Yell
Encyclopedia
Yell is one of the North Isles
of Shetland, Scotland
. In the 2001 census
it had a usually resident population of 957. 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 (fifteenth out of the islands in Scotland), after the Mainland and Whalsay
.
The island's bedrock is largely composed of Moine
schist
with a north-south grain, which was uplifted during the Caledonian mountain building period
. Peat
covers two thirds of the island to an average depth of 1.5 metres (5 feet).
Yell has been inhabited since the Neolithic
times, and a dozen broch
sites have been identified from the pre-Norse period. Norse rule lasted from the 9th to 14th centuries until Scottish control was asserted. The modern economy of the island is based on crofting
, fishing, transport and tourism. The island claims to be the "Otter Capital of Britain" and has a diverse bird life including breeding populations of Great
and Arctic Skua
s.
Notable buildings on the island include the 17th century Old Haa of Brough
in Burravoe , a merchant's house now converted to a museum and visitor centre. There are various folk tales and modern literary references to island life.
. It is divided by only the narrow Bluemull Sound
from the south west of Unst.
On the eastern side the coast is generally low and sandy but there is an extensive rocky and partly precipitous coast on the west that rises slowly to elevations of 200–400 ft (60–120 metres). It is indented by seven or eight bays forming natural harbours. As Penrith's guide to Orkney and Shetland states -
In addition to these large indentations, there are a number of tombolo
s or ayres
connecting peninsulas to the island. Many of these are very fragile, and can be damaged extremely easily by human erosion, or severe storms, creating new islands - or resurrecting old ones.
There is comparatively little farmland, but the coast is conducive to fishing. Much of the interior of Yell is covered in a peat blanket
, often as much as 10 feet (3 metres) thick, which is the result of 3,000 years of deposits. The peat retains a great deal of water, but is easily eroded, particularly when it comes near to the coast. As Jill Slee Blackadder writes:
The island was anciently divided into the parishes of North Yell, Mid Yell, and South Yell. More recently the parish of North Yell was merged with that of Fetlar
, and Mid Yell and South Yell were amalgamated.
As with the Shetland archipelago as a whole, the island can be seen as creating a barrier between the northern end of the North Sea
(to the east) and the North Atlantic (to the west). To the north east is the Norwegian Sea
, and the Arctic Ocean
is several hundred km to the north.
Attractions on the island include the Sands of Breckon composed of crushed shells, and the Daal of Lumbister gorge.
, home to the Old Haa Museum
, Mid Yell
, Cullivoe
and Gloup
, as well as Ulsta
, Gutcher
, Aywick
, West Yell, Sellafirth, Copister
, Camb, Otterswick
, and West Sandwick
.
There is little in the way of modern settlements on the west coast, other than West Sandwick
mainly because of the prevailing wind, and high cliffs that border much of it. There are a few crofts along Whale Firth including Windhouse (see notable buildings), and at Grimister, there are the ruins of an old herring curing station, which closed just after World War II.
The following islands surround Yell - Aastack, Bigga
, Black Skerry, Brother Isle
, Brough, Burravoe Chest, Fish Holm, Gloup Holm
, Gold Skerry, Green Holm, Grey Stack, Holm of West Sandwick, Horns of the Roc, Kay Holm, Linga
, Muckle Holm
, Neapback Skerries, Orfasay
, Outsta Ness, Rug, Skerry Wick, Stacks of Stuis, Sweinna Stack, The Clapper, The Quidin, Whalegeo Stacks, Whilkie Stack, and Ern Stack
.
Yell lies to the east of the Walls boundary fault, which is probably a northern extension of the Great Glen fault
. There are three main faults that dictate the geography of Yell - the first is the Bluemull Fault, which separates Yell from Unst
by creating the Bluemull Sound
; the second is the Arisdale Fault which forms the northern part of Whale Firth, and extends south to Arisdale, and out of Hamnavoe; and the third is the Nesting Fault, which more or less creates Yell Sound
, and divides Yell from Mainland Shetland. A fourth fault helps create Gloup Voe, and there are some other minor ones. These faults may be seen as radiating branches of the Walls Fault, and were exacerbated by glacial activity.
The island's bedrock is largely composed of Moine schist
with a north-south grain, a metamorphosed
sedimentary rock originally laid down in shallow water 1,000-800 million years ago and then uplifted and deformed during the Caledonian orogeny
600-400 million years ago. The principal minerals are coarse quartzite
, quartz
-feldspar
gneiss
and mica
schist.
In common with the rest of Scotland, Yell was covered in thick ice sheets during the Pleistocene
ice ages. Some of the island's gorges, such as the Daal of Lumbister may have originally been created by ancient meltwater
streams escaping from underneath retreating glaciers, and it is also thought some of Yell's lochs were originally damned by moraines.
After the ice melted the island would have experienced a large tsunami
some 8,000 years BP
associated with the Storegga Slides. The inundation would have reached 25 metres (82 feet) above normal high tides. There is also some evidence at Basta Voe in the north west of a more recent event of a similar nature. In modern times, the non-porous nature of the bedrock, the presence of boulder clay and the cool and damp climate have conspired to create large expanses of peat. This covers two thirds of the island with an average depth of 1.5 metres (5 feet). Its main constituent materials are sphagnum moss, cotton grass, deer grass, heather
and sedge
. This peat is highly important to the islanders as a fuel source, and in some areas is even worked commercially. It is cut with a tushker (a type of peat spade, akin to the Highland cascrom
), and according to Blackadder (2003) "Yell boasts some of the best peat stacking skills in Shetland."
There is also some dune habitat near West Sandwick
, something pretty rare in the Shetland Islands; controversially, there has been some commercial extraction of the sand from this area, which may have had a significant environmental impact.
There are various possible derivations of the island's name. It may originally have been a Pictish
name of unknown meaning similar to the modern 'Yell'. The Proto-Norse was Jala or Jela which may have meant 'white island' referring to the beaches. The Old Norse
was Gjall signifying 'barren'. Neighbouring Unst
may also have a pre-Norse name. The name was also recorded in 1586 as "Yella".
In early modern times, it was written as "Zell" (cf "Zetland"), a mistranscription of "Ȝell", from an initial yogh
.
Yell has been inhabited since the Neolithic times. A petrosomatoglyph
or stone footprint at North Yell, up Hena, 12 in by 4 in, (30 cm by 10 cm)is known locally as the 'Wartie' and was used to wash in dew or rain-water and standing in it was supposed to get rid of warts. In legend it was made by a giant placing one foot here and the other on the Westing of Unst.
