ORKNEY AND SHETLAND. 481 TWENTIETH DIVISION. ORKNEY AND SHETLAND. ORKNEY and SHETLAND are two archipelagoes, with the status of a county. Orkney lies immediately north of the Pentland Frith; and comprises a main island called Pomona, 28 other inhabited islands, 38 pastoral isles, and a great number of skerries. Its length northward is 37 miles; its greatest breadth, 27. Its grouping is so far compact that the amount of intersecting sea is not much greater than the amount of land. The part in the southwest, forming the northern portion of Hoy Island, is grandly hilly; the parts thence, through the interior, are variously hill, tumulation, slope, and plain ; and the parts in the east and the north-east are all undulating or flat, with few points as high as 100 feet above the level of the sea. Shetland includes two small islands lying far detached, but otherwise forms a strictly compact group. This commences 48 miles north-east of the northern extremity of Orkney, and extends 70 miles in a direction north by east, with a breadth varying from 3 miles to 28. Its chief island bears the name of Mainland, and comprehends about one-half of the entire area, but is so often and deeply intersected by sea-lochs as to be little else than a chain of peninsulas. The island next in size is Yell; the next, Unst; and 27 more are inhabited, 70 pastoral. The coasts are prevailingly bold and rocky, much flanked by skerries and stacks, and mostly cut into intricate shores; while the interior parts are extensively moorish or mossy, generally rolled or flattened into low hills, and almost everywhere bleak and tame. We cannot track regular routes over either archipelago, but shall treat Orkney in thrée quasi-routes, and Shetland in one, war with Buonaparte, was a rendezvous for vessels waiting for convoy. Two martello towers and a battery stand at the harbour's mouth; and a light-house, built in 1858, stands on Candick Head, at the south-east extremity of Walls. Traces of ancient fortifications occur at Snelsetter, 3 miles west of the light-house; and Melsetter House, the seat of John George Heddle, Esq., stands on the north side of the head of Longhope. The population of Walls in 1851, together with the southern half of Hoy, was 1226, 1434. SOUTH RONALDSHAY extends | shelter from every wind, and, during the 8 miles from south to north, and has an area of 18 square miles. Its surface is prevailingly low and level, with large proportion of arable land, but rises in some parts to a height of nearly 300 feet. Two headlands of it on the east, and one on the west, exhibit cliffs 250 feet high. A small bay on the north, called St. Margaret's Hope, is a fine natural harbour for small vessels; and a village of the same name, at the bay's head, has a post office under Kirkwall, a good inn, and about 260 inhabitants. An inn stands also in the south, at the ferry to Houna. The island contains some Druidical stones, a number of large Scandinavian dunes, and ruins or vestiges of seven ancient chapels; and it was the place where Olave of Norway thrust nominal Christianity on the pagan Earl of Orkney at the point of the sword. Its population in 1851 was 2465. The west coast of 1437. HOY extends 11 miles northnorth-westward, and has a mean breadth of about 4 miles. Its northern half is chiefly occupied by steep, creviced hills, rising to altitudes of 1407 and 1556 feet. The highest point, called Wart Hill, occurs 1 mile from the eastern shore, and 23 miles from the northern extremity, and commands a very extensive and magnificent view. the hill district is nearly all a series of cliffs and shelving precipices, from 500 to 900 feet high, with forms like stupendous masonry, and of most impressive scenic power. An isolated rock, called the Old Man of Hoy, large and high, of columnar outline, with arches through the base, starts from the sea adjacent to the cliffs, 3 miles south-west of the summit of Wart Hill, and is so conspicuous as to arrest the eye of an observer on the coast of Caithness. An echoing 1436. WALLS is alternately a penin- rock, of uncommon sharpness, correctsula and an island, 5 miles long east-ness, and volume, occurs at the meadow north-eastward, and 1 mile broad. of Kame, 4 miles north-east of the Old The isthmus of it lies at the west end, Man. A block of sandstone, called the joins on to Hoy, and is overflown for days Dwarfie Stone, 28 feet long and 14 feet together at the highest spring tides. A broad, hollowed by art at one end, pronatural harbour, called Longhope, lies bably used in remote times as a heathen along all the north side, enjoys perfect altar, but popularly associated with feats 1435. BURRAY lies a mile north of South Ronaldshay, extends 43 miles from east to west, and contains about 560 inhabitants. Holm Sound, along its north side, separating it from Pomona, is 2 miles wide. Scalpa Flow, a small sea, engirt by South Ronaldshay and Burray on the east, by Pomona on the north, by Hoy and Walls on the west, receives from the Atlantic tidal currents of similar rapidity to those of the Pentland Frith, but is nearly tranquil in the centre and in the east. of supernatural power on the