
Damsay*
Eday,
Egilsay,
Eynhallow*
Faray*
Gairsay*
Helliar Holm,
Holm of Faray,
Holm of Huip,
Holm of Papay,
Holm of Scockness*
Kili Holm*
Linga Holm*
Muckle Green Holm*
North Ronaldsay*
Papa Stronsay,
Papa Westray*
Rousay,
Rusk Holm*
Sanday,
Shapinsay,
Stronsay,
Sweyn Holm*
Westray,
WyreThe South Isles
The southern group of islands surrounds
Scapa Flow. Hoy is the highest of the Orkney Isles, while South Ronaldsay, Burray and Lamb Holm are linked to "The Mainland" by the
Churchill Barriers. The
Pentland Skerries lie further south, close to the Scottish mainland.
*
Burray*
Calf of Flotta,
Cava,
Copinsay,
Corn Holm*
Fara,
Flotta*
Glims Holm,
Graemsay*
Hoy,
Hunda*
Lamb Holm*
Rysa Little*
South Ronaldsay,
Switha,
Swona |
Orkney Islands Aerial photomap |
The
Pentland Firth is a seaway which separates Orkney from the mainland of Scotland. The firth is 11 km wide between
Brough Ness on the island of
South Ronaldsay and
Duncansby Head in
Caithness.
Orkney lies between 58° 41' and 59° 24' North, and 2° 22' and 3° 26' West, measures 80 km from northeast to southwest and 47 km from east to west, and covers 973 km². Excepting on the west coasts of the larger islands, which present rugged cliff scenery remarkable both for beauty and for colouring, the group lies somewhat low and is of bleak aspect.
The hilliest island is
Hoy; the highest point in Orkney,
Ward Hill, is to be found there. The only other islands containing heights of any importance are "The Mainland", with (another) Ward Hill (268 m), and Wideford Hill and Rousay. Nearly all of the islands possess lochs (lakes), and
The Loch of Harray and
The Loch of Stenness on "The Mainland" attain noteworthy proportions. The rivers are merely streams draining the high land. Excepting on the west fronts of the Mainland, Hoy and Rousay, the coastline of the islands is deeply indented, and the islands themselves are divided from each other by straits generally called "sounds" or "firths", though off the north-east of Hoy the designation "Bring Deeps" is used, south of "The Mainland" is
Scapa Flow and to the south-west of Eday is found the
Fall of Warness.
The very names of the islands indicate their nature: the terminal "a" or "ay" represents the Norse
ey, meaning "island", which is scarcely disguised even in the words "Pomona" (an older alternative name for The Mainland) and "Hoy". The islets are usually styled "holms" and the isolated rocks "skerries".
The
tidal currents, or races, or "roost" (as some of them are called locally, from the
Icelandic) off many of the isles run with enormous velocity, and whirlpools are of frequent occurrence, and strong enough at times to prove a source of danger to small craft.
The charm of Orkney does not lie in their ordinary physical features, so much as in beautiful atmospheric effects, extraordinary examples of light and shade, and rich coloration of cliff and sea.
The islands are notable for the lack of trees, which is partly accounted for by the amount of wind (although the climate in general is temperate). The formation of
peat is evidence that this was not always the case, and deliberate deforestation is believed to have taken place at some stage prior to the
Neolithic, the use of stone in settlements such as
Skara Brae being evidence of the lack of availability of timber for building.
Most of the land is still taken up by farms, and agriculture is by far the most important sector of the economy, with fishing also being a major occupation. Orkney exports
beef,
cheese,
whisky,
beer,
fish and
seafood.
All the islands of this group are built up entirely of Old Red
Sandstone. As in the neighbouring mainland county of
Caithness, these rocks rest upon the
metamorphic rocks of the eastern
schists, as may be seen on The Mainland, where a narrow strip is exposed between Stromness and Inganess, and again in the small island of Graemsay; they are represented by grey
gneiss and
granite.
