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The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of
archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...
s off the north coast of mainland
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, comprising
Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
and
Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...
. They are part of Scotland, as are the
Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...
. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are a total of 36 inhabited islands. The landscapes of the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrast with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and on the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both island groups have a developing
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
industry. Both have a
Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...
and Norse history. Both were part of the
Kingdom of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
until they were absorbed into the
Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland (; , ) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a l ...
in the 15th century. They remained part of it until the 1707 formation of the
Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, wh ...
and the 1801 formation of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
. They both played a significant naval role during the
world wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...
of the 20th century. Tourism is important to both archipelagos, and there are regular ferry and air connections between them and with mainland Scotland. Their distinctive prehistoric ruins play a key role in their attraction for tourists. The
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
n influence remains strong, especially in local folklore, and the place-names of the islands are dominated by their Norse heritage, although some may retain pre-
Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic elements. Both island groups have strong, although distinct, local cultures.


Geography

The phrase "Northern Isles" generally refers to the main islands of the Orkney and Shetland archipelagos. The
Island of Stroma The Island of Stroma or Isle of Stroma or Stroma, is an uninhabited island off the northern coast of the mainland of Scotland, just north of John o' Groats. It is the most southerly of the islands in the Pentland Firth between the Orkney isl ...
, which lies between mainland Scotland and Orkney, is part of
Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded ...
, so for
local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...
purposes it falls under the jurisdiction of the
Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...
, rather than that of Orkney. It is nevertheless clearly one of the "northern isles" of Scotland.
Fair Isle Fair Isle (; sco, Fair Isle; non, Friðarey; gd, Fara) is an island in Shetland, in northern Scotland. It lies about halfway between mainland Shetland and Orkney. It is known for its bird observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Th ...
and
Foula Foula (; sco, also Foola; nrn, Fuglø), located in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, is one of the United Kingdom’s most remote permanently inhabited islands. Owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family, the island wa ...
are outliers of Shetland, but would normally be considered part of Shetland, and thus of the Northern Isles. Similarly, Sule Skerry and Sule Stack, although distant from the main group, are part of Orkney, and therefore technically amongst the Northern Isles. However, the other small islands that lie off the north coast of Scotland are in Highland, and are thus not usually considered to be part of the Northern Isles. Orkney has 20 inhabited islands and Shetland has 16. Orkney is situated north of the coast of mainland Scotland, separated from it by the waters of the
Pentland Firth The Pentland Firth ( gd, An Caol Arcach, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth. Etymology The name is presumed to be a corrupti ...
. The largest island of Orkney, known as the "
Mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...
" has an area of , making it the sixth largest
Scottish island This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by ...
. Its total population in 2001 was 19,245, and its largest town is
Kirkwall Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...
."Orkney Islands"
Vision of Britain. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
Shetland is around north of mainland Scotland. It covers an area of and its coastline is long.
Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...
, the capital and largest settlement, has a population of around 7,500. About half of the archipelago's total population of 22,000 people live within of the town.


