Whalsay
| Whalsay | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | North Sea | |
| Archipelago | Shetland Islands | |
| Geographical location | 60 ° 21 '23 " N , 0 ° 58' 46" W | |
|
||
| length | 8 kilometers | |
| width | 3 km | |
| surface | 19.7 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Ward of Clett 119 m |
|
| Residents | 1061 (2011) 54 inhabitants / km² |
|
| main place | Symbister | |
The Scottish island of Whalsay (old north. "Hvalr-øy" whale island) belongs to the Shetland archipelago and is located a few kilometers east of the main island Mainland . In 2011 there were 1,061 people on Whalsay. With some neighboring, uninhabited islands, Whalsay forms one of the 18 communities (Community Council Areas) of the Shetlands.
Geography and geology
Whalsay is in the east of the Shetlands. The eastern and southern coasts border on the North Sea , in the north-west it is separated from the main island Mainland by a waterway around three kilometers wide. This is divided by the island of West Linga into an eastern arm, the Linga Sound , and a western arm, the Lunning Sound . About six kilometers in the northeast is the archipelago of the Out Skerries , which forms an independent community.
Whalsay is about 8 × 3 km in size and has an area of almost 20 km². The largely treeless and rather flat undulating island reaches a height of 119 meters with the Ward of Clett in the extreme south . Other elevations over 80 meters are the Setter Hill and the area of the Sneugans in the center of the island and the Gamla Vord in the northeast. There are around a dozen lakes on Whalsay, the bigger ones being the Loch of Huxter , the Loch of Houll and Loch Isbister . The coastal areas are largely unspectacular, only areas with cliffs can be found in the southeast .
Settlement is concentrated in the north-western parts of the island facing away from the open sea. The main town of Symbister with its port is also located here . The transitions to the neighboring towns of Harlsdale, Sandwick and Clate in the south and Sodom in the east are fluid. Structurally separated by North Voe Bay, Hamister , Marrister and Brough follow to the north . Aside from that, there are Skaw in the far north and, near the east coast, Isbister and Huxter .
The geological subsurface of the island is formed by metamorphic rocks : gneisses formed from pelite , spread with garnet and kyanite, and quartzite with intrusions of granite . In a strip on the southeast coast, the partial melting led to a granite-like rock. In the last ice age , the area of Whalsay of glaciers was covered, the left by them glacial till cover large parts of the island. Large areas of peat can be found on the surface in three areas : around Loch Livister with the new goose in the center of the island, in the area between Loch Vats-houll and Gamla Vord and on the Challister Ness peninsula in the north.
history
The oldest traces of human settlement come from the Neolithic , other finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages . Mention should be made of the menhirs of Yoxie , The Gairdie and the Broch at the Loch of Huxter, Benie Hoose and the Burnt Mounds at the Loch of Sandwick .
The trade with the Hanseatic League , first mentioned in a document in 1557 , became economically important for Whalsay. Initially via the office in the Norwegian city of Bergen , later directly with Hamburg and Bremen . Was exported dried fish , particularly cod and ling , were delivered in return, among other seeds, cloth, iron tools, alcohol and various luxury goods. After a gradual decline, this phase ended in 1707 with the entry into force of the Act of Union , the tax provisions of which made trading unattractive. The trading station, formerly known as the Bremen Booth , and the nearby transshipment building on the pier are a structural monument from this time in the port of Symbister . In the period that followed, the focus shifted to fishing for herrings , with the highest value of fish caught being achieved in 1832. Further high phases were at the end of the 19th and mid-20th centuries, they alternated with significant declines in the years in between.
Members of the Bruce of Symbister family had resided as Lairds in Whalsay since the mid-16th century, becoming authoritative landlords both here and in Dunrossness . The cost of the Symbister House , which they built as a mansion in 1832 , is considered the cause of their decline, the family died out in 1944.