The upper division of the Old Red Sandstone is found only on Hoy, where it forms the Old Man of Hoy and neighbouring cliffs on the northwest coast. The
Old Man of Hoy presents a characteristic section, for it exhibits a thick pile of massive, current-bedded red
sandstones resting upon a thin bed of amygdaloidal
porphyrite near the foot of the pinnacle. This, in its turn, lies unconformably upon steeply inclined flagstones. This bed of
volcanic rock may be followed northward in the cliffs, and it may be noticed that it thickens considerably in that direction.
The Lower Old Red Sandstone is represented by well-bedded flagstones over most of the islands; in the south of The Mainland these are faulted against an overlying series of massive red
sandstones, but a gradual passage from the flagstones to the sandstones may be followed from Westray southeastwards into Eday. A strong synclinal fold traverses Eday and Shapinsay, the axis being North and South. Near Haco's Ness in Shapinsay there is a small exposure of amygdaloidal
diabase, which is (of course) older than that on Hoy.
Many indications of ice action are found on these islands; striated surfaces are to be seen on the cliffs in Eday and Westray, in Kirkwall Bay and on Stennie Hill in Eday; boulder
clay, with marine shells, and with many boulders of rocks foreign to the islands (
chalk, oolitic limestone,
flint, etc), which must have been brought up from the region of Moray Firth, rests upon the old strata in many places. Local
moraines are found in some of the valleys in The Mainland and Hoy.
The climate is remarkably temperate and steady for such a northerly latitude. The average temperature for the year is 8 °C (46 °F), for winter 4 °C (39 °F) and for summer 12 °C (54 °F). The winter months are January, February and March, the last being the coldest. Spring never begins before April, and it is the middle of June before the warmth grows comfortable. September is frequently the finest month, and at the end of October or the beginning of November the "peedie" (or little) summer or milder weather may occur.
The average annual rainfall varies from 850 mm (33 in.) to 940 mm (37 in.). Fogs occur during summer and early autumn, and furious gales may be expected four or five times in the year.
To tourists, one of the fascinations of the islands is their nightless summers. On the longest day, the sun rises at 03:00 and sets at 21:25 — and darkness is unknown, it being possible to read at midnight. Winter, however, is long and depressing. On the shortest day the sun rises at 09:10 and sets at 15:17.
The soil generally is a sandy
loam or a strong but friable clay, and very fertile. Large quantities of
seaweed as well as
lime and
marl are available for manure.
The
woollen trade once promised to reach considerable dimensions, but towards the end of the 18th century was superseded by the
linen (for which
flax came to be largely grown); and when this in turn collapsed before the products of the mills of
Dundee,
Dunfermline and
Glasgow, straw-plaiting was taken up, though only to be killed in due time by the competition of the south. The
kelp industry was formerly of at least minor importance.
For several centuries the
Dutch practically monopolised the
herring fishery, but when their supremacy was destroyed by the salt duty, the Orcadians failed to seize the opportunity thus presented, and
George Barry (died 1805) recorded that in his day the fisheries were almost totally neglected. The industry, however, revived, concentrating on herring,
cod and
ling, but also catching
lobsters and
crabs.
In recent years, the Orkney economy has seen growth in areas other than the traditional agriculture, livestock farming, and fishing. These include tourism; food and beverage manufacture; jewellery, knitwear, and other crafts production; construction; and oil transportation through the
Flotta oil terminal. Public services also play a significant role.
Frequent ferry services operate on the following routes:
*
Lerwick to Kirkwall
*
Aberdeen to Kirkwall
*
Scrabster to Stromness
*
John O'Groats to Burwick, South Ronaldsay
*
Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope
Most of the larger islands have their own airfield or airstrip.
Loganair operates regular services to six islands from Kirkwall. These include the shortest scheduled air service in the world, between the islands of Westray and Papa Westray. The flight is scheduled at two minutes' duration but can take less than a minute if the wind is in the right direction.