Geology

The superficial rock of Orkney is almost entirely
Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...
, mostly of Middle
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...
age.Marshall, J.E.A., & Hewett, A.J. "Devonian" in Evans, D., Graham C., Armour, A., & Bathurst, P. (eds) (2003) ''The Millennium Atlas: petroleum geology of the central and northern North Sea''. As in the neighbouring mainland county of Caithness, this sandstone rests upon the
metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
rocks of the Moine series. This can be seen on the Orkney Mainland, where a narrow strip of the older rock is exposed between
Stromness Stromness (, non, Straumnes; nrn, Stromnes) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. E ...
and Inganess, and also on the small island of
Graemsay Graemsay () is an island in the western approaches to Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The island has two lighthouses. Graemsay lies within the parish of Stromness. Geography and geology Graemsay lies between Hoy and Stromness ...
. Middle Devonian
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
ic
volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic ...
s are found on western
Hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two ...
, on Deerness in eastern Mainland and on
Shapinsay Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle ...
. A correlation between the Hoy volcanics and the other two exposures has been proposed, but because of differences in their chemical makeup, this remains uncertain.
Lamprophyre Lamprophyres () are uncommon, small-volume ultrapotassic igneous rocks primarily occurring as dikes, lopoliths, laccoliths, stocks, and small intrusions. They are alkaline silica- undersaturated mafic or ultramafic rocks with high magnesium ...
dykes of Late
Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleo ...
age are found throughout Orkney.
Glacial striation Glacial striations or striae are scratches or gouges cut into bedrock by glacial abrasion. These scratches and gouges were first recognized as the result of a moving glacier in the late 18th century when Swiss alpinists first associated them w ...
and the presence of
chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. C ...
and
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
erratics that originated from the bed of the North Sea demonstrate the influence of ice action on the
geomorphology Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or ...
of the islands. Boulder
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...
is also abundant, and
moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...
s cover substantial areas. The geology of Shetland is quite different from that of Orkney. It is extremely complex, with numerous faults and fold axes. The Shetland Islands are the northern outpost of the
Caledonian orogeny The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain-building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that ...
, and there are outcrops of Lewisian, Dalriadan and Moine metamorphic rocks whose histories are similar to those of their counterparts on the Scottish mainland. There are also small Old Red Sandstone deposits and
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...
intrusions. Shetland's most distinctive geological feature is the ultrabasic
ophiolite An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks. The Greek word ὄφις, ''ophis'' (''snake'') is found ...
,
peridotite Peridotite ( ) is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock consisting mostly of the silicate minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica. It is high in magnesium (Mg2+), reflecting the high pr ...
and
gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ...
on
Unst Unst (; sco, Unst; nrn, Ønst) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of . Unst ...
and
Fetlar Fetlar ( sco, Fetlar) is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a usually resident population of 61 at the time of the 2011 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre. Fetlar i ...
, which are remnants of the
Iapetus Ocean The Iapetus Ocean (; ) was an ocean that existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale (between 600 and 400 million years ago). The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the southern hemisphere, between the paleo ...
floor. There are oil-bearing sediments in the surrounding seas, on which much of Shetland's economy depends. Geological evidence shows that, sometime around 6100 BC, a
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
caused by the
Storegga Slide The three Storegga Slides ( no, Storeggaraset) are amongst the largest known submarine landslides. They occurred at the edge of Norway's continental shelf in the Norwegian Sea, approximately 6225–6170 BCE. The collapse involved an estimated ...
s hit the Northern Isles (as well as much of the east coast of Scotland), and may have created a wave of up to high in the voes of Shetland, where modern populations are largest.


Climate

The Northern Isles have a cool, temperate climate that is remarkably mild and steady for such a northerly
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...
, due to the influence of the surrounding seas and the
Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the Unit ...
.Chalmers, Jim "Agriculture in Orkney Today" in Omand (2003) p. 129. In Shetland, average peak temperatures are in February and in August. Temperatures over are rare."Shetland, Scotland Climate"
climatetemp.info Retrieved 26 November 2010.
Shetland Islands Council (2005) pp. 5–9 The frost-free period may be as short as 3 months. The average annual rainfall is in Orkney and in Shetland. Winds are a key feature of the climate. In summer, there are almost constant breezes. In winter, there are frequent strong winds: Orkney has an average of 52 hours of gales annually. The Burradale wind farm in Shetland, which operates with five
Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...
V47 660 kW turbines, achieved a world record of 57.9% capacity over the course of 2005 due to the persistent strong winds. Snowfall is usually confined to the period of November to February and seldom lies on the ground for more than a day. Less rain falls between April and August than at other times of the year, but no month has an average rainfall of less than . In Shetland there are 1082 hours of bright sunshine per year, on average, and overcast days are common. To tourists, one of the fascinations of the islands is their "nightless" summers. On the longest day in Shetland there are over 19 hours of daylight, and it never gets completely dark. The long twilight is known in the Northern Isles as the "simmer dim". Winter nights are correspondingly long, with less than six hours of daylight at
midwinter Midwinter is the middle of the winter. The term is attested in the early Germanic calendars. Attestations Midwinter is attested in the early Germanic calendars, where it appears to have been a specific day or a number of days during the winter ha ...
. At this time of year the
aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
can occasionally be seen on the northern horizon during moderate auroral activity.