part of | Graemsay and of the northern half of some ancient Scandinavian, lies 2 miles Hoy, in 1851, was 615. south-east of the top of Wart Hill, The rocks of Hoy range through many varieties of the sedimentary and the eruptive, and possess much interest for geologists. Hoy Sound, separating Hoy from Pomona, has a length of 7 miles, a mean breadth of 2, and is swept by very rapid currents. Graemsay Island, lying in the Sound half a mile south of Stromness, measures 5 miles in circuit, and is crowned by two light-houses, with respectively red and white fixed lights, 115 and 55 feet high. The population of A steamer, starting from Para graph ..1439 Granton, goes up the east coast of Scotland once a-week to Kirkwall.... This town is the grand centre for all Orkney, Excursions may be made from it in every direction; and the line we shall here draw is a sort of circuit round Pomona and the adjacent north-eastern islands. A mail-gig runs from Kirkwall to Stromness; but the progress elsewhere must, according to circumstances, be either by special vehicle, on horseback, on foot, or by boat. Road to Orphir, left..............1440 Caldate, left; Benibuster, right; Kellylang Hiis, left; Firth Bay, with Grimbister and Damsay Islands, right; Firth Church, left; roads to Evie and Haray, right; Stenness Loch and Standing 1438. FLOTA lies off the mouth of Longhope Harbour, measures 3 miles by 3, presents some cliffs to the sea, and contains some low moors well plenished with game. It was the residence of the ancient historian sent from the Court of Norway to collect information respecting Scotland, and gave name to his work, the "Codex Flotticensis,' "whence modern writers, through Torfaeus, have drawn many of their materials on the ancient condition of the country. The population of Flota in 1851 was 389, CXX.-CENTRAL ORKNEY, Paragraph Stones, right.............1441 ..1443 left; road from Brogar Bridge, right; Aithstown, right; Loch of Clumly, right; Loch of Skaill, left; North Dyke, right; Sandwick Church, left; Marwick township passed; Birsay Loch, right; Birsay Church, head, left; Swona Howa Sound, crossed; miles..... ...........1447 Turn to the south ;— north end of Stronsay Frith, crossed, with Wire and Gairsay Islands to the right; Shapinshay Island, crossed to Elwick, 48 miles..... .............1448 String Sound crossed, with Hackness on the left, and Eller-Holm on the right, to St. Andrews, 52 miles....1449 Deerness, beyond Deer Sound, left; Inganess Bay, right; Wideford Hill, left; Kirkwall, 57 miles, 1439. KIRKWALL is a sea-port and | which opens to the north. It is nearly a a royal burgh. It stands on a narrow mile long, but consists chiefly of one part of Pomona, at the head of a bay street. Some of its houses are old, 1441. STENNESS Loch is 53 miles long from north to south, and in some parts 13 mile wide, but is nearly cut in two by a peninsula at Brogar Bridge; and it communicates by a short, narrow run, with the tidal currents of Hoy Sound. Two standing-stones, 17 feet high, and a prostrate one, upwards of 18 feet long, remains of a great Druidical semicircle, occur on the left side of the loch, near the road, in the vicinity of Brogar Bridge; and sixteen standingstones, from 3 to 143 feet high, seventeen fragments, each less than 3 feet, and traces of an encompassing ditch 1071 feet in circumference, occur on the peninsula about a mile to the north-west. The house of Turmiston, whence "the pirate" of Sir Walter Scott's novel is represented as beholding the sea-fight which ended in the destruction of his vessel, stands a short distance east of Brogar Bridge; and the field of the skirmish of Summersdale, fought in 1529 between the followers of the Earl of Caithness and the men of Orkney, still marked by several tumuli, lies further to the south. dingy, and of Flemish character, while | mansion, on the coast 5 miles further others are modern, neat, and English. west, was the residence of the late Lord The Town Hall is a pleasant edifice with Armadale, piazzas. The Cathedral, founded in 1138, and enlarged or altered at several periods, is a well-preserved, very conspicuous, cruciform pile, 226 feet by 56, in a mixed style of Norman and Gothic, surmounted at the centre by a tower 133 feet high. The general design of the edifice is striking, and some of the details are superb. An elegant spire formerly rose from the tower, but was destroyed by lightning in 1670, and has been succeeded by a plain pyramidal roof. The King's Castle, opposite the Cathedral, is a large ruin with very thick walls, and was anciently a strong fort. The Earl's Palace, also a ruin, exhibits hanging turrets, projecting windows, and other bold features of a splendid castellated mansion of 1607. The Bishop's Palace, likewise a ruin, was probably built in or before the 13th century, and retains a handsome tower. The town has a key post office, a good inn, several good lodging houses, three banking offices, and five places of worship. It is governed by a provost, 4 bailies, and 7 councillors, and it unites with the Wick burghs in sending a member to Parliament. Its population in 1851 was 3451. mound and ditches