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Vementry (Old Norse: "Vemunðarey") is an uninhabited Scottish island in
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 ...
on the north side of the
West Mainland The West Mainland of the Shetland Islands is the part of the Shetland Mainland lying west of Aith (1° 23′ W). Geography Points of interest include: *Aith * Twatt *Sandness * Walls *Easter Skeld * Reawick *Wester Skeld Wester can refer to: ...
, lying south of
Muckle Roe Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in St. Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland. It has a population of around 130 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 440 'Muckle' is Scots for 'bi ...
.


Description and history

The island is known for its well-preserved
chambered cairn A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
. The well-preserved remains of a
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 ...
heel-shaped cairn The heel-shaped cairn, with its usually cruciform chamber, is a type of megalithic monument that is found in Scotland, especially in Caithness and Sutherland and in the Shetland Islands. In Orkney, the Isbister Cairn is the only site that is si ...
about in diameter and rising to over in height."Vementry"
RCAHMS The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...
. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
Also on the island are two 6-inch QF Mk I
First World War 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, ...
gun emplacements which overlook the narrow entrance into the former naval anchorage of
Busta Voe Busta Voe, (HU665350), in the north central Mainland, Shetland, is a sea inlet lying between the village of Brae and the island of Muckle Roe. At the head of the voe is the Delting Marina and Boating Club. During the First World War Busta Voe was ...
on Swarbacks Head, a cliff standing around
above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...
. These guns were removed from , an ''Edgar''-class cruiser which was acting as a depot ship for 10th Cruiser Squadron. They were manned by a mixed crew of RN sailors and Royal Marines. The guns are mounted en barbette on concrete platforms with a concrete parapet and gun shield to provide protection against incoming fire. There are two ammunition lockers built into the parapet of each gun platform, and each platform is linked to a separate main magazine by a trench. A simple stone-and-concrete fire control pillbox also exists on the site. The guns were abandoned in situ after the end of the First World War and were never used after this time.


Mainland and island

Vementry is also the name of a small farm on
Mainland, Shetland The Mainland is the main island of Shetland, Scotland. The island contains Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick, and is the centre of Shetland's ferry and air connections. Geography It has an area of , making it the third-largest Scottish island ...
, immediately south of the island. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the "Isle of Vementry". There is no ferry service to the island, although the shepherd on the mainland farm occasionally makes the short trip to work with stock on the island. The Isle of Vementry is separated from the mainland Vementry by a narrow channel or "
sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
", consisting of Uyea Sound to the east and Cribba Sound to the west. Cribba Sound is famed for the quality of
mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which ...
produced at the mussel farms located there.


References

Uninhabited islands of Shetland Neolithic Scotland Former populated places in Scotland {{Shetland-geo-stub