Twelve broch
sites are known of and fifteen early chapels. The evidence suggests a substantial population in the Pre-Norse period. One of the brochs is on the peninsula of Burra Ness. Only part of the wall remains, on the seaward side. This reaches around 3 metres (10 ft) high in places. There are traces of earthen ramparts on the landward side, and remains of a structure which may have been a guard's cell. There are also remains of an Iron Age
blockhouse fort at Burgi Geos. Burravoe
's name derives partly from a nearby broch - the element "Burra" frequently being a corruption of the Norse for one.
Yell's placenames reveal the presence of the Celtic Church, whose hermits were known to the Norse as papar
. Examples of names related to them include Papil Ness, Loch of Papil and Papil Bay. However, it is unclear whether these names are all pre-Norse, or whether these Christian co-existed with the pagan Norsemen after they invaded. There is evidence of an early Culdee
monastery at the Birrier in the west of Yell, near West Sandwick
. The Birrier was almost certainly in contact with another monastic settlement directly opposite, across Yell Sound
, at the Kame of Isbister on the Northmavine
Peninsula of Mainland. A service was held in 2000, at the Birrier to commemorate two millennia of Christianity
.
A cross slab from North Yell may also be from this period, but it has since been lost. It is presumed to be like the Bressay
Stone.
is mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga
: "Earl Rögnvald... and the chiefs Sölmond and Jón with him... had a fine body of troops, thought not too numerous, and five or six ships. They arrived at Hjaltland [Shetland] about the middle of Summer, but heard nothing of Frákork. Strong and contrary winds sprung up, and they brought their ships to Alasund (Yell Sound), and went a-feasting over the country."
In the later Norse period Christianity
flourished and foundations of 20 chapels dating from this period have been identified.
The primary Viking legacy is an abundance of placenames of Old Norse
origin. For example, "Dalsetter" is a combination of dalr meaning a "dale" or "valley" and setr meaning a "hill pasture" or shieling. "Gossawater" is a combination of gás (goose
), á (river
) and vatn (a lake/loch) anglicised as "water". Other common Norse elements on Yell include "firth
" (fjörðr) as in Whale Firth, "voe" (vagr) as in "Gloup Voe", "sound" (sund) as in "Bluemull Sound" and "-a(y)" (ey) as in nearby Hascosay
and Linga.
Although most of Shetland's Hanseatic
trade was conducted from Scalloway
, Burravoe
was one of the most important of the other Hanseatic centres in the archipelago.
In the 17th century, the Dutch East Indian Ship, Lastdrager was wrecked on Yell, and the survivor, Jan Camphuis wrote favorably of his experiences on the island. He noted the generosity and kindness of the islanders to him while he was there, which he believed was disproportionate to their poverty. Yell is mentioned by Martin Martin
in his 1695 A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland where he noted that "there are three churches, and several small chapels in it."
The Rev. Crutwell in the 18th century said of Yell that "the inhabitants have plenty of fuel, catch immense quantities of small fish, and live comfortably."
Johnny Notions successfully carried out early smallpox
inoculations on Yell in the 18th century, at a time when many other places remained sceptical.
In the 1841 New Statistical Account the minister of Fetlar
and North Yell noted that although smuggling had almost entirely disappeared, that the local population had "fallen into an abominable habit of smoking tobacco". In the same year the minister of Mid and South Yell observed a rise of 50% in the local price of black cattle, due to the introduction of a fortnightly steamer service from Lerwick
to Leith
that had enabled exports of livestock to mainland Scotland. Fishing on Yell received a particularly vicious blow, when 53 fishermen were killed in a storm off Gloup in 1881. There is a memorial to them there now.
Germans have claimed that during World War I, their U-boat
s used to shelter in Whale Firth – this is possible, because of the very low population of the area.
During World War II
, the Luftwaffe
bombed the post office at Gutcher
in an attempt to disrupt the communications system. On 19 January 1942, a Catalina
airplane crashed on the hill above Burravoe
. 7/10 of her passengers were killed, and one of the propellers can be seen outside the Old Haa Museum.
Just after World War II, the old herring curing station, at Grimister closed, and this was to be one in a long line of economic difficulties, including the loss of fishing.
In 1961, a Soviet spy ship sank off Yell, and the wreck was found by Lieutenant George Wookey, who had also investigated the wreck that inspired Whisky Galore in the Outer Hebrides
. It was an undercover plain clothes mission, and Lt. Wookey found the wreck 90 ft (27 metres) down in clear water.
During the 1960s, Yell reached an impasse. It was in 1965 that the Orcadian novelist Eric Linklater
said that Yell was "the problem child of the archipelago" due to its economic woes, and burgeoning depopulation. Some blamed this on the islanders’ "social egalitarianism", which supposedly prevented anyone from becoming a "leader or entrepreneur"; Haswell-Smith disagrees, but believes that "airing the matter seems to have helped” It is certainly notable that the tiny remote Out Skerries seem to be wealthier, and that Whalsay
is better at retaining its population. Yell is neither near Lerwick
like Bressay
, nor bridged to the mainland like Burra
or Muckle Roe
. Some Yell people do commute to work at Sullom Voe
, but as this appears to be a declining industry, this does not hold out hope for the future. However, unlike neighbouring Fetlar
, Yell never suffered large scale clearances, only some local ones, and has long had multiple ownership. Jim Crumley, himself an incomer, has noted the difficulties faced by Yell by both depopulation and repopulation.
The coastline of Yell includes numerous voes (narrow inlets) where Otters and various seabird
s are common. Brown Trout
can be found in the inland waters.
' documentary The Track of the Wild Otter was shot on location at Burra Ness at the mouth of Busta Voe
; it gained awards and was produced for the BBC
. Grey
and Common Seals are also regular visitors to Yell's coast. Yell occasionally receives the odd Arctic visitor besides the tern; in 1977, a stray Bearded Seal
was recorded. Normally these creatures only live on the pack ice. Humans have introduced a number of animals including rabbit
s, and it has even been questioned whether otters could have arrived by themselves, although this is controversial. Porpoises are occasionally seen nearby too.
The island has its own subspecies of Field Mouse
, as do some of the other Shetland Islands, and Hirta
in St Kilda.
s, known locally as Tirricks (stress on last syllable; an onomatopoeic word), migrates to Shetland from Antarctica during the summer. As swallows are sometimes seen as harbingers of summer elsewhere, in Yell and Shetland, it is the Tirricks or terns that fulfil this role -
"On Yell [the Arctic Tern
] has the impact of August on a heather moor, and nothing draws the islander closer to nature’s year than the first tern."
Other birds that regularly visit Yell include Great
& Arctic Skua
s, various tern
s, Eider
, Whimbrel
, Red-throated Diver
, Dunlin
, Golden Plover
, Twite
, Lapwing
and Merlin Falcon
s. The Eigg, and Ern Stack
in the north west of Yell, is the last known nesting site of Shetlandic Sea Eagle
s, which were recorded there in 1910.
in abundance, including two carnivorous plants, the butterwort and the sundew
. A substantial study of the flora of Yell's dry stone walls was undertaken in 1986-7. Lichen
s, especially
Ramalina sp., were the most commonly found plants.
