Sanday, Orkney
Encyclopedia
Sanday is one of the inhabited islands in the Orkney Islands
, off the north coast of Scotland
. With an area of 50.43 square kilometres (19.5 sq mi), it is the third largest of the Orkney Islands. The main centres of population are Lady Village and Kettletoft. Sanday can be reached by Orkney Ferries
or plane from Kirkwall
on the Orkney Mainland. Cultural activities revolve around the school.
es, is thought to have been mostly underwater at some periods of prehistory
. Archaeological evidence suggests that it at one time consisted of several smaller islands which joined together when the sea level decreased. There is a similarly named island, Sandoy
, in the Faroe Islands
. The island has large sand dunes where seals and otter
s can be found. Inland it is fertile and agricultural and there is some commercial lobster fishing. The underlying geology is predominantly Devonian
sediments of the Rousay flagstone group with Eday sandstone in the south east.
The novelist Eric Linklater
described Sanday's shape seen from the air as being like that of a giant fossilised bat.
There are several SSSIs on Sanday and the marine coast around the east of the island is designated a Special Protection Area
due to presence of sand dune and machair habitats, rare outside the Hebrides, as well as extensive intertidal flats and saltmarsh.
chambered cairn
, dating from the 3rd millennium BC
. A large man-made mound at Pool was excavated in the 1980s. This indicated a Neolithic
structure made of turf or burnt peat
, a later pre-Viking sub-circular structure with pavings and cells, and a Viking
stone and turf rectangular building dated to the late 8th or early 9th century. Various implements were also discovered including pre-Norse hipped pins and pottery from both the pre-Viking and Norse periods. A predominance of fish and animal bones suggests the site was used for meat processing. Storms in January 2005 exposed a Bronze Age
burnt burial mound at Meur. At the ruined Kirk of Lady, near Overbister, are the Devil's Fingermarks, a petrosomatoglyph
, incised as parallel grooves into the parapet of the kirk. During World War II, the Royal Air Force
built a Chain Home
radar station at Whale Head on Sanday. Sanday also once boasted the most northerly passenger railway in the United Kingdom, Sanday Light Railway
.
Start Point lighthouse on Sanday was completed on 2 October 1806 by engineer Robert Stevenson
. It was the first Scottish lighthouse to have a revolving light and since 1915 has exhibited distinctive black and white vertical stripes which are unique in Scotland. The light was automated in 1962 and is powered by a bank of 36 solar panels.
Despite the presence of the lighthouse, HMS Goldfinch
was wrecked in fog on Start Point in 1915.
In 2004, three wind turbines with an installed capacity of 8.25 Megawatts were erected by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) at Spurness. Sanday Community Council successfully negotiated a wind farm community fund with SSE which will be benefitting the people of the island for the lifetime of the turbines, anticipated to be 20 to 25 years.
In 1996, the Sanday Development Group was formed to promote tourism. This group became Sanday Development Trust
in 2004, which has a vision to:
Current projects include the establishment of a sports hall and youth centre, the creation of a local sound archive, and a countryside ranger service. With the help of funding from HICEC, the Trust have purchased a weather station, including a wind-logger. Initially located in the grounds of Sanday School, the wind-logger will be placed in various positions around the island for a month at a time to compare differences in wind speed with those recorded at the school.
A district tartan has been designed for Sanday by one of the island's residents, although it has not yet been officially adopted by the island authorities. It represents the sea, the distinctive sandy beaches and green meadows of the island, and the vertical stripes of Start Point lighthouse.
In July 2008 a concert held on the island was the culmination of an innovative musical project. The main aim of project is to set up a music-teacher training programme that will provide additional music tuition in the school and throughout the community.
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
, off the north coast of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. With an area of 50.43 square kilometres (19.5 sq mi), it is the third largest of the Orkney Islands. The main centres of population are Lady Village and Kettletoft. Sanday can be reached by Orkney Ferries
Orkney Ferries
Orkney Ferries is a company operating inter-island ferry services in Orkney, to the north of mainland Scotland.-History:The company is owned by the Orkney Islands Council and was established in 1960 as the Orkney Islands Shipping Company....
or plane from Kirkwall
Kirkwall
Kirkwall is the biggest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty...
on the Orkney Mainland. Cultural activities revolve around the school.