Politics and administration
As part of the system of Civil Parishes as a local administrative unit, Whalsay belonged to Nesting , as did the opposite part of Mainland and the Out Skerries about six kilometers to the northeast . In 1929 it was reduced to statistical and administrative functions; a corresponding assignment can therefore still be found, but no longer has any administrative significance. After the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the middle authorities were obliged to create the framework for the establishment of community councils at the local level and to designate corresponding areas, Whalsay was newly established as an independent community (Community Council Area). A few smaller, uninhabited islands in the immediate vicinity also belong to their area. The communities Nesting and Lunnasting and the Skerries are adjacent . The Community Council consists of seven people. With the Skerries and the islands of Yell, Unst and Fetlar in the northwest, Whalsay forms a constituency ( Ward ) for the elections to the parliament of the Shetlands , which sends three MPs.
traffic
.jpg)
There is a ferry connection to the port of Symbister from the main island Mainland , which is operated from early morning to late evening on average about once an hour. As a rule, it runs from the port of Laxo , in bad weather from Vidlin . From both places there are bus connections to Lerwick , the capital of the Shetlands, up to three times a day on weekdays . There are also ferries to and from the Skerries several times a week . In the far north, near Skaw, Whalsay has a small airfield , which is only approached when required. Part of the port is designated as a marina .
The construction of a fixed link from Mainland to Whalsay has been considered on various occasions since the beginning of the 21st century , as was the case with Yell , Unst and Bressay . The Shetlands Council turned down an offer from a Norwegian investment company to finance 85 percent of the cost of a tunnel, estimated at £ 83 million , in the fall of 2016, as did the construction of a new ferry terminal at North Voe Bay, worth £ 26.6 million would have cost. Depending on the variant, the tunnel would have a length between 5.7 and 7.1 kilometers.
economy
The most important economic factor in Whalsay is fish; the port of Symbister is the location of several ocean-going trawlers . In North Voe Bay, Atlantic salmon and lumpfish are farmed in aquafarming . The closure of a packaging company in 2012 proved a heavy blow to the island. The offer by a fish processing group from Norway to set up a successor operation failed in 2016 because the Shetland Council refused to invest in the port expansion required for this. A report from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government's development agency for the north of the country, had previously identified the need for such a factory, but recommended the capital of the Shetlands, Lerwick , as the location .
The tourism sector is not very well developed. The only restaurant on the island is only open on a daily basis, and there are also homes of some clubs. The accommodation offer is essentially limited to several so-called böds , which are holiday homes with simple furnishings. One of these, in Sodom, was set up in a building where the famous Scottish politician, writer and poet Hugh MacDiarmid lived in the 1930s . Agriculture also only plays a subordinate role, it is mainly operated by crofters . In the areas with pending peat this is as fuel for their own use razor .
Public facilities and infrastructure
Whalsay has a kindergarten as well as a primary and secondary school in the eastern part of Symbister. The schools that were previously located in Brough and Isbister had moved to Symbister House in the mid-1960s. In 1993 the primary school moved into a new building, since then Symbister House has served the secondary school . Whalsay's only church and cemetery are on the Kirk Ness Peninsula , north of Brough.
The community has two event halls, one in Symbister and one in Isbister, as well as a youth center in Livister. There is also a sports and leisure center with a swimming pool. The football club Whalsay FC plays its home games on an artificial turf pitch that was inaugurated in 2002 . The team was able to win several championships and cups at amateur level, and in the 2018 season it will compete in the islands' top division. The golf course near Skaw in the far north of the island is the northernmost in the United Kingdom .
The health care of the population is ensured by a small medical center, in Marrister there is a retirement and nursing home with ten rooms. The drinking water supply is provided by two lakes in the southern part of the island, Bu Water and the Loch of Huxter . A water treatment plant that uses nanofiltration and reverse osmosis was put into operation on the latter in 2017 . It replaced an older pumping station on the lake.
Culture
Whalsay has two museums: The small Pier House Museum is located in a former transhipment building on the pier. In Midden Court , an agricultural annex of Symbister House, was, after many years of renovation, 2006, the Whalsay Heritage and Community Center opened. It presents the various historical and traditional aspects of life on the island, including the influence of the lairds .
Symbister House, the Pier House and the Church are classified as Category B Listed Buildings , Harbor View , a Skeo and the Southwest Docks are Category C. Of the total of 73 archaeological sites, six are designated as Scheduled Monument , including the Chambered Cairn at the Ward of Symbister Ness , the Burnt Mounds at the Loch of Sandwick , prehistoric settlement remains at Suther Ness and the Broch at the Loch of Huxter.
