Switha is a small uninhabited island towards the south of

Orkney 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 ...

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 th ...

, approximately 41 hectares in area.

Geography and geology

Switha lies 2 km to the south of the island of Flotta and 2 km east of the South Walls area of Hoy.

South Ronaldsay South Ronaldsay (, also , sco, Sooth Ronalshee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm. Name Along with North R ...

lies about 5 km further east. The island is roughly rectangular in shape, about 1 km by 0.5 km in size and is aligned in a NE to SW direction. The maximum elevation is 28 m, found on the small cliff on the south coast, to the west of which is the only appreciable beach at The Pool. Geologically, the island is wholly of Old Red Sandstone, from the Devonian period, specifically Rousay Flagstones, dating from about 375 Mya, laid down by a cyclical series of lakes and containing many fish fossils.

Flora

The island is predominantly maritime grassland with small areas of heath and bog.

Wildlife

Switha is very important for wildlife and has been designated both as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

) and an EU Special Protection Area. The primary reason for this is the wintering population of Greenland barnacle goose. About 1000 of the birds are thought to spend the winter months roosting on the island and feeding on nearby South Walls. This population is not only the most northerly in the UK but also the third largest after Islay and North Uist. Common seabirds known to frequent the rocky coast line include black guillemot, great black-backed gull,

Arctic skua The parasitic jaeger (''Stercorarius parasiticus''), also known as the Arctic skua, Arctic jaeger or parasitic skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is a migratory species that breeds in Northern Scandinavia, Scotland, Ice ...

and

great skua The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken f ...

. In addition, Haswell-Smith records that there are many European storm petrel burrows. However, several surveys since the late 1960s have only revealed a small number of pairs on the island, probably never more than 10. The burrows are probably more likely to belong to the

puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

, which are reported to be resident on the island in some numbers, with about 250 pairs.

History

Pre-history

The presence of

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 part ...

standing stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...

s and a cairn show that the island was at least visited in

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

times. There are two standing stones, the larger, southerly stone is 147 cm high, by 91 cm wide and 30 cm deep. The northerly stone is 112 cm high, 48 cm wide and just 15 cm deep and is thus somewhat smaller. Further evidence of pre-historic use is provided by the presence of a 9 m diameter by 0.5 m high turf covered cairn, near The Ool at the southern tip of the island. When excavated the cairn contained a cist-like structure. Haswell-Smith (2004) maintains there is no written record of any post-Neolithic habitation, and there are 3 further sources that would support that assertion, at least for the past 350 years. The Blaeu '' Atlas of Scotland'' (1654) stated that the island was "neither inhabited nor cultivated". The ''Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland'', published in 1848, stated that the island was uninhabited. Finally, the Ordnance Survey map of 1882 doesn't indicate any significant building or habitation, although the enclosure mentioned below would seem to be present. Whether the island was uninhabited prior to 1654 is less certain since the ''Descriptions of Orkney'', written in 1529, states that the entire population of an island, "Southay" presumed to refer to Switha, is said to have died while sailing to a Christmas celebration on a neighboring island, and the island had never been populated since. In addition, there are archeological remains that could represent old dwellings, for instance a stone closure at the southern end of the island.

Agricultural use

The island would seem to have had a long history of use for agriculture, at least for keeping stock. In current times the island is wholly used for sheep grazing. Older texts support the island's use for other livestock however, for instance it is recorded that in 1747–48, 11 oxen were kept on Switha, part of the Burray inventory.

Notes

References

* *Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) ''The Orkney Book''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. *Harris, Mike P and Wanless, Sarah (2011) "The Puffin". Poyser Monographs. {{coord, 58.79734, N, 3.10054, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(ND365905), display=title Special Protection Areas in Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Orkney Uninhabited islands of Orkney