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Stromness
Stromness (, ; ) 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. Etymology The name "Stromness" comes from the Old Norse ''Straumnes''. ''Straumr'' refers to the strong tides that rip past the Point of Ness through Hoy Sound to the south of the town. ''Nes'' means "headland". Stromness thus means "headland protruding into the tidal stream". In Viking times the anchorage where Stromness now stands was called Hamnavoe. Town A long-established seaport, Stromness has a population of approximately 2,500 residents. The old town is clustered along the characterful and winding main street, flanked by houses and shops built from local stone, with narrow lanes and alleys branching off it. First recorded as the site of an inn in the sixteenth century, Stromness became important during the late seventeenth century, when Great Britain was at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stromness Lifeboat Station
Stromness Lifeboat Station is located in the harbour town of Stromness, the second largest town of Mainland, Orkney, in the Isles of Orkney, Scotland. A Lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat was first stationed at Stromness by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1867. The station currently operates a All-weather lifeboat, 17-16 ''Violet, Dorothy and Kathleen'' (ON 1236), on station since 1998. History On 1 January 1866, the ''Albion'' was wrecked on Graemsay, one of the Orkney Islands. Fortunately 90 people survived, but 11 people died, including one man from Graemsay attempting a rescue. Following this event, a request was made to the RNLI to open a lifeboat station in the area, and after a visit by their Inspector of Lifeboats, this was agreed at a meeting of the RNLI committee of management on Thursday 1 August 1867. At the time, Stromness would be the most northerly of all the RNLI stations. A boathouse was constructed at The Ness by Robertson & Smith, costing £144- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stromness Academy
Stromness Academy is a secondary school located in the town of Stromness in the Orkney Islands, established in 1875. History Stromness Academy was originally opened in 1875 in the town centre of Stromness. In the 1980s, Stromness Academy was rebuilt in its current location, just outside the Garson Industrial Estate on the east side of Stromness, with the new building officially opening on 11 September 1990. A large extension was added in 2009, which included a music department, and PE and guidance facilities. Intake Stromness Academy accepts pupils from Stromness Primary School Stromness Primary School is a primary school in Stromness, Orkney. The school has around 125 students. History On June 21, 1919, students from both the primary and higher schools were taken to witness the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa ..., Evie Primary School, Firth Primary School, Stenness Community School, Dounby Primary School, Orphir Community School and Rousay Community School, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orkney Islands
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 336–403. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of , making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall. Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and an historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council. The islands have been inhabited for at least years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts. Orkney was colonised and later annexed by the Kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stromness Museum
Stromness Museum is a small independent museum in the town of Stromness in Orkney, Scotland focusing on the town's connections to maritime and natural history. The building which accommodates the museum was originally constructed as the town hall of Stromness and is a Category B listed building. History Following significant population growth, largely associated with the fishing industry, the area became a police burgh in 1856. In this context, the burgh council decided to commission a town hall: the new building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1858. The burgh council occupied the ground floor of the building while the Orkney Natural History Society, which had been founded in 1837, established a museum on the first floor of the building in 1858. In the 1920s, the burgh council relocated and the society acquired ownership of the building. The expanded museum was re-opened on the site by Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland, A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainland, Orkney
The Mainland, also known as 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 Orkney's population live on the island, which is more densely populated than the other islands of the archipelago. The lengthy history of the island's occupation has provided numerous important archaeological sites and the sandstone bedrock provides a platform for fertile farmland. There is an abundance of wildlife, especially seabirds. Etymology The name Mainland is a Language change, corruption of the Old Norse . Formerly the island was also known as meaning 'horse island'. The island is sometimes referred to as ''Pomona (mythology), Pomona'' (or ''Pomonia''), a name that stems from a 16th-century mis-translation by George Buchanan.Buchanan, George (1582''Rerum Scoticarum Historia: The First Book''The University of California, Irvine. Revised 8 Marc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stromness Primary School