of a fort, constructed by the soldiers of Cromwell, are seen on the east side of the bay; and two interesting Picts' houses occur respectively at Quanterness, 2 miles to the northwest, and on the hill of Wideford, 2 miles to the south-south-east. The 1440. ORPHIR parish, extending 7 miles along the coast between Kirkwall and Stromness, displays a series of hills and vales the former commanding fine views; and contains a post office under Kirkwall, two places of worship, and about 1160 inhabitants. Swanbister Tower, a fragmentary ruin on its coast, 6 miles south-west of Kirkwall, is the remnant of a magnificent palace of Earl Paul II.; and Clairstran Hall, a modern 1442. STROMNESS stands along the west side of a beautiful bay, 24 miles inward from the western entrance of the Sound of Hoy, The ground behind it is high and picturesque. A view on the shore, a mile to the west across the sound, is filled with magnificent forms of the heights of Hoy. A point about half a mile further west surveys, on a precipice called the Kame of Hoy, a colossal natural simulacrum of Sir Walter Scott. The coast further west, and for miles along the western shore toward the north, consists of precipices from 100 to 500 feet high, of similar grandeur to those of Hoy. Breckness House, built in 1633 by the last Bishop of Orkney, stands near the entrance of Hoy Sound; and the ruin of the ancient Church of Cairston, accompanied by a on the top of Lingafiold; and a remarkburying-ground, with remains of an old able cromlech, called the Stones of Via, monastery, stands midway thence to occurs about 500 yards further north, Stromness. The town is nearly a mile toward the Loch of Clumly. A fragment long, but very irregularly built. It has of a great ancient stone circle, 2400 feet an excellent natural harbour, with some in circumference, occurs about 500 yards good artificial appliances, and contains a east of the top of Vestrafiold, some dispost office under Kirkwall, two banking | tance north-east of Skaill; and a quarry, offices, a public library, a museum, three with detached blocks of stone similar in places of worship, and two inns, the shape and size to the standing-stones of Commercial and the Mason's Arms. Its Stenness, occurs about 60 yards nearer population in 1851 was 2055. Gow, or the hill's top. Sandwick contains also Smith, "the pirate" of Sir Walter other Druidical monuments, very many Scott's novel, belonged to Stromness; ancient tumuli, and five Scandinavian and George Stewart, "the Torquil" of dunes. Its population in 1851 was Lord Byron's "Island," lived in one of the first mortar-built houses of the town, still called the White House. The rocks in the vicinity possess intense interest for geologists, and have become well known to fame through Hugh Miller's "Asterolepis of Stromness." 1107. 1444. BIRSAY Palace, near the sea, 12 miles north of Stromness, is the magnificent ruin of the residence of the Earls and Bishops of Orkney. The palace was erected at different times; greatly enlarged by the illegitimate brother of 1443. SANDWICK parish, commenc- Queen Mary, and by his son; and was ing 4 miles north of Stromness, and modelled after Holyrood House in Edinmeasuring 6 miles by 4, contains a burgh, and formed a hollow quadrangle, number of curiosities, both natural and 158 feet by 100. The Brough of Birsay, artificial. All its coast, except at the half a mile west of the palace, a piece of small bay of Skaill, 7 miles north by high ground, doubtfully island or peninwest of Stromness, consists of cliffs, sula, appears to have been a rock fortifirising at the highest to about 200 feet, cation, and shows vestiges of an ancient perforated with numerous caves, and chapel. Birsay parish contains numemuch flanked by insulated pillars. The rous standing-stones and Picts' houses. Hole of Row, through a peninsular crag, Its population in 1851 was 2499. A off the south side of Skaill Bay, is a road, 17 miles long, goes direct from high natural arch between two trap Birsay Church through the centre of dikes. A detached rock near the Row, Pomona to Kirkwall. Costa Head, at estimated to weigh about 24 tons, is the northern extremity of Pomona, 3 known to have been carried a consider-miles north-east of Birsay Church, preable distance by the sea. Some weathered sents to the sea a face of high, precipitous strata near Skaill look somewhat as if rock. Swona Loch, 5 miles in circuit, they had been carved by art, and were on the south side of the road, opposite thought by some observers in last century Costa Head, abounds with excellent to be part of an artificial pavement. trout. Numerous tumuli, several of which were opened by Sir Joseph Banks and other antiquaries, and found to contain urns, sarcophagi, and human remains, occur a little west of the road, about 5 miles north of Stromness; a vitrified cairn occurs about 100 yards further north, 1445. EVIE Church, on the coast, 5 miles south-east of Costa Head, is a commodious modern edifice. A road of 14 miles goes direct from it to Kirkwall, but leads through a dreary district. Burgar House, a modern mansion, the seat of Mr. Gordon, stands 2 miles north |