Prehistory

There are numerous important prehistoric remains in Orkney, especially from the
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...
period. Four of these remains comprise the
Heart of Neolithic Orkney Heart of Neolithic Orkney refers to a group of Neolithic monuments found on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The name was adopted by UNESCO when it proclaimed these sites as a World Heritage Site in December 1999. The site of pa ...
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
(designated as such in 1999). They are:
Skara Brae Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dam ...
;
Maes Howe Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; non, Orkhaugr) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered ...
; the
Stones of Stenness The Standing Stones of Stenness is a Neolithic monument five miles northeast of Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, Scotland. This may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles. Various traditions associated with the stones survived into ...
; and the
Ring of Brodgar The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar, or Ring o' Brodgar) is a Neolithic henge and stone circle about 6 miles north-east of Stromness on Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the ...
. The Knap of Howar Neolithic farmstead on the island of Papa Westray is probably the oldest preserved house in
northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors ...
. This structure was inhabited for 900 years, beginning around 3700 BC, but it had evidently been built on the site of an even older settlement. The Shetland Islands are also extremely rich in physical remains from prehistoric eras: They contain a total of over 5,000 archaeological sites. On the island of Fetlar, there is a dividing wall, dating from the Neolithic period, that at one time extended for across the island. It is known as
Funzie Girt Funzie Girt (; sco, Funyie Girt "Finns' dyke") is an ancient dividing wall that was erected from north to south across the island of Fetlar in Shetland, Scotland. Some sources describe it as having been built in the Neolithic,< ...
. But it is the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
that has provided the most outstanding archaeology in Shetland. Numerous
broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...
s were erected during that period. The finest preserved example of these distinctive round towers is the Broch of Mousa. In 2011, a site known as "
the Crucible of Iron Age Shetland The Zenith of Iron Age Shetland is a combination of three sites in Shetland that have applied to be on the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or ...
", which includes the Broch of Mousa,
Old Scatness Old Scatness is an archeological site on the Ness of Burgi, near the village of Scatness, parish of Dunrossness in the south end of Mainland, Shetland, near Sumburgh Airport and consists of medieval, Viking, Pictish, and Iron Age remains. It ha ...
and
Jarlshof Jarlshof ( ) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It co ...
, joined the UK's "Tentative List" of World Heritage Sites."Sites make Unesco world heritage status bid shortlist"
(22 March 2011) BBC Scotland. Retrieved 22 March 2011.


History, culture and politics


Pictish times

The culture that built the brochs is unknown, but by the late Iron Age the Northern Isles had become part of the
Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...
kingdom. The most common archaeological relics from that period are symbol stones. One of the best examples of these stones is on the Brough of Birsay: It depicts three warriors with spears and sword scabbards, as well as characteristic Pictish symbols.Ritchie, Anna "The Picts" in Omand (2003) p. 39 In 1958, a trove of silver metalwork, known as the St Ninian's Isle Treasure, was discovered. The silver bowls, jewellery and other pieces it contains are believed to date from around 800 AD. According to O'Dell (1959), "The treasure is the best survival of Scottish silver metalwork from the period .... e brooches show a variety of typical Pictish forms, with both animal-head and lobed geometrical forms of terminal".
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
probably arrived in Orkney in the 6th century, and organised church authority emerged in the 8th century. An
Ogham Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...
–inscribed artefact known as the
Buckquoy spindle-whorl The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is an Ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, which was found in 1970 in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland. Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diamet ...
was found at a Pictish site on
Birsay Birsay () (Old Norse: ''Birgisherað'') is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle. There are various ancient ...
. There has been controversy about its origin and meaning, but it is now generally considered to be of Irish Christian origin.


Norse era

The 8th century was also the time when the
Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
s started invading the Scottish seaboard. They brought to the Northern Isles a new culture and a new language; rendering the fate of the existing indigenous peoples uncertain. According to the '' Orkneyinga Saga'', Vikings then made the islands the headquarters of the
pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
expeditions they carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland. According to some sources, in 875, the Norwegian king
Harald Hårfagre Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagreModern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from  872 to 930 and was the first King of Norw ...
("Harald Fair Hair") annexed the Northern Isles and gifted Orkney and Shetland to
Rognvald Eysteinsson Rognvald Eysteinsson (''fl.'' 865) was the founding Jarl (or Earl) of Møre in Norway, and a close relative and ally of Harald Fairhair, the earliest known King of Norway. In the Norse language he is known as Rǫgnvaldr Eysteinsson (''Mǿrajarl ...
as an
earldom Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particula ...
in recompense for the death of his son in battle in Scotland. (Some scholars believe this story is apocryphal and is based instead on events connected with the later voyages of
Magnus III of Norway Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Olavsson''; 1073 – 24 August 1103), better known as Magnus Barefoot (Old Norse: ''Magnús berfœttr'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Berrføtt''), was King of Norway (being Ma ...
, known as Magnus Barelegs.) In 995, King
Olaf I of Norway Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of ...
(Olav Tryggvasson) fully Christianised the islands by fiat, when he stopped in South Walls on his way from Ireland to Norway. The king summoned the ''
jarl Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the pet ...
''
Sigurd the Stout Sigurd Hlodvirsson (23 April 1014), popularly known as Sigurd the Stout from the Old Norse ''Sigurðr digri'',Thomson (2008) p. 59 was an Earl of Orkney. The main sources for his life are the Norse Sagas, which were first written down some tw ...
and said, "I order you and all your subjects to be baptised. If you refuse, I'll have you killed on the spot and I swear I will ravage every island with fire and steel." Unsurprisingly, Sigurd agreed, and the islands became Christian at a stroke. In the early 11th century, they received their own
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...
(the Bishop of Orkney).