There are ideas being discussed to build an undersea tunnel between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, at a length of about 9-10 miles (15-16 km) or (more likely) one connecting the Mainland to Shapinsay. (Links: [
1] [
2] both 2005).
The islands are currently served by two weekly local newspapers,
Orkney Todayand
The Orcadian, both published every Thursday. In addition, a local radio station operates, with a second hoping to return to the isles in the near future.
BBC Radio Orkney, the local opt-out of
BBC Radio Scotland, broadcasts twice daily, with local news and entertainment.
The Superstation Orkney, Orkney's first commercial radio station, will begin broadcasting on 105.4FM in 2006. The station was granted a community radio licence in September 2005 by
Ofcom.
Located on Mainland is the 'Heart of Neolithic Orkney' a designated
UNESCO World Heritage Site. This comprises a group of Neolithic monuments which consist of a large chambered tomb (
Maes Howe), two ceremonial stone circles (the
Stones of Stenness and the
Ring of Brodgar) and a settlement (
Skara Brae), together with a number of unexcavated burial, ceremonial and settlement sites. The group constitutes a major prehistoric cultural landscape which gives a graphic depiction of life in this remote archipelago in the far north of Scotland some 5,000 years ago.
Viking settlers comprehensively occupied Orkney, and the islands became a possession of
Norway until being given to
Scotland during the
15th century as part of a dowry settlement.Evidence of the Viking presence is widespread, and includes the settlement at the
Brough of Birsay, the vast majority of
place names, and
runic inscriptions at Maeshowe and other ancient sites.
Main article: History of the Orkney Islands
The original inhabitants were
Picts, evidence of whose occupation still exists in numerous "weems" or underground houses, chambered mounds, barrows or burial mounds, "brochs" or round towers, and stone circles and standing stones. Such implements as have survived are of the rudest description, and include
quern-stones for grinding materials including
grain, stone whorls and bone combs employed in primitive forms of woollen manufacture, and specimens of simple pottery ware.
The
Romans were aware of, and probably circumnavigated, the Orkney Islands, which they called "Orcades". There is evidence that they traded, either directly or indirectly, with the inhabitants. However, they made no attempt to occupy the islands.
If, as seems likely, the
Dalriadic Gaels established a footing in the islands towards the beginning of the 6th century, their success was short-lived, and the Picts regained power and kept it until dispossessed by the
Norsemen in the 9th century. In the wake of the Scots incursionists followed the
Celtic missionaries about 565. They were companions of
Saint Columba and their efforts to convert the folk to Christianity seem to have impressed the popular imagination, for several islands bear the epithet "Papa" in commemoration of the preachers.
Vikings having made the islands the headquarters of their buccaneering expeditions (carried out indifferently against their own
Norway and the coasts and isles of Scotland),
Harold HÃ¥rfagre ("Fair Hair") subdued the rovers in 875 and annexed both Orkney and
Shetland to Norway. The martyrdom of
Earl Magnus resulted in the building of
St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. The islands remained under the rule of Norse
earls until 1231, when the line of the
jarls became extinct. In that year the earldom of Caithness was granted to Magnus, second son of the
Earl of Angus, whom the king of Norway apparently confirmed in the title. Recent studies from the field of population genetics reveal a significant percentage of Norse ethnic heritage â€" up to one third of the Y chromosomes on the islands are derived from western Norwegian sources, as opposed to the Shetlands, where over half the male lineage is Norse.
Some jarls of Orkney:
*
Ragnvald Eysteinsson, 890
*
Turf-Einar, 910
*
Thorfinn Turf-Einarsson, Earl of Orkney, 963
In
1468 Orkney and
Shetland were pledged by
Christian I of Denmark and Norway for the payment of the
dowry of his daughter
Margaret, betrothed to
James III of Scotland, and as the money was never paid, their connection with the
crown of Scotland has been perpetual. In 1471 James bestowed the castle and lands of
Ravenscraig, in
Fife, on
William, Earl of Orkney, in exchange for all his rights to the
earldom of Orkney, which, by an
Act of the
Parliament of Scotland, passed on
February 20,
1472, was annexed to the Scottish
crown.