The gorges in the island, such as the Daal of Lumbister provide an important environment for some of the few trees on the island, since they are untouched by sheep grazing. Before human colonisation, it appears that Yell was wooded to some degree, at least with dwarf trees and shrubs. In the gorge at the head of Gloup Voe, Dog Rose
s and Honeysuckle
can be found. As the peat preserves old plants and pollen to some degree, due to its anaerobic nature, it is possible to get some sense of the former vegetation of the island. For example, it is known that 40,000 years ago, before the advent of the last Ice Age
, and probably any human habitation, that Oak
, Scots Pine
and Mediterranean heathers were growing here. The remains of these plants have been preserved in layers of ancient peat, which were in turn buried by the boulder clay
left by glacial moraine
s.
Yell is a transport hub for the neighbouring islands of Unst and Fetlar.
The Yell Sound Ferry
sails from Ulsta
on the island
to Toft
on the Shetland Mainland
. The service is operated by two ferries—Daggri (Norse for "dawn"), launched in 2003 and Dagalien (Norse for "dusk"), launched in 2004. These vessels, built in Gdansk
in Poland
, can each carry 31 cars or 4 trucks, as well as 95 passengers. The crossing takes approximately 20 minutes, and ferries leave around every half hour at peak times. The Bluemull Sound
Ferry sails from Gutcher
on Yell to Belmont
on Unst
and Oddsta on Fetlar
. The ferries travel to Unst approximately every half hour during the day, and to Fetlar a few times every day. The journey to Unst takes ten minutes, while travelling to Fetlar takes 25 minutes. The service is operated by Bigga and Geira.
There are two main roads, the A968 and the B9081. The A968 runs from Ulsta
in the south west of the island to Gutcher
in the north east, linking the ferry to and from Mainland, Shetland, with those going to Unst and Fetlar. Despite being a listed A road, it is single track in some stretches with passing places. The B9081 is single track with passing places. It runs along the south coast of Yell, and up its east, and part of the north east too. The stretch from Mid Yell to Gutcher is replaced by the A968, but it recommences after that.
production in polytunnel
s, mainly for the Shetland market), peat cutting, transport and tourism.
Cullivoe
had a new deep water harbour built in 1991, but the general decline in fish stocks in the North Sea
and North Atlantic has not made it useful to fishing. It may however fulfil a transport role.
In January 2008, the Shetland Development Trust
gave a loan worth £11,000 to Global Yell Ltd, in order to develop "creative industries", i.e. textile weaving and music.
The "world's first community-owned tidal power generator" is planned for Bluemull Sound. This 30 kW Nova Innovation device is expected to be operational by the end of 2011. North Yell Development Council believe that the project could make a significant contribution to the local economy.
The Old Haa of Brough
in Burravoe is a substantial merchant's house built in 1672 now converted to a museum and visitor centre.
At Kirkabister, the remains of a former pony stud can be seen. The enclosure is unusual in appearance, having each of its four corners slightly elevated. There are only a handful of such enclosures in the archipelago.
Like all good Nordic lands, Yell has its troll
s (known in the Northern Isles
as "trows" or "trowes"). The Trow of Windhouse was about as recently as the 1880s, when a shipwrecked sailor claimed he had been attacked by the mythical monster. However, the sailor was courageous enough to fight the creature, and saw it off with an axe. It is said that where he killed the trow, the grass turned a light green. This was not the only trow by any means, and there is another story of a Yell woman coming upon a family of trowes, who later woke up to find one in the house, asking who he was, he said "I am Trippa's son". The woman said a prayer, and the trowe disappeared.
, an Orcadian poet, wrote a poem which has a Yell-man of 1263 as a narrator.
Bjorn grows up amongst "seals and clouds and birds and women" on the island, but this idyll is contrasted with his father's disappearance, and profession as a Viking pirate covered in scars and "harvesting" silver.
who bought a semi-ruined cottage on Yell. He has written extensively on Yell in the book Among Islands (1994), which contains subject matter ranging from St Kilda
and the Hebrides
to Shetland. He says his original interest in islands sprung from seeing Inchcape
out in the distance, as a teenager. He worked for over twenty years in various newspapers, usually writing about Scottish wildlife and landscapes; his later work has included a number of books on the Scottish islands, and mountains, often including his own photographs.
Crumley has said, "You could never argue with conviction that Yell is a beautiful place", but some others such as Jill Blackadder rate the Sands of Breckon and the cliff scenery of Gloup Voe as some of the best in Shetland. Despite issuing an apparent dismissal, Crumley still has a definite affection for the island, and its almost mechanical role in the Shetlandic whole. In fact, the statement turns out to be a kind of a backhanded compliment
:
As an incomer himself, he writes on the complications that this has caused the island:
North Isles
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.- Importance :...
of Shetland, 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...
. In the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
it had a usually resident population of 957. 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 (fifteenth out of the islands in Scotland), after the Mainland and Whalsay
Whalsay
-Geography:Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland Islands. It is situated east of the Shetland Mainland and has an area of . The main settlement is Symbister, where the fishing fleet is based. The fleet is composed of both pelagic and demersal vessels...
.
The island's bedrock is largely composed of Moine
Moine Supergroup
The Moine Supergroup is a sequence of Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks that form the dominant outcrop of the Scottish Highlands between the Moine Thrust Belt to the northwest and the Great Glen Fault to the southeast. The sequence is metasedimentary in nature and was metamorphosed and deformed in a...
schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
with a north-south grain, which was uplifted during the Caledonian mountain building period
Caledonian orogeny
The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that occurred from the Ordovician to Early Devonian, roughly...
. 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...
covers two thirds of the island to an average depth of 1.5 metres (5 feet).
Yell has been inhabited since the 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...
times, and a dozen broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
sites have been identified from the pre-Norse period. Norse rule lasted from the 9th to 14th centuries until Scottish control was asserted. The modern economy of the island is based on crofting
Crofting
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production unique to the Scottish Highlands, the Islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man....
, fishing, transport and tourism. The island claims to be the "Otter Capital of Britain" and has a diverse bird life including breeding populations of Great
Great Skua
The Great Skua, Stercorarius skua, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. In Britain, it is sometimes known by the name Bonxie, a Shetland name of unknown origin.-Description:...
and Arctic Skua
Arctic Skua
The Parasitic Jaeger, also known as the Arctic Skua or Parasitic Skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae....
s.
Notable buildings on the island include the 17th century Old Haa of Brough
Old Haa Museum
The Old Haa of Brough in Burravoe, Yell, Shetland built for Robert Tyrie, a merchant, in 1672, houses the local museum for Burravoe and Yell. The archway with an armorial panel above, with Tyrie's initials and the year 1672, are the remains of an old courtyard.On 19 January 1942, a Catalina...
in Burravoe , a merchant's house now converted to a museum and visitor centre. There are various folk tales and modern literary references to island life.
