Dunrossness

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The Shetland Crofthouse Museum at Dunrossness Shetland crofthouse museum.jpg
The Shetland Crofthouse Museum at Dunrossness
Dunrossness Baptist Church Dunrossnessbaptistchuch.jpg
Dunrossness Baptist Church

Dunrossness, (Old Norse: Dynrastarnes meaning "headland of the loud tide-race", referring to the noise of Sumburgh Roost) is the southernmost parish of Shetland, Scotland. Historically the name Dunrossness has usually referred to the area on the Shetland mainland south of Quarff. [1] However, in 2016 there were three separate Shetland Community Councils for a) Gulberwick, Quarff and Cunningsburgh; b) Sandwick; and c) Dunrossness. [2] The 2011 census defined Dunrossness as including everybody within the British ZE2 postal code, which goes as far north as Gulberwick. It has the best and largest area of fertile farmland of any parish in Shetland. [3] Dunrossness includes the island of Mousa, Levenwick, St Ninian's Isle, Bigton, Scousburgh, the Lochs of Spiggie and Brow, Boddam, Quendale, Virkie, Exnaboe, Grutness, Toab, Ness of Burgi, Clumlie Broch, Scatness, Sumburgh Airport, Sumburgh Head, West Voe, the islands of Lady's Holm, Little Holm, Horse Holm island and Fair Isle. [1]

Dunrossness is associated with a number of eminent people, such as Haldane Burgess, George Stewart, [4] Sir Herbert J.C. Grierson, [5] Jenny Gilbertson, Elizabeth Balneaves as well as that symbol of providence Betty Mouat. The author Sir Walter Scott visited Dunrossness in 1814 and wrote the novel The Pirate, which is set mostly in the Parish. [6] Robert Stevenson built Shetland's first lighthouse at Sumburgh Head in 1821, [6] and his son Thomas Stevenson and his grandson, the author Robert Louis Stevenson, visited the Shetland lighthouses and Fair Isle in 1870. [7]

Dunrossness had 1,505 sites of archaeological interest in 2016, 181 of them scheduled (i.e. nationally important). [3] For example, Jarlshof, perhaps the best known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland and Old Scatness (which has mediaeval, Viking, Pictish, and Iron Age remains) both lie within the parish of Dunrossness. [8] Another example is the lost township of Broo (other spellings include Brew and Brow) near Quendale Beach. Broo was headed by the wealthy Sinclair family [9] and was inhabited until probably the last decades of the 17th century when the buildings were covered with up to two metres of sand and abandoned. [10] These have been excavated since 1997. [11]

Quendale beach was the site of the largest whale-kill ever recorded in Shetland in 1845 when 1,540 Long-finned Pilot Whales were driven ashore. [12]

In 1993 the oil tanker MV Braer ran aground on Garths Ness in Dunrossness releasing 85,000 tons of crude oil one of the worst oil spills in Shetland's history. [13]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shetland</span> Archipelago in the Northern Atlantic

Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. Until 1975, it was known as Zetland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mainland, Shetland</span> Main island of the Shetland Islands, Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grutness</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Grutness is a small settlement and headland at the southern tip of the main island of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The settlement is within the parish of Dunrossness. It is located close to Sumburgh Head and is the terminus of the ferry service between the Shetland Mainland and Fair Isle. It has a pebbly beach and seals, whales and orcas can be seen in the sea nearby.

MV Braer was an oil tanker which ran aground during a storm off Shetland, Scotland, in January 1993, and nearly a week later broke up during the most intense extratropical cyclone on record for the northern Atlantic Ocean, the Braer Storm of January 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop of Orkney</span> Head of the Scottish diocese, c. 1035–1688

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Mainland</span>

The South Mainland of the Shetland Islands is the southern peninsula of Mainland island. It lies south of Hellister. The greater southern part of the peninsula belongs to the civil parish of Dunrossness. The rest belongs to the parishes of Lerwick and Tingwall. St Ninian's Isle is a tidal island off its west coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horse Holm</span> Island in Shetland Islands, Scotland, UK