Picture gallery
Landscape in the interior of the island
Menhirs of Yoxie
Symbister House
Peat cutters near the Challister Ness
Aquaculture in North Voe
.jpg)
literature
- Whalsay Community Council: Area Statement. Written as part of the creation of the Shetland Local Plan in 2004. Available online on the Shetland Islands Council website, PDF file, 229 kB (English)
- Community Profile: Whalsay. Produced by the Community Work Service of the Shetland Islands Council in 2010. Available online on the SIC website, PDF file, 3.6 MB (English)
Web links
- Whalsay at Shetland.org (English)
- Whalsay at Undiscoveredscotland.co.uk (English)
- Whalsay on the Shetland Times operated website shetlandvisitor.com (English)
- Entry Whalsay in the Gazetteer for Scotland (English)
- Whalsay at Vision of Britain (English)
References and comments
- ↑ 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland - Release 1C (Part Two). Statistical Bulletin, August 15, 2013, p. 13. Digitized version on the official website for the 2011 census, PDF file, 86 kB, accessed on May 28, 2018 (English)
- ↑ W. Mykura: Metamorphic rocks of Shetland: east Mainland and Adjacent islands. British regional geology: Orkney and Shetland, Edinburgh 1976. Available online on the Earthwise Wiki of the BGS , accessed on May 31, 2018 (English)
- ↑ W. Mykura: Shetland, Foula and Fair Isle, Pleistocene and Recent. British regional geology: Orkney and Shetland, Edinburgh 1976. Available online on the Earthwise Wiki of the BGS, accessed on May 31, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Map server of the BGS , requested on May 31, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ Bruce of Symbister on the Shetland Museum and Archives website, accessed June 1, 2018.
- ↑ a b History of Symbister House on the Whalsay School website, accessed June 5, 2018
- ^ For example, in the database of listed objects of Historic Environment Scotland .
- ↑ Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, Part IV: Community Councils on the official UK law website, accessed May 30, 2018.
- ^ Shetland Community Council Areas. Map of parishes and their boundaries on the Shetland Islands Council website. PDF file, 1.9 MB, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Details for: Whalsay Community Council on the Shetland Islands Council website. PDF file, 1.9 MB, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ a b Timetable of the ferries in summer 2018 on the Shetland Islands Council website. PDF file, 249 kB, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Timetable North Mainland on the website of the operator Zettrans. PDF file, 687 kB, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Entry Whalsay Airstrip in the Gazetteer for Scotland, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ^ Jim Tait: Council turned down Norwegian loan for tunnel to Whalsay, ASCC meeting hears. The Shetland Times, accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Information on the attachment on the Scottish Government website, accessed June 3, 2018. (English)
- ↑ Blow for Whalsay as Norpak fish factory closes with loss of 26 jobs. The Shetland Times, May 9, 2012, accessed June 3, 2018. (English)
- ^ Hans J. Marter: Plans for new Whalsay fish factory in doubt. Shetland News, February 20, 2016, accessed June 3, 2018. (English)
- ↑ What is a bad? Information on a supplier's website, accessed on June 3, 2018. (English)
- ↑ Primary on the Whalsay School website, accessed May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Entry Whalsay Parish Church in the Gazetteer for Scotland, accessed on May 30, 2018 (English)
- ↑ Whalsay Football Club on the Shetlands Football Association website, accessed May 4, 2018
- ↑ League A - Premier League on the Shetland Football Association website, accessed June 4, 2018
- ↑ Whalsay on the Shetland NHS website , accessed June 4, 2018.
- ↑ Fernlea - Wishart Anderson Care Center . Information about the home on the Shetland Council website as of July 2012. PDF file, 1.8 MB, accessed June 4, 2018
- ^ New multi million pounds treatment works completed in Whalsay. Scottish Water press release dated May 31, 2017, accessed June 4, 2018
- ↑ Whalsay Heritage and Community Center website , accessed June 3, 2018
- ↑ Whalsay Heritage and Community Center on the Shetland Heritage Association website, accessed June 3, 2018.
- ↑ Both the Area Statement from 2004 and the Community Profile from 2014 name 74 and seven. However, the Pier House, which is also a Listed Building, was carried out in 2016 as part of an elimination of double classifications. Scheduled Monument - entry . In: Historic Scotland .
Balta | Bressay | East Burra | West Burra | Fair Isle | Fetlar | Foula | Mainland | Mousa | Muckle Flugga | Muckle Roe | Noss | Out stack | Papa Stour | Trondra | Unst | Uyea (Mainland) | Uyea (Unst) | Vaila | Whalsay | Yell