Geography
Yell is 19 miles (31 kilometres) in length, with a maximum breadth of 7.5 miles (12 kilometres), and is swept all around by very impetuous tides. The island extends northward to within 9.5 miles (15 kilometres) of the northwestern extremity of UnstUnst
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 the Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .Unst is largely grassland, with coastal cliffs...
. It is divided by only the narrow Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound is the strait between Unst and Yell in Shetland's North Isles. A ferry service crosses it regularly. Cullivoe is on the Yell side, and the island of Linga lies in the strait....
from the south west of Unst.
On the eastern side the coast is generally low and sandy but there is an extensive rocky and partly precipitous coast on the west that rises slowly to elevations of 200–400 ft (60–120 metres). It is indented by seven or eight bays forming natural harbours. As Penrith's guide to Orkney and Shetland states -
- "The island is roughly rectangular and nearly cut in two where the long voes of Whale Firth and Mid Yell almost meet.".
Tombolo
A tombolo, from the Italian tombolo, derived from the Latin tumulus, meaning 'mound,' and sometimes translated as ayre , is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island...
s or ayres
Ayre (landform)
An ayre is a name often applied to shingle beaches in Orkney and Shetland. The term is derived from the Old Norse wordfor a shingle beach - "eyrr" - and may be applied to ordinary beaches, to cliff-foot beaches to spits, bars and tombolos, but only if formed of shingle. It is sometimes wrongly...
connecting peninsulas to the island. Many of these are very fragile, and can be damaged extremely easily by human erosion, or severe storms, creating new islands - or resurrecting old ones.
There is comparatively little farmland, but the coast is conducive to fishing. Much of the interior of Yell is covered in a peat blanket
Blanket bog
Blanket bog or blanket mire is an area of peatland, forming where there is a climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing peat to develop not only in wet hollows but over large expanses of undulating ground. The blanketing of the ground with a variable depth of peat...
, often as much as 10 feet (3 metres) thick, which is the result of 3,000 years of deposits. The peat retains a great deal of water, but is easily eroded, particularly when it comes near to the coast. As Jill Slee Blackadder writes:
- "Some streams carve deep sided gorges. Among these habitats, you can find a wealth of wild flowers and birds nest here in peace."
The island was anciently divided into the parishes of North Yell, Mid Yell, and South Yell. More recently the parish of North Yell was merged with that of Fetlar
Fetlar
Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...
, and Mid Yell and South Yell were amalgamated.
As with the Shetland archipelago as a whole, the island can be seen as creating a barrier between the northern end of the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
(to the east) and the North Atlantic (to the west). To the north east is the Norwegian Sea
Norwegian Sea
The Norwegian Sea is a marginal sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway. It is located between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea and adjoins the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a...
, and the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
is several hundred km to the north.
Attractions on the island include the Sands of Breckon composed of crushed shells, and the Daal of Lumbister gorge.
Settlements
Settlements on Yell tend to be coastal and include BurravoeBurravoe
Burravoe, , is a community in the south-east part of Yell, on the north shore of Burra Voe, in the Shetland Islands.The most notable building is The Old Haa Museum which dates from 1672....
, home to the Old Haa Museum
Old Haa Museum
The Old Haa of Brough in Burravoe, Yell, Shetland built for Robert Tyrie, a merchant, in 1672, houses the local museum for Burravoe and Yell. The archway with an armorial panel above, with Tyrie's initials and the year 1672, are the remains of an old courtyard.On 19 January 1942, a Catalina...
, Mid Yell
Mid Yell
Mid Yell is a coastal settlement on the island of Yell, the second-largest of the Shetland Islands, Scotland.Mid Yell, the largest settlement on the island, is at the head of Mid Yell Voe on the B9081 road about a mile from its junction with the A968 road....
, Cullivoe
Cullivoe
Cullivoe , is a village on Yell in the Shetland Islands. It is in the north east of the island, near Bluemull Sound, not far from Unst....
and Gloup
Gloup
Note: Gloup is common in Scottish placenames referring to a sea jet.Gloup is a village in the far north of the island of Yell in the Shetland Islands. It lends its name to nearby island of Gloup Holm....
, as well as Ulsta
Ulsta
Ulsta is a village in the south-west of the island of Yell, Shetland, Scotland. The car ferry to Toft on Mainland, Shetland leaves from here.-References:*...
, Gutcher
Gutcher
Gutcher is a settlement on the northeast coast of Yell in the Shetland islands. From here, rollon/roll off ferry services to Belmont on Unst and Hamars Ness on Fetlar operate. The settlement has a harbour, and a post office which doubles as a Bed and Breakfast...
, Aywick
Aywick
Aywick is a small settlement on the east side of Yell, an island forming part of the Shetland Islands north of Scotland.The naturalist Bobby Tulloch was born in Aywick.- External links :*...
, West Yell, Sellafirth, Copister
Copister
Copister is a village in Yell. It is a former centre for haaf fishing, and has a shingle beach....
, Camb, Otterswick
Otterswick
Otterswick on the Isle of Yell in the Shetland Islands, on the inlet of Otters Wick. It is on the east side of the island. There is also an "Otterswick" on Sanday in the Orkney Islands....
, and West Sandwick
West Sandwick
West Sandwick is a settlement on the Isle of Yell, Shetland Islands. It is one of the few settlements in the west of the island.West Sandwick contains one of the major recreational beaches in Yell....
.
There is little in the way of modern settlements on the west coast, other than West Sandwick
West Sandwick
West Sandwick is a settlement on the Isle of Yell, Shetland Islands. It is one of the few settlements in the west of the island.West Sandwick contains one of the major recreational beaches in Yell....
mainly because of the prevailing wind, and high cliffs that border much of it. There are a few crofts along Whale Firth including Windhouse (see notable buildings), and at Grimister, there are the ruins of an old herring curing station, which closed just after World War II.
Surrounding islands
Bigga, Shetland
Bigga is an uninhabited island in the Sound of Yell between the Mainland and Yell in Shetland, Scotland.-Geography and geology:Just over long, Bigga is in size, and is tall at its highest point. Bigga is a long thin island with a "head" and a "torso"...
, Black Skerry, Brother Isle
Brother Isle
Brother Isle is a small, uninhabited island in Shetland, Scotland. It lies between the islands of Yell and Shetland Mainland. It is in size.- Geography and geology :The island's rock is "undifferentiated moine gneiss and quartzite."- History :...
, Brough, Burravoe Chest, Fish Holm, Gloup Holm
Gloup Holm
Gloup Holm is an islet in the Shetland Islands, lying to the north of Yell.-Geography and geology:Gloup Holm is near to the part of Yell called North Heaps, near Gloup. Rocks to the north include the Clapper, Eagle Stack and Whilkie Stack...