Horse Island or Horse Holm, known locally as Da Holm, is one of the Shetland Islands. It lies about 2.3 km west of Sumburgh Head at the south tip of the Mainland, Shetland. In the Norn language, it was called Hundiholmi but was later renamed Horse Holm. It is used as an alignment point by local fishermen for several fishing marks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virkie</span>

Virkie is the most southerly district of Shetland, other than Fair Isle and is best defined as the area south of the Ward Hill in Dunrossness, also locally referred to as "below da hill", or "da laich Ness".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scatness</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Scatness is a settlement on the headland of Scat Ness at the southern tip of Mainland, Shetland, Scotland, across the West Voe of Sumburgh from Sumburgh Head and close to Sumburgh Airport, the Shetland Islands' main airport. Scatness is in the parish of Dunrossness.

El Gran Grifón was the flagship of the Spanish Armada's supply squadron of Baltic hulks ; see List of Ships of the Spanish Armada. She was shipwrecked on Fair Isle, Shetland, Scotland, on 27 September 1588.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yell Sound</span> Sound of Yell, Scotland

Yell Sound is the Sound running between Yell and Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. It is the boundary between the Mainland and the North Isles, and it contains many small islands. Sullom Voe, on the shores of which is a substantial oil terminal, is an arm of Yell Sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nesting, Shetland</span> Parish in the Shetland Islands, Scotland

Nesting is a parish in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It includes a part of the east Shetland Mainland, measuring about twelve by four miles, along the seaboard from Gletness to Lunna Ness, and also the island of Whalsay and the Out Skerries. The coast is deeply indented by voes and headlands. The arable land comprises only about 1,000 acres, the remainder being mostly open moorland. The total area is given as 105.6 km2. This includes the ancient parish of Lunnasting in the North and the island parish of Whalsay to the east, which were added to Nesting in 1891. Before that, the ancient parishes of North Nesting and South Nesting were merged.

Lady's Holm is an island off southern Mainland in the Shetland Islands. It is not to be confused with the Maiden Stack, which is also known as "Frau Stack"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ness of Burgi</span>

The Ness of Burgi is a narrow peninsula that stretches to the south from the Scat Ness headland of Mainland, Shetland, a Scottish island. It is in the parish of Dunrossness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quarff</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Quarff is a small village on Mainland in the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It is located on the main A970 road, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Shetland's only town, Lerwick. The village is spread along a classic glacial valley that runs east–west across the island between high hills to north and south, with centres of population at Easter Quarff which is near the main road and the east coast, and Wester Quarff which is 11⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west and faces the Atlantic Ocean. A narrow road runs along the valley between the two.

References

  1. 1 2 Irvine (2001 , p. 1)
  2. ↑ "Shetland Islands Council Committee Information - Community Councils". Shetland Island Council. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Dunrossness Community Council Area Statement" (PDF). Shetland local plan. Shetland Islands Council. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  4. ↑ Irvine (2001 , p. 196)
  5. ↑ Irvine (2001 , p. 198)
  6. 1 2 Irvine (2001 , p. 82)
  7. ↑ Irvine (2001 , p. 209)
  8. ↑ Irvine (1983 , p. 27)
  9. ↑ Campsie, Alison (9 October 2020). "The lost island settlement abandoned after it was buried in sand". The Scotsman. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  10. ↑ Bigelow, Gerald (2011). "Shetland Islands; Dunrossness; Broo; Survey, Paleoenvironmental Research and Excavation 2011". Journal of Archaeology Scotland. 12: 170–171 – via Academia.
  11. ↑ "Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project". Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, USA. 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  12. ↑ Evans, Peter; Harvey, Paul (2019). "Cetaceans". Nature in Shetland. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  13. ↑ Gervais, Marie-Claude (September 1997). "Social Representations of Nature: The Case of the Braer Oil Spill in Shetland (Doctor of Philosophy thesis)" (PDF). Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

Sources

59°56′17″N1°18′14″W / 59.93806°N 1.30389°W / 59.93806; -1.30389


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