South Ronaldsay (, also , sco, Sooth Ronalshee) is one of the

Orkney Islands 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 ...

off the north coast of

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 the ...

. It is linked to the

Orkney Mainland The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of O ...

by the

Churchill Barriers The Churchill Barriers are four causeways in the Orkney islands with a total length of . They link the Orkney Mainland in the north to the island of South Ronaldsay via Burray and the two smaller islands of Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm. The ba ...

, running via

Burray Burray () is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It lies to the east of Scapa Flow and is one of a chain of islands linked by the Churchill Barriers. Geography and geology Burray lies between Mainland, Orkney and South Ronaldsay, and is ...

Glimps Holm Glimps Holm or Glims Holm ( non, Glums Holm) is a small uninhabited islet in Orkney, Scotland. Geography Glimps Holm lies in Holm Sound, one of the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow, between Mainland, Orkney and the island of Burray. The Churc ...

and

Lamb Holm Lamb Holm is a small uninhabited island in Orkney, Scotland. The Italian Chapel, constructed during the Second World War, is the island's main attraction. Lamb Holm is classified by the National Records of Scotland as an uninhabited island tha ...

Name

Along with

North Ronaldsay North Ronaldsay (, also , sco, North Ronalshee) is the northernmost island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. With an area of , it is the fourteenth-largest.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 334 It is mentioned in the '' Orkneyinga saga''; in modern ...

, the island is named after St Ronald. The original name from which the English name derives, ''Rǫgnvaldsey'', comes from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

; ''Rǫgnvalds'' ("Ronald's") + ''ey'' ("island").

Geography and geology

With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the Orkney islands after The Mainland,

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 tw ...

and Sanday.

Ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

sail from Burwick on the island to John o' Groats on the Scottish mainland and from St Margaret's Hope to

Gills Bay Gills Bay, which is situated about west of John o' Groats with the community of Gills close by, has one of the longest stretches of low-lying rock coast on the northern shores of Caithness. Its main features are a small harbour and the pier used ...

.Wenham, Sheena "The South Isles" in Omand (2003) p. 212. South Ronaldsay's main

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

is St Margaret's Hope, Orkney's third largest settlement. It is named either after

Margaret, Maid of Norway Margaret (, ; March or April 1283 – September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death. As she was never inaugurated, her status as monarch is uncertain and has been debated by historian ...

, the heir to the Scottish throne who died in Orkney age sevenWenham, Sheena "The South Isles" in Omand (2003) p. 211. or possibly St. Margaret. The village has a small blacksmith's

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and is known for its annual Boys' Ploughing Match. During this event young girls and boys dressed in dark jackets play the part of the horses and young boys using miniature ploughs compete with one another at ploughing a 4-foot square rig in the nearby sands. The cardinal points of the island are

Ayre Ayre ( ; gv, Inver Ayre) is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man. It is located in the north of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) and consists of the three historic parishes of Andreas, Bride and (Kirk Chris ...

of Cara, by Churchill Barrier no. 4 (north), Grimness (east), Brough Ness, (south) and Hoxa Head, (west). The highest elevation is Ward Hill, which reaches . This name is common one in Orkney for the highest point on an island and comes from the historic use of these places used for the lighting of warning beacons.

Prehistory

The

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

is known for 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 parts ...

Isbister Chambered Cairn, popularly known as the "

Tomb of the Eagles The Tomb of the Eagles, or Isbister Chambered Cairn, is a Neolithic chambered tomb located on a cliff edge at Isbister on South Ronaldsay in Orkney, Scotland. The site was discovered by Ronald Simison, a farmer, when digging flagstones in 1958; ...

". Discovered by Ronald Simison in 1958 in the south east of the island, 16,000 human bones and 725 bird bones were found at the site, the latter predominantly belonging to the White-tailed Sea Eagle (''

Haliaeetus albicilla The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla'') is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which includes other diurnal raptor ...

''). The evidence suggests that the human bodies had been exposed to the elements to remove the flesh before burial. The tomb was in continuous use for a millennium or more. The

burnt mound A burnt mound is an archaeological feature consisting of a mound of shattered stones and charcoal, normally with an adjacent hearth and trough. The trough could be rock-cut, wood-lined or clay-lined to ensure it was watertight. Radiocarbon d ...

at nearby Liddle, discovered by Simison in 1972, is the best example of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

cooking place in Orkney. Made of flat slabs originally sealed with clay, the central stone trough would have been filled with water heated by stones using

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

as a fuel. The building was probably roofless. There is a

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 ...

site at Howe of Hoxa in the north west that may have been the burial place of Thorfinn "Skullsplitter".

