Damsay

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Damsay
Damsay as seen from Mainland
Damsay as seen from Mainland
Waters North Sea
Archipelago Orkney Islands
Geographical location 59 ° 0 ′ 31 ″  N , 3 ° 3 ′ 47 ″  W Coordinates: 59 ° 0 ′ 31 ″  N , 3 ° 3 ′ 47 ″  W
Damsay (Orkney)
Damsay
surface 18 ha
Highest elevation 11  m
Residents uninhabited

Damsay is an island of Orkney in Scotland . It is located in the Bay of Firth , north of Finstown on Mainland and the Holm of Grimbister . It's an uninhabited island about 18 acres in size, only eleven meters above sea level. The distance to Kirkwall is 4 miles.

There was a Nordic hall on Damsay. In the 12th century , according to the Orkneyinga saga , Sweyn Asleifsson fled here after the murder of Sven Breastrope in Orphir .

Earl Erlend Haraldsson was murdered on Damsay in 1154 by the Earls Rognvald Kali Kolsson and Harald Maddaðsson. Erlend celebrated Christmas on the island and withdrew to his ship. He and his men were taken by surprise and killed. A small monastery was later built here. The Orkneyinga saga tells that two years earlier Earl Harald Maddaðsson found refuge in Cairston Castle near Stromness (preserved as a ruin near the city) before being persecuted by Erlend and Sweyn Asleifsson .

Jo Ben's wrote about Damsay in his Descriptions of Orkney in 1529 : “There are no mountains here and it is the most pleasant of all the islands and it is called“ Tempe ”. The church on the island, which many pregnant women visit, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. No frogs, toads, or harmful land animals have ever been found here. Women are sterile and if they become pregnant they never give birth to life. "

The shallow bay around the island is the destination of underwater archaeologists , who discovered structures of a settlement here. Since the sea level was about 40 m lower 10,000 years ago and only 2000 BC. BC reached its present state, today's island must have been part of the mainland for a long time.

literature

  • Charles Tait: The Orkney Guide Book. Edition 2.1. C. Tait, Kelton - St. Ola - Orkney 1999, ISBN 0-9517859-0-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. Entry on Damsay  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)

Web links

Commons : Damsay  - collection of images, videos and audio files