Annexation by Scotland

In the 14th century, Orkney and Shetland remained a Norwegian province, but Scottish influence was growing.
Jon Haraldsson Jon Haraldsson was a Norwegian noble who served as the Jarl of Orkney between 1206 and 1231. Jon Haraldsson and his brother David were the sons of Harald Maddadsson with his second wife Hvarflod, daughter of Earl Máel Coluim of Moray. Jon and ...
, who was murdered in
Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Gr ...
in 1231, was the last of an unbroken line of Norse jarls, and thereafter the earls were Scots noblemen of the houses of Angus and St. Clair. In 1468 Shetland was pledged by
Christian I Christian I (February 1426 – 21 May 1481) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), Norway (1450–1481) and Sweden (1457–1464). From 1460 to 1481, he was also duke of Schleswig (within ...
, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
of his daughter
Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...
, betrothed to
James III of Scotland James III (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) was King of Scots from 1460 until his death at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. He inherited the throne as a child following the death of his father, King James II, at the siege of Roxburgh C ...
. As the money was never paid, the connection with the crown of Scotland became permanent. In 1470
William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness William Sinclair (1410–1480), 1st Earl of Caithness (1455–1476), last Earl (Jarl) of Orkney (1434–1470 de facto, –1472 de jure), 2nd Lord Sinclair and 11th Baron of Roslin was a Norwegian and Scottish nobleman and the build ...
ceded his title to James III and the following year the Northern Isles were directly annexed to Scotland.


17th, 18th and 19th centuries

From the early 15th century on the Shetlanders had sold their goods through the
Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label= Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
of German merchantmen. This trade with the North German towns lasted until the 1707 Act of Union when high salt duties prohibited the German merchants from trading with Shetland. Shetland then went into an economic depression as the Scottish and local traders were not as skilled in trading with salted fish. However, some local merchant-lairds took up where the German merchants had left off, and fitted out their own ships to export fish from Shetland to the Continent. For the independent farmer/fishermen of Shetland this had negative consequences, as they now had to fish for these merchant-lairds."History"
visit.shetland.org. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
British rule came at a price for many ordinary people as well as traders. The Shetlanders' nautical skills were sought by the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
: some 3,000 served during the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
from 1800 to 1815 and
press gangs Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the taking of men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice. European navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of ...
were rife. During this period 120 men were taken from
Fetlar Fetlar ( sco, Fetlar) is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a usually resident population of 61 at the time of the 2011 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre. Fetlar i ...
alone and only 20 of them returned home. By the late 19th century 90% of all Shetland was owned by just 32 men, and between 1861 and 1881 more than 8,000 Shetlanders emigrated.Schei (2006) pp. 16–17, 57 With the passing of the Crofters' Act in 1886 the Liberal prime minister
William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
emancipated crofters from the rule of the landlords. The Act enabled those who had effectively been landowners' serfs to become owner-occupiers of their own small farms. The Orcadian experience was somewhat different. An influx of Scottish entrepreneurs helped to create a diverse and independent community that included farmers, fishermen and merchants that called themselves ''comunitatis Orcadie'' and who proved themselves increasingly able to defend their rights against their feudal overlords. In the 17th century, Orcadians formed the overwhelming majority of employees of the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
. The harsh climate of Orkney and the Orcadian reputation for sobriety and their boat-handling skills made them ideal candidates for the rigours of the Canadian north. During this period, burning
kelp Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Kelp grows in "underwa ...
briefly became a mainstay of the islands' economy. For example, on
Shapinsay Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle ...
over of burned seaweed were produced per annum to make
soda ash Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...
, bringing in £20,000 to the local economy. Agricultural improvements beginning in the 17th century coincided with the
enclosure of the commons Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
and in the Victorian era the emergence of large and well-managed farms using a five-shift
rotation system In combinatorial mathematics, rotation systems (also called combinatorial embeddings or combinatorial maps) encode embeddings of graphs onto orientable surfaces by describing the circular ordering of a graph's edges around each vertex. A more for ...
and producing high-quality beef cattle. There is little evidence of an Orcadian fishing fleet until the 19th century but it grew rapidly and 700 boats were involved by the 1840s with Stronsay and then later
Stromness Stromness (, non, Straumnes; nrn, Stromnes) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. E ...
becoming leading centres of development. Many Orcadian seamen became involved in
whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...
in
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
waters during the 19th century, although the boats were generally based elsewhere in Britain.


