Rusk Holm is a small island in 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 ...

, near

Faray Faray (Old Norse: ''Færey'') is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying between Eday and Westray. Previously inhabited, the low-lying island is now a successful grey seal breeding colony. Geography Faray and Holm of Faray are formed of a ri ...

to the west.

History

There is a prehistoric

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

on itHaswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canongate. . Rusk Holm is also home to "Holmie Sheep", which are similar to the

North Ronaldsay sheep The North Ronaldsay or Orkney is a breed of sheep from North Ronaldsay, the northernmost island of Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland. It belongs to the Northern European short-tailed sheep group of breeds, and has evolved without much cr ...

Geography and geology

Corn Holm is made up of red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. It is in Rapness Sound.

References

Uninhabited islands of Orkney {{Orkney-geo-stub