In 1564 Lord
Robert Stewart, natural son of
James V of Scotland, who had visited Kirkwall twenty-four years before, was made
sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, and received possession of the estates of the udallers; in 1581 he was created earl of Orkney by
James VI of Scotland, the charter being ratified ten years later to his son Patrick, but in 1615 the earldom was again annexed to the crown.
The islands were the rendezvous of
Montrose's expedition in 1650 which culminated in his imprisonment and death. During
the Protectorate they were visited by a detachment of
Cromwell's troops, who initiated the inhabitants into various industrial arts and new methods of agriculture.
In 1707 the islands were granted to the earl of
Morton in mortgage, redeemable by the Crown on payment of 30,000 pounds, and subject to an annual feu-duty of 500 pounds; but in 1766 his estates were sold to Sir Lawrence Dundas, ancestor of the
Earls of Zetland.
In early times both the archbishop of
Hamburg and the archbishop of
York disputed with the Norwegians ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Orkneys and the right of consecrating bishops; but ultimately the Norwegian bishops, the first of whom was
William the Old (consecrated in 1102), continued the canonical succession. The see remained vacant from 1580 to 1606, and from 1638 till the
Restoration, and, after the accession of
William III, the episcopacy was finally abolished (1697), although many of the clergy refused to conform.
The
toponymy of the Orkneys is wholly Norse, and the Norse tongue, at last extinguished by the constant influx of settlers from Scotland, lingered until the end of the 18th century. Readers of
Scott's
Pirate will remember the frank contempt which Magnus Troil expressed for the Scots, and his opinions probably accurately reflected the general Norse feeling on the subject. When the islands were given as security for the princess's dowry, there seems reason to believe that it was intended to redeem the pledge, because it was then stipulated that the Norse system of government and the law of
Saint Olaf should continue to be observed in Orkney and Shetland. Thus the
udal succession and mode of land tenure (that is, absolute
freehold as distinguished from
feudal tenure) lingered to some extent, and the remaining udallers held their lands and passed them on without written title. By the mid 1800s Orkney was firmly under the rule of
Scotland, with absentee sheriffs holding nominal power. For example
Lord Neaves, the esteemed Scottish jurist held the sheriff position on Orkney from 1845 to 1852.
During
World War I and
World War II, the
Royal Navy had a major base at
Scapa Flow. The base was closed in 1956.
In the Arthurian legend, Orkney is the home to King Lot, Sir
Gareth, Sir Gaheris, Sir Gawaine, and Sir Agravain.
At the beginning of recorded history the islands were inhabited by the
Picts, whose language is unknown. Opinions on the nature of
Pictish vary from its having been a
Celtic language, to its not having been
Indo-European at all. In addition there is archaeological evidence for the pre-Norse existence of
Old Irish in the Orkney Islands, for example the
Buckquoy spindle-whorl.
After the Norse occupation the
toponymy of Orkney became almost wholly
West Norse[Gregor Lamb, Testimony of the Orkneyingar: Place Names of Orkney, 1995, Byrgisey, ISBN 095134434X]. The Norse language evolved into the local
Norn, which lingered until the end of the 18th century, when it finally died out. Norn became replaced by the
Orcadian dialect of Insular
Scots. The
Education Act of 1872 accelerated the weakening of the Orcadian dialect, which, since
World War II, is being replaced by
Scottish English.
However, the distinctive sing-song
accent and many dialect words of Norse origin continue to be used. The
Orcadian dialect lingers in the remoter parts of the archipelago. Studies made made by
Gregor Lamb and others demonstrate the Norse influence on the
grammar of Orcadian. The Orcadian word most frequently encountered by visitors is "peedie", meaning small. Its origin is not Norse, but may well be a borrowing of the
French "petit".