Stromness Primary School is a primary school in Stromness, Orkney. The school has around 125 students. History On June 21, 1919, students from both the primary and higher schools were taken to witness the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow. In 1996, a pupil had to commute to Stromness School by ferry after the school on Graemsay, of which he was the only pupil, closed. The cost of keeping the school open had been £54,000 per year. In 2010, Big Brother winner Cameron Stout eschewed a media career to become a teacher at the school. On January 15, 2013, the school relocated to a new building. The new school was officially opened by Anne, Princess Royal on July 4, 2013. A copper sculpture by Anne Bevan and funded by the Orkney Islands Council was installed on the school grounds. The newly developed school won the 2014 Society for Construction and Architecture in Local Authorities "Civil Building of the Year" Award. The previous school building was subsequently taken ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Rae (explorer)
John Rae (, ; 30 September 1813 – 22 July 1893) was a Scottish surgeon who explored parts of northern Canada. He was a pioneer explorer of the Northwest Passage. Rae explored the Gulf of Boothia, northwest of the Hudson Bay, from 1846 to 1847, and the Arctic coast near Victoria Island from 1848 to 1851. In 1854, back in the Gulf of Boothia, he obtained credible information from local Inuit peoples about the fate of the Franklin Expedition, which had disappeared in the area in 1848. Rae was noted for his physical stamina, skill at hunting, boat handling, use of native methods, and ability to travel long distances with little equipment while living off the land. Early life Rae was born as the sixth of nine children at the Hall of Clestrain in Orkney in the north of Scotland with family ties to Clan MacRae. His father managed up to 300 tenant farmers for a local nobleman, Sir William Honyman, Lord Armadale and worked for many years as the Hudson Bay Company's chief repres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoy Sound
Hoy Sound is a body of salt water subject to tidal currents situated south of the town of Stromness in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. The sound lies north of the island of Hoy, Orkney, Hoy and to the south of Mainland Orkney. To the west are the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the natural harbour of Scapa Flow is to the east. Hoy Sound connects to Scapa Flow via Burra Sound to the south of the island of Graemsay and Clestrain Sound to this island's north.Get-a-Map Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 26 Feb 2012. The Bay of Ireland north of Hoy Sound communicates with Loch of Stenness and Loch of Harray. JNCC. Retrieved 19 June 2011. References ...
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Orkney (Scottish Parliament Constituency)
Orkney is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament ( Holyrood) covering the council area of Orkney. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole. Orkney has been held by the Liberal Democrats at all elections since the formation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, with the current MSP being Liam McArthur, who won the seat at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. The former Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace represented the constituency from 1999 to 2007. Electoral region Orkney is part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region; the other seven constituencies are: Argyll and Bute, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Inverness and Nairn, Moray, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longhope Lifeboat Station
Longhope Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Longhope on the island of South Walls, in Orkney, Scotland. It opened in 1874 and since 2004 has operated a lifeboat. In 1969 its lifeboat and crew of eight were lost during a rescue mission. History A lifeboat station was built at Brims on Hoy and the lifeboat was first launched on 25 September 1874. It was always known as 'Longhope' after the larger town on the adjacent island of South Walls. It was replaced in 1906 by a new station with a slipway at Brims. The boathouse was modified in 1990 when new crew facilities were installed in the roof space but it was closed in 1999 and a new one opened at Longhope. A pontoon mooring was provided so that the could be moored afloat. The old station on Hoy subsequently became the Longhope Lifeboat Museum, opening in May 2002. Longhope lifeboat disaster The ''Irene'', a Liberian tanker, was adrift with no fuel in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill in the parish of Sandwick, Orkney, Sandwick, on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. It consisted of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams that provided support for the walls; the houses included stone hearths, beds, and cupboards. A primitive sewer system, with "toilets" and drains in each house, included water used to flush waste into a drain and out to the ocean. The site was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to around 2500 BC and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney". Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza, it has been called the "Scottish Pompeii" because of its excellent preservation. Care of the site is the responsibility of Historic Environment Scotland which works with par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
