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 (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

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 The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

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 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

emplacements which overlook the narrow entrance into the former naval anchorage of Busta Voe on Swarbacks Head, a cliff standing around

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. 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, having now fallen largely into a state of disrepair.

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 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 the br ...

", 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, whic ...

produced at the mussel farms located there.

References

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