, Gold Skerry, Green Holm, Grey Stack, Holm of West Sandwick, Horns of the Roc, Kay Holm, Linga
Linga, Yell
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.-Geography and geology:...
, Muckle Holm
Muckle Holm
Muckle Holm is the name of a number of islands in Orkney and Shetland. It is an oxymoron, since muckle means "big" and "holm" refers to an islet.-Shetland:* Muckle Holm, Yell Sound, in Yell Sound between Sandwick on Yell, and Burravoe, Mainland...
, Neapback Skerries, Orfasay
Orfasay
Orfasay is one of the Shetland Islands.-Geography:Orfasay is a tidal island in Yell Sound, connected to Yell at low tide. This is reflected in the island's name....
, Outsta Ness, Rug, Skerry Wick, Stacks of Stuis, Sweinna Stack, The Clapper, The Quidin, Whalegeo Stacks, Whilkie Stack, and Ern Stack
Ern Stack
Ern Stack is a sea stack off Yell, Shetland.The word "ern" means an eagle, and it is said that the Eigg, and Ern Stack in the north west of Yell, were the last known nesting site of Shetlandic Sea Eagles, which were recorded there in 1910....
.
Geology and soils
Great Glen Fault
The Great Glen Fault is a long strike-slip fault that runs through its namesake the Great Glen in Scotland. However, the fault is actually much longer and over 400 million years old.-Location:...
. There are three main faults that dictate the geography of Yell - the first is the Bluemull Fault, which separates Yell from Unst
Unst
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 the Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .Unst is largely grassland, with coastal cliffs...
by creating the Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound is the strait between Unst and Yell in Shetland's North Isles. A ferry service crosses it regularly. Cullivoe is on the Yell side, and the island of Linga lies in the strait....
; the second is the Arisdale Fault which forms the northern part of Whale Firth, and extends south to Arisdale, and out of Hamnavoe; and the third is the Nesting Fault, which more or less creates Yell Sound
Yell Sound
Yell Sound is the strait running between Yell and Mainland, Shetland. 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....
, and divides Yell from Mainland Shetland. A fourth fault helps create Gloup Voe, and there are some other minor ones. These faults may be seen as radiating branches of the Walls Fault, and were exacerbated by glacial activity.
The island's bedrock is largely composed of Moine schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
with a north-south grain, a metamorphosed
Metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
sedimentary rock originally laid down in shallow water 1,000-800 million years ago and then uplifted and deformed during the Caledonian orogeny
Caledonian orogeny
The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that occurred from the Ordovician to Early Devonian, roughly...
600-400 million years ago. The principal minerals are coarse quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
, quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
-feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
and mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
schist.
In common with the rest of Scotland, Yell was covered in thick ice sheets during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
ice ages. Some of the island's gorges, such as the Daal of Lumbister may have originally been created by ancient meltwater
Meltwater
Meltwater is the water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice and ice shelfs over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing...
streams escaping from underneath retreating glaciers, and it is also thought some of Yell's lochs were originally damned by moraines.
After the ice melted the island would have experienced a large tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
some 8,000 years BP
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
associated with the Storegga Slides. The inundation would have reached 25 metres (82 feet) above normal high tides. There is also some evidence at Basta Voe in the north west of a more recent event of a similar nature. In modern times, the non-porous nature of the bedrock, the presence of boulder clay and the cool and damp climate have conspired to create large expanses of peat. This covers two thirds of the island with an average depth of 1.5 metres (5 feet). Its main constituent materials are sphagnum moss, cotton grass, deer grass, heather
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae, commonly known as the heath or heather family, is a group of mostly calcifuge flowering plants. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants...
and sedge
Carex
Carex is a genus of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as...
. This peat is highly important to the islanders as a fuel source, and in some areas is even worked commercially. It is cut with a tushker (a type of peat spade, akin to the Highland cascrom
Foot plough
The foot plough is a type of spade used for cultivation, in the north west of Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic language contains many terms for the various varieties, e.g. cas-dhìreach for the straighter variety and on, but cas-chrom is the most common variety and refers to the crooked spade...
), and according to Blackadder (2003) "Yell boasts some of the best peat stacking skills in Shetland."
There is also some dune habitat near West Sandwick
West Sandwick
West Sandwick is a settlement on the Isle of Yell, Shetland Islands. It is one of the few settlements in the west of the island.West Sandwick contains one of the major recreational beaches in Yell....
, something pretty rare in the Shetland Islands; controversially, there has been some commercial extraction of the sand from this area, which may have had a significant environmental impact.
Origin of name
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
name of unknown meaning similar to the modern 'Yell'. The Proto-Norse was Jala or Jela which may have meant 'white island' referring to the beaches. The Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
was Gjall signifying 'barren'. Neighbouring Unst
Unst
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 the Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .Unst is largely grassland, with coastal cliffs...
may also have a pre-Norse name. The name was also recorded in 1586 as "Yella".
In early modern times, it was written as "Zell" (cf "Zetland"), a mistranscription of "Ȝell", from an initial yogh
Yogh
The letter yogh , was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing y and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Old English form of the letter g.In Middle English writing, tailed z came to be indistinguishable from yogh....
.
Early history
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...
or stone footprint at North Yell, up Hena, 12 in by 4 in, (30 cm by 10 cm)is known locally as the 'Wartie' and was used to wash in dew or rain-water and standing in it was supposed to get rid of warts. In legend it was made by a giant placing one foot here and the other on the Westing of Unst.
Twelve broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
sites are known of and fifteen early chapels. The evidence suggests a substantial population in the Pre-Norse period. One of the brochs is on the peninsula of Burra Ness. Only part of the wall remains, on the seaward side. This reaches around 3 metres (10 ft) high in places. There are traces of earthen ramparts on the landward side, and remains of a structure which may have been a guard's cell. There are also remains of an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
blockhouse fort at Burgi Geos. Burravoe
Burravoe
Burravoe, , is a community in the south-east part of Yell, on the north shore of Burra Voe, in the Shetland Islands.The most notable building is The Old Haa Museum which dates from 1672....
's name derives partly from a nearby broch - the element "Burra" frequently being a corruption of the Norse for one.
Yell's placenames reveal the presence of the Celtic Church, whose hermits were known to the Norse as papar
Papar
The Papar were, according to early Icelandic historical sources, a group of Irish or Scottish monks resident in parts of Iceland at the time of the arrival of the Norsemen...