An
Orcadian is a native of the Orkney Islands, a term which reflects a strongly held identity with a tradition of understatement.
[Orkneyjar - The people of Orkney] Although the annexation of the earldom by Scotland in
1472 took place over five centuries ago, most Orcadians regard themselves as Orcadians first and
Scots second. (Readers of
Scott's
Pirate will remember the frank contempt which Magnus Troil expressed for the Scots.)
When an Orcadian speaks of "Scotland", they are usually talking about the land to the immediate south of the
Pentland Firth. When an Orcadian speaks of "the mainland", they mean
The Mainland, Orkney.
[Orkneyjar - Where is Orkney? ] They are emphatic that tartan, clans, bagpipes and the like are traditions from the
Scottish Highlands and are not a part of the islands' indigenous culture.
[Orkneyjar FAQ]Native Orcadians refer to the non-native residents of the islands as "Ferry Loupers", a term which has been in use for nearly two centuries at least
[See: David Vedder, Orcadian Sketches, Edinburgh, William Tait, 1832]. This designation is celebrated in
Orkney Trout Fishing Association's "Ferryloupers Trophy", demostrating it to be a non-derogatory appellation.
Well-known Orcadians
*
Magnus Erlendsson (Saint Magnus) (c1070 – c1117), Earl of Orkney c1105 – 1117
*
Rognvald Kali Kolssson (Saint Rognvald) (c1103 – 1158), Earl of Orkney 1136 – 1158
*
James Atkine (1613 – 1687), bishop first of Moray and afterwards of Galloway
*
Murdoch McKenzie (died 1797), the hydrographer
*
Malcolm Laing (1762 – 1818), author of the
History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms*
William Sinclair (1766 – 1818), Chief Factor at the Hudsons Bay Company
*
Mary Brunton (1778 – 1818), author of
Self-Control,
Discipline and other novels
*
Samuel Laing (1780 – 1868), author of
A Residence in Norway, and translator of the
Heimskringla, the Icelandic chronicle of the kings of Norway*
Thomas Stewart Traill (1781 – 1862), professor of medical
jurisprudence at Edinburgh University and editor of the 8th edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica*
Samuel Laing (1812 – 1897), chairman of the London, Brighton. & South Coast railway, and introducer of the system of "parliamentary" trains with fares of one penny a mile
*
Dr. John Rae (1813 – 1893), an
Arctic explorer
* Rev.
Matthew Armour (
1820-
1903),
Sanday's radical
Free Kirk Minister*
William Balfour Baikie (1825 – 1864), traveller in
Africa *
Walter Traill Dennison (
1826 -
1894), Orcadian
folklorist*
Edwin Muir (1887 – 1959), author and poet
*
Stanley Cursiter (1887 – 1976), artist
*
Eric Linklater (1899 – 1974), novelist, playwright, journalist, essayist, and poet
*
George Mackay Brown (1921 – 1996), poet, author, playwright.
*
Luke Sutherland, writer of novels
Jelly Roll,
Sweatmeat and
Venus as a BoyThe Orkney Islands are represented in the
House of Commons of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the
Orkney and Shetland constituency, which elects one
Member of Parliament (MP) by the
first past the post system of election.
In the
Scottish Parliament the Orkney Islands are themselves the
Orkney constituency, which elects one
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post system. Also, the Orkney Islands are within the
Highlands and Islands electoral region.
*
Bishop of Orkney*
Earl of Orkney*
Orkneyinga saga*
Trowe*
Udal Law*
Churchill Barriers*
The Orkney Folk Festival*
The Orcadian, one of Orkney's two local newspapers*
Orkney Today, the other Orkney newspaper*
Orkneyjar, an Orcadian History and Heritage Site*
Orkney Links Galore!*
Orkneycommunities.co.uk, community news, pictures and websites*
Orkneys with map*
Orkney Enterprise*
A recent (June, 2006) photo travelogue on Orkney*
Vision of Britain - Groome Gazetteer entry for Orkney
