Vementry (Old Norse: "Vemunðarey") is an uninhabited

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 no ...

on the north side of the West Mainland, lying south of Muckle Roe.

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 heel-shaped cairn about in diameter and rising to over in height."Vementry"
RCAHMS. Retrieved 27 September 2013. Also on the island are two 6-inch QF Mk I First World War 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 wa ...

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''. The comb ...

. 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 a ...

, 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", consisting of Uyea Sound to the east and Cribba Sound to the west. Cribba Sound is famed for the quality of mussels produced at the mussel farms located there.

References

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