. Examples of names related to them include Papil Ness, Loch of Papil and Papil Bay. However, it is unclear whether these names are all pre-Norse, or whether these Christian co-existed with the pagan Norsemen after they invaded. There is evidence of an early Culdee
Culdee
Céli Dé or Culdees were originally members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland and England in the Middle Ages. The term is used of St. John the Apostle, of a missioner from abroad recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 806, and of Óengus...
monastery at the Birrier in the west of Yell, near West Sandwick
West Sandwick
West Sandwick is a settlement on the Isle of Yell, Shetland Islands. It is one of the few settlements in the west of the island.West Sandwick contains one of the major recreational beaches in Yell....
. The Birrier was almost certainly in contact with another monastic settlement directly opposite, across Yell Sound
Yell Sound
Yell Sound is the strait running between Yell and Mainland, Shetland. 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....
, at the Kame of Isbister on the Northmavine
Northmavine
Northmavine is a peninsula of Shetland in Scotland. It is in the north west of the island, and contains the villages of Hillswick, Ollaberry, and North Roe...
Peninsula of Mainland. A service was held in 2000, at the Birrier to commemorate two millennia of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
A cross slab from North Yell may also be from this period, but it has since been lost. It is presumed to be like the Bressay
Bressay
-Geography and geology:Bressay lies due south of Whalsay, west of Noss, and north of Mousa. At , it is the fifth largest island in Shetland. The population is around 400 people, concentrated in the middle of the west coast, around Glebe, Fullaburn and Maryfield....
Stone.
Norse era
Yell SoundYell Sound
Yell Sound is the strait running between Yell and Mainland, Shetland. 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....
is mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga
Orkneyinga saga
The Orkneyinga saga is a historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200...
: "Earl Rögnvald... and the chiefs Sölmond and Jón with him... had a fine body of troops, thought not too numerous, and five or six ships. They arrived at Hjaltland [Shetland] about the middle of Summer, but heard nothing of Frákork. Strong and contrary winds sprung up, and they brought their ships to Alasund (Yell Sound), and went a-feasting over the country."
In the later Norse period Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
flourished and foundations of 20 chapels dating from this period have been identified.
The primary Viking legacy is an abundance of placenames of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
origin. For example, "Dalsetter" is a combination of dalr meaning a "dale" or "valley" and setr meaning a "hill pasture" or shieling. "Gossawater" is a combination of gás (goose
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
), á (river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
) and vatn (a lake/loch) anglicised as "water". Other common Norse elements on Yell include "firth
Firth
Firth is the word in the Lowland Scots language and in English used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland and England. In mainland Scotland it is used to describe a large sea bay, or even a strait. In the Northern Isles it more usually refers to a smaller inlet...
" (fjörðr) as in Whale Firth, "voe" (vagr) as in "Gloup Voe", "sound" (sund) as in "Bluemull Sound" and "-a(y)" (ey) as in nearby Hascosay
Hascosay
Hascosay is a small island lying between Yell and Fetlar in the Shetland Islands, Scotland.-Geography and geology:The island's rock is coarse micaceous gneiss....
and Linga.
Hanseatic trade and early modern period
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
trade was conducted from Scalloway
Scalloway
Scalloway is the largest settlement on the North Atlantic coast of Mainland, Shetland with a population of approximately 812, at the 2001 census...
, Burravoe
Burravoe
Burravoe, , is a community in the south-east part of Yell, on the north shore of Burra Voe, in the Shetland Islands.The most notable building is The Old Haa Museum which dates from 1672....
was one of the most important of the other Hanseatic centres in the archipelago.
In the 17th century, the Dutch East Indian Ship, Lastdrager was wrecked on Yell, and the survivor, Jan Camphuis wrote favorably of his experiences on the island. He noted the generosity and kindness of the islanders to him while he was there, which he believed was disproportionate to their poverty. Yell is mentioned by Martin Martin
Martin Martin
Martin Martin was a Scottish writer best known for his work A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland . This book is particularly noted for its information on the St Kilda archipelago...
in his 1695 A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland where he noted that "there are three churches, and several small chapels in it."
The Rev. Crutwell in the 18th century said of Yell that "the inhabitants have plenty of fuel, catch immense quantities of small fish, and live comfortably."
Modern history
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
inoculations on Yell in the 18th century, at a time when many other places remained sceptical.
In the 1841 New Statistical Account the minister of Fetlar
Fetlar
Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...
and North Yell noted that although smuggling had almost entirely disappeared, that the local population had "fallen into an abominable habit of smoking tobacco". In the same year the minister of Mid and South Yell observed a rise of 50% in the local price of black cattle, due to the introduction of a fortnightly steamer service from Lerwick
Lerwick
Lerwick is the capital and main port of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, located more than 100 miles off the north coast of mainland Scotland on the east coast of the Shetland Mainland...
to Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
that had enabled exports of livestock to mainland Scotland. Fishing on Yell received a particularly vicious blow, when 53 fishermen were killed in a storm off Gloup in 1881. There is a memorial to them there now.
Germans have claimed that during World War I, their U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s used to shelter in Whale Firth – this is possible, because of the very low population of the area.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
bombed the post office at Gutcher
Gutcher
Gutcher is a settlement on the northeast coast of Yell in the Shetland islands. From here, rollon/roll off ferry services to Belmont on Unst and Hamars Ness on Fetlar operate. The settlement has a harbour, and a post office which doubles as a Bed and Breakfast...
in an attempt to disrupt the communications system. On 19 January 1942, a Catalina
PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...
airplane crashed on the hill above Burravoe
Burravoe
Burravoe, , is a community in the south-east part of Yell, on the north shore of Burra Voe, in the Shetland Islands.The most notable building is The Old Haa Museum which dates from 1672....
. 7/10 of her passengers were killed, and one of the propellers can be seen outside the Old Haa Museum.
Just after World War II, the old herring curing station, at Grimister closed, and this was to be one in a long line of economic difficulties, including the loss of fishing.
In 1961, a Soviet spy ship sank off Yell, and the wreck was found by Lieutenant George Wookey, who had also investigated the wreck that inspired Whisky Galore in the Outer Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
. It was an undercover plain clothes mission, and Lt. Wookey found the wreck 90 ft (27 metres) down in clear water.
During the 1960s, Yell reached an impasse. It was in 1965 that the Orcadian 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:...
said that Yell was "the problem child of the archipelago" due to its economic woes, and burgeoning depopulation. Some blamed this on the islanders’ "social egalitarianism", which supposedly prevented anyone from becoming a "leader or entrepreneur"; Haswell-Smith disagrees, but believes that "airing the matter seems to have helped” It is certainly notable that the tiny remote Out Skerries seem to be wealthier, and that Whalsay
Whalsay
-Geography:Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland Islands. It is situated east of the Shetland Mainland and has an area of . The main settlement is Symbister, where the fishing fleet is based. The fleet is composed of both pelagic and demersal vessels...
is better at retaining its population. Yell is neither near Lerwick
Lerwick
Lerwick is the capital and main port of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, located more than 100 miles off the north coast of mainland Scotland on the east coast of the Shetland Mainland...
like Bressay
Bressay
-Geography and geology:Bressay lies due south of Whalsay, west of Noss, and north of Mousa. At , it is the fifth largest island in Shetland. The population is around 400 people, concentrated in the middle of the west coast, around Glebe, Fullaburn and Maryfield....