Natural history
Sanday, so called because of its sandy beachBeach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
es, is thought to have been mostly underwater at some periods of prehistory
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
. Archaeological evidence suggests that it at one time consisted of several smaller islands which joined together when the sea level decreased. There is a similarly named island, Sandoy
Sandoy
Sandoy is a small island that is part of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. The largest population center on the island is the village of Sandur with a population of six hundred....
, in the Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
. The island has large sand dunes where seals and otter
Otter
The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....
s can be found. Inland it is fertile and agricultural and there is some commercial lobster fishing. The underlying geology is predominantly Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
sediments of the Rousay flagstone group with Eday sandstone in the south east.
The novelist Eric Linklater
Eric Linklater
Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.-Life:...
described Sanday's shape seen from the air as being like that of a giant fossilised bat.
There are several SSSIs on Sanday and the marine coast around the east of the island is designated a Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...
due to presence of sand dune and machair habitats, rare outside the Hebrides, as well as extensive intertidal flats and saltmarsh.
History
Attractions on the island include the QuoynessQuoyness chambered cairn
The Quoyness Chambered Cairn is located on the island of Sanday in the Orkney islands. It is approximately 5,000 years old and is located on the shoreside....
chambered cairn
Chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
, dating from the 3rd millennium BC
3rd millennium BC
The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age.It represents a period of time in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence, in the city states of the Middle East, but also throughout Eurasia, with Indo-European expansion to Anatolia, Europe and Central Asia. The...
. A large man-made mound at Pool was excavated in the 1980s. This indicated a Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
structure made of turf or burnt peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
, a later pre-Viking sub-circular structure with pavings and cells, and a Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
stone and turf rectangular building dated to the late 8th or early 9th century. Various implements were also discovered including pre-Norse hipped pins and pottery from both the pre-Viking and Norse periods. A predominance of fish and animal bones suggests the site was used for meat processing. Storms in January 2005 exposed a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
burnt burial mound at Meur. At the ruined Kirk of Lady, near Overbister, are the Devil's Fingermarks, a petrosomatoglyph
Petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is an image of parts of a human or animal body incised in rock. Many were created by Celtic peoples, such as the Picts, Scots, Irish, Cornish, Cumbrians, Bretons and Welsh. These representations date from the Early Middle Ages; others of uncertain purpose date back to megalithic...
, incised as parallel grooves into the parapet of the kirk. During World War II, the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
built a Chain Home
Chain Home
Chain Home was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the British before and during the Second World War. The system otherwise known as AMES Type 1 consisted of radar fixed on top of a radio tower mast, called a 'station' to provide long-range detection of...
radar station at Whale Head on Sanday. Sanday also once boasted the most northerly passenger railway in the United Kingdom, Sanday Light Railway
Sanday Light Railway
The Sanday Light Railway was a privately-owned minimum gauge railway on the island of Sanday, Orkney, Scotland.The railway was of gauge. Construction began in 2000 and the line closed at the end of 2006...
.
Lighthouse
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...
. It was the first Scottish lighthouse to have a revolving light and since 1915 has exhibited distinctive black and white vertical stripes which are unique in Scotland. The light was automated in 1962 and is powered by a bank of 36 solar panels.
Despite the presence of the lighthouse, HMS Goldfinch
HMS Goldfinch (1910)
HMS Goldfinch was an Acorn-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, built in 1910. She was wrecked in fog on Start Point, Sanday, one of the northern Orkney Isles, on the night of 18-19 February 1915. She was broken up for scrap in April 1919....
was wrecked in fog on Start Point in 1915.
Current island activities
Sanday boasts two golf courses: a 9 hole links course of 2,600 yards run by Sanday Golf Club and the one-hole meadowland "Peedie Golf Course" of 57 yards (52.1 m) (believed to be Scotland's shortest) at West Manse.In 2004, three wind turbines with an installed capacity of 8.25 Megawatts were erected by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) at Spurness. Sanday Community Council successfully negotiated a wind farm community fund with SSE which will be benefitting the people of the island for the lifetime of the turbines, anticipated to be 20 to 25 years.