World Wars

Orkney was the site of a naval base at
Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay a ...
, which played a major role in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. After the
Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
in 1918, the German High Seas Fleet was transferred in its entirety to Scapa Flow while a decision was to be made on its future; however, the German sailors opened the sea-cocks and scuttled all the ships. During World War I the 10th Cruiser Squadron was stationed at Swarbacks Minn in Shetland and during a single year from March 1917 more than 4,500 ships sailed from Lerwick as part of an escorted convoy system. In total, Shetland lost more than 500 men, a higher proportion than any other part of Britain, and there were waves of emigration in the 1920s and 1930s.Schei (2006) p. 16Nicolson (1972) pp. 91, 94–95 One month into
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the Royal Navy battleship was sunk by a German
U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
at Scapa Flow. As a result, barriers were built to close most of the access channels; these had the advantage of creating causeways enabling travellers to go from island to island by road instead of being obliged to rely on ferries. The causeways were constructed by Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the ornate Italian Chapel. The Scapa Flow base was neglected after the war, eventually closing in 1957.Thomson (2008) pp. 439–43. During World War II, a Norwegian naval unit nicknamed the "
Shetland Bus The Shetland Bus ( Norwegian Bokmål: ''Shetlandsbussene'', def. pl.) was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the s ...
" was established by the
Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
in the autumn of 1940 with a base first at
Lunna Lunna (born June 30, 1960; born María Socorro García de la NocedaGarcia de la Noceda is her paternal surname) is a Puerto Rican singer of popular music and jazz who was the director of the television show ''Objetivo Fama'', the Latin version ...
and later in
Scalloway Scalloway ( non, Skálavágr, "bay with the large house(s)") is the largest settlement on the west coast of the Mainland, the largest island of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The village had a population of roughly 900, at the 2011 census. ...
to conduct operations around the coast of Norway. About 30 fishing vessels used by Norwegian refugees were gathered, and the Shetland Bus conducted covert operations, carrying intelligence agents, refugees, instructors for the resistance, and military supplies. It made over 200 trips across the sea, with
Leif Larsen Leif Andreas Larsen DSO, DSC, CGM, DSM and Bar (9 January 1906 – 12 October 1990), popularly known as "Shetlands Larsen", was a highly decorated Norwegian sailor. He was arguably the most famous of the men who operated the Shetland bus es ...
, the most highly decorated allied naval officer of the war, making 52 of them."The Shetland Bus"
scotsatwar.org.uk. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
The problem of a declining population was significant in the post-war years, although in the last decades of the 20th century there was a recovery and life in the islands focused on growing prosperity and the emergence of a relatively classless society.


Modern times


Politics

Due to their history, the islands have a Norse, rather than a
Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...
flavour, and have historic links with the
Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...
,
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
, and
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
. The similarities of both geography and history are matched by some elements of the current political process. Both Orkney and Shetland are represented in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
as constituting the Orkney and Shetland
constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
, which elects one
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP), the current incumbent being
Alistair Carmichael Alexander Morrison "Alistair" CarmichaelFull name is given as "CARMICHAEL, Alexander Morrison, commonly known as Alistair Carmichael" in the returning officer'2010 general election declaration (born 15 July 1965) is a Scottish politician and s ...
. Both are also within the
Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1 ...
electoral region for the
Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyr ...
. In the
2014 Scottish independence referendum A independence referendum, referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" ...
, 65.4% of the constituency’s electors voted for Scotland to stay part of the United Kingdom. However, there are also two separate constituencies that elect one
Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The add ...
each for Orkney and Shetland by the
first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
system. Orkney and Shetland also have separate local Councils which are both dominated by independents. The Orkney Movement, a political party that supported devolution for Orkney from the rest of Scotland, contested the 1987 general election as the
Orkney and Shetland Movement The Orkney and Shetland Movement was an electoral coalition formed for the 1987 general election. The pro-devolution Orkney Movement and Shetland Movement agreed on selecting John Goodlad, the secretary of the Shetland Fishermen's Association, ...
(a coalition of the Orkney movement and its equivalent for Shetland). Their candidate, John Goodlad, came 4th with 3,095 votes, 14.5% of those cast.