, nor bridged to the mainland like Burra
Burra
West Burra is one of the Scalloway Islands, a subgroup of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It is connected by bridge to East Burra. With an area of , it is the eleventh largest of the Shetland Islands.-Geography:...
or Muckle Roe
Muckle Roe
Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in Saint Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland, Shetland. It has a population of around 100 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island...
. Some Yell people do commute to work at Sullom Voe
Sullom Voe
Sullom Voe is an inlet between North Mainland and Northmavine on Shetland in Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal. The word Voe is from the Old Norse vagr and denotes a small bay or narrow creek...
, but as this appears to be a declining industry, this does not hold out hope for the future. However, unlike neighbouring Fetlar
Fetlar
Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...
, Yell never suffered large scale clearances, only some local ones, and has long had multiple ownership. Jim Crumley, himself an incomer, has noted the difficulties faced by Yell by both depopulation and repopulation.
Flora and fauna
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s are common. Brown Trout
Brown trout
The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species....
can be found in the inland waters.
Mammals
Yell claims to be the "Otter Capital of Britain". The shore is low-lying and the peaty soil is soft, making it ideal for excavation burrows. The long days in summer also make spotting these largely nocturnal creatures in daylight more likely than on the British mainland. Hugh MilesHugh Miles (filmmaker)
Hugh Miles is a British filmmaker who specialises in wildlife films. An award-winning cinematographer, Hugh likes to be involved in as many aspects of the filmmaking process as possible, even appearing in front of the camera to help the audience get closer to the experience of actually being out on...
' documentary The Track of the Wild Otter was shot on location at Burra Ness at the mouth of Busta Voe
Busta Voe
Busta Voe, , in the north central Mainland, lies between the village of Brae and the island of Muckle Roe. At the head of the voe is the Delting Marina and Boating Club....
; it gained awards and was produced for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Grey
Grey Seal
The grey seal is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a large seal of the family Phocidae or "true seals". It is the only species classified in the genus Halichoerus...
and Common Seals are also regular visitors to Yell's coast. Yell occasionally receives the odd Arctic visitor besides the tern; in 1977, a stray Bearded Seal
Bearded Seal
The bearded seal , also called the square flipper seal, is a medium-sized pinniped that is found in and near to the Arctic Ocean. It gets its generic name from two Greek words that refer to its heavy jaw...
was recorded. Normally these creatures only live on the pack ice. Humans have introduced a number of animals including rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s, and it has even been questioned whether otters could have arrived by themselves, although this is controversial. Porpoises are occasionally seen nearby too.
The island has its own subspecies of Field Mouse
Field mouse
Field mouse may refer to:*in Europe, Asia and north Africa, one of several species of mice in genus Apodemus*in North America, a small vole such as the Meadow Vole*in South America, one of several species of mice in genus Akodon...
, as do some of the other Shetland Islands, and Hirta
Hirta
Hirta is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The name "Hiort" and "Hirta" have also been applied to the entire archipelago.-Geography:...
in St Kilda.
Birds
A population of Arctic TernArctic Tern
The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America...
s, known locally as Tirricks (stress on last syllable; an onomatopoeic word), migrates to Shetland from Antarctica during the summer. As swallows are sometimes seen as harbingers of summer elsewhere, in Yell and Shetland, it is the Tirricks or terns that fulfil this role -
"On Yell [the Arctic Tern
Arctic Tern
The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America...
] has the impact of August on a heather moor, and nothing draws the islander closer to nature’s year than the first tern."
Other birds that regularly visit Yell include Great
Great Skua
The Great Skua, Stercorarius skua, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. In Britain, it is sometimes known by the name Bonxie, a Shetland name of unknown origin.-Description:...
& Arctic Skua
Arctic Skua
The Parasitic Jaeger, also known as the Arctic Skua or Parasitic Skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae....
s, various tern
Tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...
s, Eider
Eider
Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....
, Whimbrel
Whimbrel
The Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the mostwidespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic North America, Europe and Asia as far south as Scotland....
, Red-throated Diver
Red-throated Diver
The Red-throated Loon or Red-throated Diver is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. It breeds primarily in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters. It is the most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family. Ranging from in length, the Red-throated...
, Dunlin
Dunlin
The Dunlin, Calidris alpina, is a small wader, sometimes separated with the other "stints" in Erolia. It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa, southeast Asia and the Middle East...
, Golden Plover
Golden Plover
There are three species of wading birds in the plover family called Golden Plover. They are* Eurasian Golden Plover, Pluvialis apricaria* Pacific Golden Plover, Pluvialis fulva* American Golden Plover, Pluvialis dominica...
, Twite
Twite
The Twite is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.The Twite is a small finch, similar in size and shape to a Linnet. Birds of the subspecies flavirostris are long, and those of the subspecies altaica are long. It lacks the red head patch and breast shown by the Linnet and the...
, Lapwing
Lapwing
Vanellinae are any of various crested plovers, family Charadriidae, noted for its slow, irregular wingbeat in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. Its length is 10-16 inches. They are a subfamily of medium-sized wading birds which also includes the plovers and dotterels. The Vanellinae are...
and Merlin Falcon
Merlin (bird)
The Merlin is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the Merlin breeds in the northern Holarctic; some migrate to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter.-European and North American...
s. The Eigg, and Ern Stack
Ern Stack
Ern Stack is a sea stack off Yell, Shetland.The word "ern" means an eagle, and it is said that the Eigg, and Ern Stack in the north west of Yell, were the last known nesting site of Shetlandic Sea Eagles, which were recorded there in 1910....
in the north west of Yell, is the last known nesting site of Shetlandic Sea Eagle
White-tailed Eagle
The White-tailed Eagle , also known as the Sea Eagle, Erne , or White-tailed Sea-eagle, is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers...
s, which were recorded there in 1910.
Flora
Yell has many of the usual plants found in northern European moorland, especially heatherEricaceae
The Ericaceae, commonly known as the heath or heather family, is a group of mostly calcifuge flowering plants. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants...
in abundance, including two carnivorous plants, the butterwort and the sundew
Sundew
Drosera, commonly known as the sundews, comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement...
. A substantial study of the flora of Yell's dry stone walls was undertaken in 1986-7. Lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s, especially
Ramalina sp., were the most commonly found plants.