History

In 1627 nine chapels were recorded on the island with some of the names hinting at the existence of Christian worship prior to the Norse conquest of Orkney. They were: Sant Androis at Woundwick, Our Ladie at Halcro, Sant Colmis at Loch of Burwick, Ruid chappell in Sandwick, Sant Tola lafin Wydwall, Sant Colme in Hoxay, Sant Margrat in the Howp, Sant Colmeis in Grymnes and Sant Ninian in Stow. The locations are all known although little physical evidence remains in several cases. In the late seventeenth century South Ronaldsay was described as "fertile in Corns and abounding with People". Murdoch MacKenzie's 1750 map of the island indicates the site of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

workings near Grimness and a visitor in 1774 "saw several deep holes which I was informed were sunk in search of Lead ore" although only small quantities were mined."ORKNEY: O4. Paplay, South Ronaldsay"
The Papar Project: RCAHMS. Retrieved 16 November 2008. By the late eighteenth century South Ronaldsay was divided into two unequally sized parishes, St. Peter's covered the northern two thirds of the island while St. Mary's formed the southern third. St. Peter's church has a date stone of 1642 and appears on Blaeu's 1654 map. By 1793 the building had no roof and was "exposed to all the winds of heaven" but as probably repaired by 1801. A

Pict The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...

ish symbol stone was discovered in a window in the church. On one face of the slab is a mirror-case underlying part of an undecorated crescent and V-rod and on the other a crescent and V-rod, ornamented with scrollwork, below a decorated panel. During the 19th century the island's economy benefited from the herring fishing industry and St Margaret's Hope became the main trading centre for the South Isles. In 1890 there were 20 shops and 18 tradesmen located there. Tomison's Academy was founded by

William Tomison William Tomison was a Scottish fur trader who helped found and build a number of trading posts for the Hudson Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur tradin ...

, a native of the island who became Governor 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 div ...

. When it opened it had 170 pupils but the school closed in the 1960s. Tomison is buried nearby in the grounds of his former home, Dundas House. Windwick, South Ronaldsay

In 1991, the island was rocked by false allegations of widespread child abuse and satanic rituals in a scandal that saw nine children being removed from their families by police and social workers. The case was thrown out of court when it was found the social workers were using unorthodox interrogation techniques to force confessions from the children, who all denied the abuse. There are many well-preserved houses and other structures in the local vernacular style.

Local politics

The island is part of the "East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray" ward, represented on the Orkney Islands Council by three independent councillors. The local

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. In ...

covers both South Ronaldsay and Burray.

Natural history

''Microtus arvalis ronaldshaiensis'' is one of five varieties of the

Orkney vole The Orkney vole (''Microtus arvalis orcadensis'') is a population of the common vole (''Microtus arvalis'') found in the Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, as well as in the Channel Island of Guernsey. Orkney voles are about 10% ...

, a sub-species of the

common vole The common vole (''Microtus arvalis'') is a European rodent. Distribution and habitat The common vole is hardly restricted in means of distribution and habitat and inhabits large areas of Eurasia but, apart from the Orkney vole, not the Bri ...

found only in the Orkney islands. Larger than the common vole, it resembles the

field vole The short-tailed field vole, short-tailed vole, or simply field vole (''Microtus agrestis'') is a grey-brown vole, around 10 cm in length, with a short tail. It is one of the most common mammals in Europe, with a range extending from the Atl ...

but has shorter, paler fur. The Orkney voles were introduced to the

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 Archi ...

in Neolithic times. The oldest known

radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

-dated fossil of the Orkney vole is 4600 years BP, which marks the latest possible date of introduction.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * *Hedges, J. (1990) Tomb of the Eagles: Death and Life in a Stone Age Tribe. New Amsterdam Books. *Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) ''The Orkney Book''. Edinburgh. Birlinn.

External links

Undiscovered Scotland Page
{{Islands of Scotland Islands of the Orkney Islands