Uyea, Unst

Last updated

Uyea
Scots nameUyea
Meaning of namethe isle
Location
Shetland UK relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Uyea
Uyea shown within Scotland
OS grid reference HU600994
Coordinates 60°40′00″N0°54′00″W / 60.6667°N 00.900°W / 60.6667; -00.900
Physical geography
Island group Shetland
Area205 ha (0.79 sq mi)
Area rank105= [1]
Highest elevationThe Ward 50 m (164 ft)
Administration
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Country Scotland
Council area Shetland Islands
Demographics
Population0
Lymphad3.svg
References [2] [3] [4] [5]

Uyea (Scots : Uyea) is an uninhabited island, lying south of Unst in Shetland, Scotland.

Contents

Etymology

The Norn word for an island is øy so Uyea (pronounced "Øya") simply means "the isle." This name was given to it by the people of south Unst as it is the largest island near their shores (excluding Yell) and they thought of Unst itself as the mainland. [6]

History

View over Uyeasound from Uyea Uyea Isle.jpg
View over Uyeasound from Uyea

The island was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age, and a chambered cairn can still be seen. In the twelfth century, Saint Olaf's chapel overlooking Brei Wick was built.

In 1745, two girls from Uyea rowed to the small island of Haaf Gruney to milk some of the cows grazing here. They were caught in a storm when trying to return, and eventually they found their tiny boat blown to Karmøy in south west Norway. The Uyea girls ended up marrying Karmøy men, and their descendants still live there. [3]

Jack Priest, in his memoir of the isle during World War II, described it as "a beachcomber's dream - washed as it is with a westerly Atlantic tide through Bluemull Sound, fed from the east by waters of the Norwegian basin and finally the North Sea pressing up from among the isles through the narrow channel between Yell and Fetlar and feeding Colgrave Sound on the south side of Uyea Isle." [7]

The island was the home of Sir Basil Neven-Spence, who was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland from 1935 to 1950.

To the present day, Neven-Spence is the most recent person not from the Liberal Democrats or the Liberal Party to represent the constituency.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Area and population ranks: there are c.300 islands over 20ha in extent and 93 permanently inhabited islands were listed in the 2011 census.
  2. National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland's Inhabited Islands" (PDF). Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland Release 1C (Part Two) (PDF) (Report). SG/2013/126. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  3. 1 2 Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN   978-1-84195-454-7.
  4. Ordnance Survey. OS Maps Online (Map). 1:25,000. Leisure.
  5. Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) Orkneyinga Saga. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie. Edinburgh. James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint). ISBN   0-901824-25-9
  6. Jakobsen 1897, p. 100.
  7. Priest, Jack Island at War (1994)

Related Research Articles

Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland. After Orkney and Shetland were pledged to Scotland by Norway in 1468–69, it was gradually replaced by Scots. Norn is thought to have become extinct in 1850, after the death of Walter Sutherland, the language's last known speaker, though there are claims the language persisted as late as the 20th century.

<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.

Yell is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland. In the 2011 census it had a usually resident population of 966. It is the second largest island in Shetland after the Mainland with an area of 82 square miles (212 km2), and is the third most populous in the archipelago, after the Mainland and Whalsay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fetlar</span> One of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland

Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a usually resident population of 61 at the time of the 2011 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre. Other settlements include Aith, Funzie, Herra and Tresta. Fetlar is the fourth-largest island of Shetland and has an area of just over 4,000 ha.

Unst is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of 46 sq mi (120 km2).

The Isle of Noss or Noss is a small, previously inhabited island in Shetland, Scotland. Noss is separated from the island of Bressay by the narrow Noss Sound. It has been run as a sheep farm since 1900, and has been a national nature reserve since 1955.

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

The North Isles are the northern islands of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The main islands in the group are Yell, Unst and Fetlar. Sometimes the islands in Yell Sound are included in this group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balta, Shetland</span>

Balta is an uninhabited island in Shetland, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huney</span> Uninhabited tidal island in the Shetland Islands, Scotland

Huney is an uninhabited island due east of the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The island is located approximately 1 kilometre south west of Balta and has an area of just under 0.2 square kilometres (0.08 sq mi). Huney is separated from Unst by a narrow channel called The Yei. At extremely low tides a sandy tombolo may connect Huney to Unst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skaw, Unst</span> Settlement in Shetland, Scotland

Skaw is a settlement in the Scottish archipelago of Shetland, located on the island of Unst. It is located north of Haroldswick on a peninsula in the northeast corner of the island, and is the most northerly settlement in the United Kingdom. It is currently inhabited by a single inhabitant whose business is sheep farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linga, Bluemull Sound</span>

Linga is a very small uninhabited island in the Bluemull Sound, Shetland, Scotland. It is one of many islands in Shetland called Linga. It has an area of 45 ha and is 26m at its highest point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basil Neven-Spence</span> Scottish politician

Sir Basil Hamilton Hebden Neven-Spence was a Scottish Unionist Party politician and military physician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uyea, Northmavine</span> Uninhabited tidal island located to the northwest of Mainland, Shetland

Uyea is an uninhabited tidal island located to the northwest of Mainland, Shetland. Uyea lies off the Northmavine peninsula, from where it can be reached by foot at low tide. The island's highest elevation is 70 metres (230 ft) and its area is 45 hectares (0.17 sq mi).

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

Haaf Gruney is a small island in the north east of the Shetland Islands.

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

Yell Sound is the strait 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>

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.

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

Sandsting is a parish in the West Mainland of Shetland, Scotland, forming a southern arm of the Walls Peninsula. After the parish of Aithsting was annexed into Sandsting in the sixteenth century, it became known as Sandsting and Aithsting parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delting</span> Scottish parish

Delting is a civil parish and community council area on Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. It includes the Sullom Voe oil terminal and its main settlements are Brae, Mossbank and Voe.

References

60°40′N0°54′W / 60.667°N 0.900°W / 60.667; -0.900