In 1996, the Sanday Development Group was formed to promote tourism. This group became Sanday Development Trust
Development trust
Development Trusts are organisations which operate in the United Kingdom that are:*community based, owned and led*engaged in the economic, environmental and social regeneration of a defined area or community...
in 2004, which has a vision to:
create an economically prosperous, sustainable community that is connected with the wider world, but remains a safe, clean environment, where we are proud to live, able to work, to bring up and educate our children, to fulfill our own hopes and ambitions, and to grow old gracefully, enjoying a quality of life that is second to none.
Current projects include the establishment of a sports hall and youth centre, the creation of a local sound archive, and a countryside ranger service. With the help of funding from HICEC, the Trust have purchased a weather station, including a wind-logger. Initially located in the grounds of Sanday School, the wind-logger will be placed in various positions around the island for a month at a time to compare differences in wind speed with those recorded at the school.
In July 2008 a concert held on the island was the culmination of an innovative musical project. The main aim of project is to set up a music-teacher training programme that will provide additional music tuition in the school and throughout the community.
People associated with Sanday
- Matthew ArmourMatthew ArmourRev. Matthew Armour was a radical Free Church of Scotland minister on the island of Sanday, Orkney, remembered to this day for supporting the island’s crofters.-References:...
(1820–1903), Sanday’s radical Free KirkFree Church of Scotland (1843-1900)The Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the "Disruption of 1843"...
MinisterMinister of religionIn Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...
who lived at The West Manse (formerly the Free Church of ScotlandFree Church of Scotland (1843-1900)The Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the "Disruption of 1843"...
manseManseA manse is a house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of a Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or United Church...
) for over half a century - Stuart ChristieStuart ChristieStuart Christie is a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. Christie is best known for being arrested as an 18-year old while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish dictator General Franco. He was later alleged to be a member of the Angry Brigade, but was acquitted of related charges...
(b. 1946), Glasgow Anarchist, who ran the radical publishing house Cienfuegos PressCienfuegos pressCienfuegos Press was an anarchist publishing house. Founded by Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer, it operated from 1974 to 1982. It published a broad range of material....
from here during the late 1970s. - William Towrie CuttWilliam Towrie CuttWilliam Towrie Cutt was an Orcadian author.His titles include:William Towrie Cutt was an Orcadian author.His titles include:...
(1898–1981), author born on Sanday - Peter Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell DaviesSir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
(b. 1934), Master of the Queen's MusicMaster of the Queen's MusicMaster of the Queen's Music is a post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England.The post is roughly comparable to that of Poet Laureate... - Walter Traill DennisonWalter Traill DennisonWalter Traill Dennison was a farmer and folklorist. He was a native of the Orkney island of Sanday, in Scotland, United Kingdom, where he collected local folk tales. He published these, many in the local Orcadian dialect, in 1880 under the title The Orcadian Sketch-Book...
(1826–1894), Orcadian folklorist born on Sanday - David HarveyDavid Harvey (footballer)David Harvey is a former Scottish internationalist professional association footballer. A goalkeeper, Harvey is best known for his successes with Leeds United.-Leeds United:...
(b. 1948), former Leeds UnitedLeeds United A.F.C.Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
goalkeeper - Geoffrey Hayes, actor and children's TV presenter, had a holiday cottage here in the early 1980s
- George Faulknor Francis Horwood (1838–1897), Deputy LieutenantDeputy LieutenantIn the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
of Orkney (and youngest son of Edward Horwood, of Weston TurvilleWeston TurvilleWeston Turville is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile and a half south east of Aylesbury and the parish is bisected across the top by Akeman Street....
, BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
) who lived at Scar House. - Liam McArthurLiam McArthurLiam McArthur MSP is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Orkney.-Background:He was brought up on the Orkney Island of Sanday...
MSP for Orkney - John D Mackay (b. 1909), Headmaster of Sanday School from 1946 to 1970
- William SichelWilliam SichelWilliam Morley Sichel was born 1 October 1953 in Welford, Northamptonshire, UK where he lived for the first 10 years of his life. He is a science graduate of the University of London . He is now an International ultra distance runner and has the distinction of having won his debut races at...
(b. 1953). International ultra distance runner; World No.1 for the Six Day event in 2006; has represented Great Britain eleven times since 1996.