Orkney, 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 of the coast of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), 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.
The Orkneyinga saga is a narrative of the history of the Orkney and Shetland islands and their relationship with other local polities, particularly Norway and Scotland. The saga has "no parallel in the social and literary record of Scotland" and is "the only medieval chronicle to have Orkney as the central place of action". The main focus of the work is the line of jarls who ruled the Earldom of Orkney, which constituted the Norðreyjar or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland and there are frequent references to both archipelagoes throughout.
William, Billy or Bill Thomson may refer to:
The Earl of Orkney was originally a Norse jarl ruling the archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland (Norðreyjar). Originally founded by Norse invaders, the status of the rulers of the Norðreyjar as Norwegian vassals was formalised in 1195. Although the Old Norse term jarl is etymologically related to "earl", and the jarls were succeeded by earls in the late 15th century, a Norwegian jarl is not the same thing. In the Norse context the distinction between jarls and kings did not become significant until the late 11th century and the early jarls would therefore have had considerable independence of action until that time. The position of Jarl of Orkney was eventually the most senior rank in mediaeval Norway except for the king himself.
Muck is the smallest of four main islands in the Small Isles, part of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Today, much of the island is used for grazing. Residents use wool to make rugs and clothing. There are several ancient monuments and some facilities for visitors. The few residents are served by a single school, Muck Primary School & Nursery. The island is owned by the MacEwen family.
Bressay is a populated island in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland.
Eday is one of the islands of Orkney, which are located to the north of the Scottish mainland. One of the North Isles, Eday is about 24 kilometres from the Orkney Mainland. With an area of 27 km2 (10 sq mi), it is the ninth-largest island of the archipelago. The bedrock of the island is Old Red Sandstone, which is exposed along the sea-cliffs.
The Northern Isles are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are the Hebrides. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are a total of 36 inhabited islands. The landscapes of the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrast with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and on the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both island groups have a developing renewable energy industry. Both have a Pictish and Norse history. Both were part of the Kingdom of Norway until they were absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century. They remained part of it until the 1707 formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom. And they both played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century.
Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in St. Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland. It has a population of around 130 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island.
Robert Brown Thomson was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed the "Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants, Milwaukee Braves (1954–57), Chicago Cubs (1958–59), Boston Red Sox (1960), and Baltimore Orioles (1960). His pennant-winning three-run home run for the Giants in 1951 is popularly known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", and is one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It overshadowed his other accomplishments, including eight 20-home-run seasons and three All-Star selections. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me", he said. "It may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody."
Visokoi Island is an uninhabited island in the Traversay Islands group of the South Sandwich Islands. It was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who initially named the island Thorson Island in honor of Lieutenant Konstantin Thorson, though the tsarist government later renamed the island Visokoi ("high"), after its conspicuous height, in response to Thorson's participation in the Decembrist revolt. The island was surveyed in 1930 by Discovery Investigations (DI) personnel, who charted and named many of its features. Several of the names given by DI were changed in 1953 by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) to avoid redundancy with nearby features.
Ketill Björnsson, nicknamed Flatnose, was a Norse King of the Isles of the 9th century.
Thorfinn Sigurdsson, also known as Thorfinn the Mighty, was an 11th-century Earl of Orkney. He was the youngest of five sons of Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson and the only one resulting from Sigurd's marriage to a daughter of Malcolm II of Scotland. He ruled alone as earl for about a third of the time that he held the title and jointly with one or more of his brothers or with his nephew Rögnvald Brusason for the remainder. Thorfinn married Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, daughter of Finn Arnesson, Jarl of Halland.
Sigurd Hlodvirsson, popularly known as Sigurd the Stout from the Old Norse Sigurðr digri, was an Earl of Orkney. The main sources for his life are the Norse Sagas, which were first written down some two centuries or more after his death. These engaging stories must therefore be treated with caution rather than as reliable historical documents.
Gordon Thomson may refer to:
Craig Alexander Thomson is a Scottish former football referee, who was a match official between 1988 and 2019. Thomson originates from Paisley, Renfrewshire.
Nave Island lies to the north of Islay in the Inner Hebrides near the mouth of Loch Gruinart. It is uninhabited.
Scandinavian Scotland refers to the period from the 8th to the 15th centuries during which Vikings and Norse settlers, mainly Norwegians and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, and their descendants colonised parts of what is now the periphery of modern Scotland. Viking influence in the area commenced in the late 8th century, and hostility between the Scandinavian earls of Orkney and the emerging thalassocracy of the Kingdom of the Isles, the rulers of Ireland, Dál Riata and Alba, and intervention by the crown of Norway were recurring themes.
The first evidence for whaling in Scotland is from Bronze Age settlements where whalebones were used for constructing and decorating dwelling places. Commercial whaling started in the Middle Ages, and by the 1750s most Scottish ports were whaling, with the Edinburgh Whale-Fishing Company being founded in 1749. The last company still engaged in whaling was Christian Salvesen, which exited the industry in 1963.
David Thompson or David Thomson (1588–1628) was the first governor of Massachusetts under the 1622 Council for New England grant to Robert Gorges. He also held the 6000-acre 1622 Piscataqua grant under the Council and is considered the founder and first non-native settler of New Hampshire. In addition, Thomson was granted a patent for Thompson Island in Boston Harbor which to this day bears his name. According to Burke's Landed Gentry (2010) the Thomsons of Corstorphine are direct descendants of a great-grandson of King Robert II, namely, Sir Thomas Stewart, Master of Mar.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document: "Thomson Point".(content from the Geographic Names Information System ) 