Transport

Ferry services link Orkney and Shetland to the rest of Scotland, the main routes being
Scrabster harbour Scrabster ( sco, Scraibster, gd, Sgrabastair/Sgrabstal) is a small settlement on Thurso Bay in Caithness on the north coast of Scotland. It is some from Thurso, from Wick, from Inverness and 271.7 miles (437.2 km) from Edinburgh. Sc ...
,
Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Gr ...
to Stromness and
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...
to Lerwick, both operated by
NorthLink Ferries NorthLink Ferries (also referred to as Serco NorthLink Ferries) is an operator of passenger and vehicle ferries, as well as ferry services, between mainland Scotland and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Since July 2012, it has been oper ...
. Inter-island ferry services are operated by
Orkney Ferries Orkney Ferries is a Scottish company operating inter-island ferry services in the Orkney Islands. The company operates ferry services across 15 islands. History The company is owned by the Orkney Islands Council and was established in 1960 as t ...
and SIC Ferries, which are operated by the respective
local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
and Northlink also run a Lerwick to Kirkwall service. Automatic
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...
s are commonly sited across the islands as an aid to navigation at various locations. Kirkwall Airport serves as the sole commercial airport in Orkney, which is operated by Highland and Islands Airports. Loganair provides services to
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...
,
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
and
Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...
for both Kirkwall and
Sumburgh Airport Sumburgh Airport is the main airport serving Shetland in Scotland. It is located on the southern tip of the mainland, in the parish of Dunrossness, south of Lerwick. The airport is owned by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) and ...
. Inter-Island flights are available from Kirkwall to several Orkney islands and from the Shetland Mainland to most of the inhabited islands including those from Tingwall Airport. There are frequent charter flights from Aberdeen to
Scatsta Scatsta Airport , was a commercial airport on the island of Mainland, Shetland in Scotland located north of Lerwick and southwest of Sullom Voe Terminal. It is owned by Shetland Island's Council and was operated by Serco on behalf of the ae ...
near
Sullom Voe Sullom Voe is an inlet of the North Sea between the parishes of Delting and Northmavine in Shetland, Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal and Shetland Gas Plant. The word Voe is from the Old Norse ' and denotes a small b ...
, which are used to transport oilfield workers and this small terminal has the fifth largest number of international passengers in Scotland. The scheduled air service between
Westray Westray (, sco, Westree) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, with a usual resident population of just under 600 people. Its main village is Pierowall, with a heritage centre, the 15th-century Lady Kirk church and pedestrian ferry servi ...
and Papa Westray is reputedly the shortest in the world at two minutes' duration.


Economics

The very different geologies of the two archipelagos have resulted in dissimilar local economies. In Shetland, the main revenue producers are agriculture,
aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
,
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...
,
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
, the
petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larg ...
(offshore
crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
and
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...
production), the creative industries and tourism. Oil and gas was first landed at
Sullom Voe Sullom Voe is an inlet of the North Sea between the parishes of Delting and Northmavine in Shetland, Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal and Shetland Gas Plant. The word Voe is from the Old Norse ' and denotes a small b ...
in 1978, and it has subsequently become one of the largest oil terminals in Europe. Taxes from the oil have increased public sector spending in Shetland on social welfare, art, sport, environmental measures and financial development. Three-quarters of the islands' workforce is employed in the service sector and
Shetland Islands Council The Shetland Islands Council ( sco, Shetland Islands Cooncil; gd, Comhairle Shealtainn) is the local authority for Shetland, Scotland. It was established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and is the successor to the former Lerwick Tow ...
alone accounted for 27.9% of output in 2003. Fishing remains central to the islands' economy today, with the total catch being in 2009, valued at over £73.2 million.Shetland Islands Council (2010) pp. 16–17 Orkney and Shetland have significant
wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...
and marine energy resources, and
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
has recently come into prominence. The European Marine Energy Centre is a Scottish Government-backed research facility that has installed a wave testing system at Billia Croo on the Orkney Mainland and a tidal power testing station on the island of Eday. This has been described as "the first of its kind in the world set up to provide developers of wave and tidal energy devices with a purpose-built performance testing facility." Billia Croo also houses an experimental underwater
data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommun ...
run by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
.


Culture

The Northern Isles have a rich source of folklore. There are many Orcadian tales concerning
trow A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers Severn and Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods. Features The mast could be taken down so that the trow could go under bridges, such as the bridge at Worcester and ...
s, a form of
troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human ...
that draws on the islands' Scandinavian connections. Local customs in the past included marriage ceremonies at the Odin Stone that forms part of the Stones of Stenness. The best known literary figures from modern Orkney are the poet
Edwin Muir Edwin Muir CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and w ...
, the poet and novelist
George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life and career ...
and the novelist Eric Linklater. Shetland has a strong tradition of local music. The Forty Fiddlers was formed in the 1950s to promote the traditional fiddle style, which is a vibrant part of local culture today. Notable exponents of Shetland folk music include
Aly Bain Aly Bain MBE (born 15 May 1946) is a Scottish fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. The former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell called Bain a "Scottish icon." Career Bain was born in the town of ...
and the late Tom Anderson and
Peerie Willie Johnson "Peerie" Willie Johnson (William Henry Johnson) (10 December 1920 in Yell, Shetland – 22 May 2007 in Lerwick, Shetland) was a Scottish folk guitarist and bassist. He was respected as an influential and innovative musician in the Shetland folk ...
. Thomas Fraser was a
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
ian who never released a commercial recording during his life, but whose work has become popular more than 20 years after his untimely death in 1978.


Language

The
Norn language Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles ( Orkney and Shetland) off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland. After Orkney and Shetland were pledge ...
, formerly spoken in the islands, is descendant of
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
brought by the Vikings in the 9th century. Since 1468-1469, after Orkney and Shetland were absorbed by the
Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland (; , ) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a l ...
, Norn gradually began to fade as the influx of Scots-speaking settlers migrated to the islands. Norn as such became an
extinct language An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, l ...
around 1850, after the death of its last-known speaker Walter Sutherland. The local dialects of the
Scots language Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commo ...
, collectively known as Insular Scots, are distinctive and retain strong Nordic influences.


Island names

The etymology of the island names is dominated by Norse influence. There follows a listing of the derivation of all the inhabited islands in the Northern Isles.


Shetland

The oldest version of the modern name Shetland is ''Hetlandensis'' recorded in 1190 becoming ''Hetland'' in 1431 after various intermediate transformations.Gammeltoft (2010) p. 21Sandnes (2010) p. 9 This then became ''Hjaltland'' in the 16th century.Gammeltoft (2010) p. 22 As Shetland's Norn was gradually replaced by Scots ''Hjaltland'' became '. When use of the letter
yogh The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots Language, Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar consonant , velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular G, Insular form of the letter ...
was discontinued, it was often replaced by the similar-looking letter z, hence ''Zetland'', the mispronounced form used to describe the pre-1975
county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...
. However the earlier name is ''Innse Chat'' – the island of the cats (or the cat tribe) as referred to in early Irish literature and it is just possible that this forms part of the Norse name. The Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland – hence the name of
Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded ...
via the Norse ''Katanes'' ("headland of the cat"), and the Gaelic name for
Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later c ...
, ''Cataibh'', meaning "among the Cats".Gammeltoft (2010) p. 9Watson (1994) p. 30 The location of "
Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saar ...
", first mentioned by
Pytheas Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs''; Latin: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony ...
of Massilia when he visited Britain sometime between 322 and 285 BC is not known for certain. When
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
mentioned it in AD 98 it is clear he was referring to Shetland.


Orkney

Pytheas described
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
as being triangular in shape, with a northern tip called ''Orcas''.Breeze, David J. "The ancient geography of Scotland" in Smith and Banks (2002) pp. 11–13 This may have referred to
Dunnet Head Dunnet Head ( gd, Ceann Dùnaid) is a peninsula in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland. Dunnet Head includes the most northerly point of both mainland Scotland and the island of Great Britain. Geography The point, also known as Easter ...
, from which Orkney is visible."Early Historical References to Orkney"
Orkneyjar.com. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
Writing in the 1st century AD, the Roman geographer
Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died  AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...
called the Orkney islands ''Orcades'', as did
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
in AD 98 "Orc" is usually interpreted as a Pictish tribal name meaning "young pig" or "young
boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...
".Waugh, Doreen J. "Orkney Place-names" in Omand (2003) p. 116 The old
Irish Gaelic Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was th ...
name for the islands was ''Insi Orc'' ("island of the pigs")."The Origin of Orkney"
Orkneyjar.com. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
The ogham script on the Buckquoy spindle-whorl is also cited as evidence for the pre-Norse existence of
Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...
in Orkney. The Pictish association with Orkney is lent weight by the Norse name for the
Pentland Firth The Pentland Firth ( gd, An Caol Arcach, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth. Etymology The name is presumed to be a corrupti ...
– ''Pettaland-fjörðr'' i.e "Pictland Firth. The Norse retained the earlier root but changed the meaning, providing the only definite example of an adaption of a pre-Norse place name in the Northern Isles. The islands became ''Orkneyar'' meaning "seal islands".Gammeltoft (2010) pp. 8–9 An alternative name for Orkney is recorded in 1300—Hrossey, meaning "horse isle" and this may also contain a Pictish element of ''ros'' meaning "moor" or "plain". Unlike most of the larger Orkney islands, the derivation of the name "Shapinsay" is not obvious. The final 'ay' is from the Old Norse for ''island'', but the first two syllables are more difficult to interpret. Haswell-Smith (2004) suggests the root may be ''hjalpandis-øy'' (helpful island) due to the presence of a good harbour, although anchorages are plentiful in the archipelago.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 364 The first written record dates from 1375 in a reference to ''Scalpandisay'', which may suggest a derivation from "judge's island". Another suggestion is "Hyalpandi's island", although no one of that name is known to have been associated with Shapinsay."Orkney Placenames"
Orkneyjar. Retrieved 10 October 2007.


Uninhabited islands

Stroma, from the Norse ''Straumøy''Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 336 means "current island" or "island in the tidal stream", a reference to the strong currents in the Pentland Firth. The Norse often gave animal names to islands and these have been transferred into English in, for example, the
Calf of Flotta The Calf of Flotta is a small island in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The Calf is next to Flotta, with "Calf" deriving from Old Norse/Norn and meaning a smaller island by a larger one. Geography and geology The Calf is made of red sandstone Sandstone ...
and Horse of Copinsay. Brother Isle is an anglicisation of the Norse ''breiðareøy'' meaning "broad beach island".Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 465 The Norse ''holmr'', meaning "a small islet" has become " Holm" in English and there are numerous examples of this use including Corn Holm, Thieves Holm and Little Holm. "Muckle" meaning large or big is one of few Scots words in the island names of the ''Nordreyar'' and appears in Muckle Roe and Muckle Flugga in Shetland and Muckle Green Holm and
Muckle Skerry Muckle Skerry is the largest of the Pentland Skerries that lie off the north coast of Scotland. It is home to the Pentland Skerries Lighthouse. Muckle Skerry lies in the Pentland Firth at . It is the westernmost of the skerries. At long an ...
in Orkney. Many small islets and skerries have Scots or Insular Scots names such as Da Skerries o da Rokness and Da Buddle Stane in Shetland, and Kirk Rocks in Orkney.


See also

*
Kingdom of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or North ...


References

;Notes ;Footnotes ;General references * Armit, Ian (2006) ''Scotland's Hidden History''. Stroud. Tempus. * Ballin Smith, B. and Banks, I. (eds) (2002) ''In the Shadow of the Brochs, the Iron Age in Scotland''. Stroud. Tempus. * Clarkson, Tim (2008) ''The Picts: A History''. Stroud. The History Press. * * Gammeltoft, Peder (2010)
Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group
. ''Northern Lights, Northern Words''. Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar. * General Register Office for Scotland (28 November 2003)

'. Retrieved 22 January 2011. * Gillen, Con (2003) ''Geology and landscapes of Scotland''. Harpenden. Terra Publishing. * Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland''. London. HarperCollins. * * Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) ''The Orkney Book''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. * Nicolson, James R. (1972) ''Shetland''. Newton Abbott. David & Charles. * Sandnes, Berit (2003)
From Starafjall to Starling Hill: An investigation of the formation and development of Old Norse place-names in Orkney
'. (pdf) Doctoral Dissertation, NTU Trondheim. * Sandnes, Berit (2010
"Linguistic patterns in the place-names of Norway and the Northern Isles"
''Northern Lights, Northern Words''. Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar. * Schei, Liv Kjørsvik (2006) ''The Shetland Isles''. Grantown-on-Spey. Colin Baxter Photography. * Shetland Islands Council (2010
"Shetland in Statistics 2010"
(pdf) Economic Development Unit. Lerwick. Retrieved 6 March 2011 * Thomson, William P. L. (2008) ''The New History of Orkney'' Edinburgh. Birlinn. * Turner, Val (1998) ''Ancient Shetland''. London. B. T. Batsford/Historic Scotland. * Wickham-Jones, Caroline (2007) ''Orkney: A Historical Guide''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. * Watson, W. J. (1994) ''The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. . First published 1926. {{Good article Archipelagoes of the Atlantic Ocean Scottish toponymy Archipelagoes of Scotland