The gorges in the island, such as the Daal of Lumbister provide an important environment for some of the few trees on the island, since they are untouched by sheep grazing. Before human colonisation, it appears that Yell was wooded to some degree, at least with dwarf trees and shrubs. In the gorge at the head of Gloup Voe, Dog Rose
Dog Rose
Rosa canina is a variable scrambling rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia....
s and Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China; Europe, India and North America have only about 20 native species each...
can be found. As the peat preserves old plants and pollen to some degree, due to its anaerobic nature, it is possible to get some sense of the former vegetation of the island. For example, it is known that 40,000 years ago, before the advent of the last Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, and probably any human habitation, that Oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, Scots Pine
Scots Pine
Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...
and Mediterranean heathers were growing here. The remains of these plants have been preserved in layers of ancient peat, which were in turn buried by the boulder clay
Boulder clay
Boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and North America...
left by glacial moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
s.
Transportation
The Yell Sound Ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
sails from Ulsta
Ulsta
Ulsta is a village in the south-west of the island of Yell, Shetland, Scotland. The car ferry to Toft on Mainland, Shetland leaves from here.-References:*...
on the island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
to Toft
Toft, Shetland
Toft is a ferry port approximately one mile north of Mossbank on Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. From here, a car ferry service to Ulsta on the island of Yell operates. Toft is located in the parish of Delting....
on the Shetland Mainland
Shetland Mainland
The Mainland is the main island of Shetland, Scotland. The island contains Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick, and is the centre of Shetland's ferry and air connections....
. The service is operated by two ferries—Daggri (Norse for "dawn"), launched in 2003 and Dagalien (Norse for "dusk"), launched in 2004. These vessels, built in Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, can each carry 31 cars or 4 trucks, as well as 95 passengers. The crossing takes approximately 20 minutes, and ferries leave around every half hour at peak times. The Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound
Bluemull Sound is the strait between Unst and Yell in Shetland's North Isles. A ferry service crosses it regularly. Cullivoe is on the Yell side, and the island of Linga lies in the strait....
Ferry sails from Gutcher
Gutcher
Gutcher is a settlement on the northeast coast of Yell in the Shetland islands. From here, rollon/roll off ferry services to Belmont on Unst and Hamars Ness on Fetlar operate. The settlement has a harbour, and a post office which doubles as a Bed and Breakfast...
on Yell to Belmont
Belmont, Shetland
Belmont is a settlement and ferry terminal in southern Unst in the Shetland Islands. The ferry crosses from here to Gutcher in Yell and to Hamars Ness in Fetlar....
on Unst
Unst
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 the Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .Unst is largely grassland, with coastal cliffs...
and Oddsta on Fetlar
Fetlar
Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...
. The ferries travel to Unst approximately every half hour during the day, and to Fetlar a few times every day. The journey to Unst takes ten minutes, while travelling to Fetlar takes 25 minutes. The service is operated by Bigga and Geira.
There are two main roads, the A968 and the B9081. The A968 runs from Ulsta
Ulsta
Ulsta is a village in the south-west of the island of Yell, Shetland, Scotland. The car ferry to Toft on Mainland, Shetland leaves from here.-References:*...
in the south west of the island to Gutcher
Gutcher
Gutcher is a settlement on the northeast coast of Yell in the Shetland islands. From here, rollon/roll off ferry services to Belmont on Unst and Hamars Ness on Fetlar operate. The settlement has a harbour, and a post office which doubles as a Bed and Breakfast...
in the north east, linking the ferry to and from Mainland, Shetland, with those going to Unst and Fetlar. Despite being a listed A road, it is single track in some stretches with passing places. The B9081 is single track with passing places. It runs along the south coast of Yell, and up its east, and part of the north east too. The stretch from Mid Yell to Gutcher is replaced by the A968, but it recommences after that.
Economy
Yell's industries include fishing, fish farming, farming (including commercial strawberryStrawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
production in polytunnel
Polytunnel
A polytunnel is a tunnel made of polyethylene used to grow plants that require a higher temperature and/or humidity than that which is available in the environment....
s, mainly for the Shetland market), peat cutting, transport and tourism.
Cullivoe
Cullivoe
Cullivoe , is a village on Yell in the Shetland Islands. It is in the north east of the island, near Bluemull Sound, not far from Unst....
had a new deep water harbour built in 1991, but the general decline in fish stocks in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and North Atlantic has not made it useful to fishing. It may however fulfil a transport role.
In January 2008, the Shetland 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...
gave a loan worth £11,000 to Global Yell Ltd, in order to develop "creative industries", i.e. textile weaving and music.
The "world's first community-owned tidal power generator" is planned for Bluemull Sound. This 30 kW Nova Innovation device is expected to be operational by the end of 2011. North Yell Development Council believe that the project could make a significant contribution to the local economy.
Notable buildings and structures
Built in 1707, the now ruined stone building of Windhouse is claimed as the most haunted house in Shetland. In 1880, when Windhouse was renovated, skeletons were found under the floor of the building. After lying empty for over 80 years, it was bought in 2003 by an English couple who are restoring it.The Old Haa of Brough
Old Haa Museum
The Old Haa of Brough in Burravoe, Yell, Shetland built for Robert Tyrie, a merchant, in 1672, houses the local museum for Burravoe and Yell. The archway with an armorial panel above, with Tyrie's initials and the year 1672, are the remains of an old courtyard.On 19 January 1942, a Catalina...
in Burravoe is a substantial merchant's house built in 1672 now converted to a museum and visitor centre.
At Kirkabister, the remains of a former pony stud can be seen. The enclosure is unusual in appearance, having each of its four corners slightly elevated. There are only a handful of such enclosures in the archipelago.
Folklore
At Breckon it is said that when an eroding grave was excavated, a number of human skeletons were uncovered, one of which was not only at least seven foot tall, but had small stumpy "horns" above the temples. Whether this man was a mutant or this is a tall story is unclear.Like all good Nordic lands, Yell has its troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s (known in the Northern Isles
Northern Isles
The Northern Isles is a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney...
as "trows" or "trowes"). The Trow of Windhouse was about as recently as the 1880s, when a shipwrecked sailor claimed he had been attacked by the mythical monster. However, the sailor was courageous enough to fight the creature, and saw it off with an axe. It is said that where he killed the trow, the grass turned a light green. This was not the only trow by any means, and there is another story of a Yell woman coming upon a family of trowes, who later woke up to find one in the house, asking who he was, he said "I am Trippa's son". The woman said a prayer, and the trowe disappeared.
George MacKay Brown
George Mackay BrownGeorge Mackay Brown
George Mackay Brown , was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character...
, an Orcadian poet, wrote a poem which has a Yell-man of 1263 as a narrator.
- I am a farmer from Yell in Shetland.
- Bjorn my mother called me.
Bjorn grows up amongst "seals and clouds and birds and women" on the island, but this idyll is contrasted with his father's disappearance, and profession as a Viking pirate covered in scars and "harvesting" silver.
Jim Crumley and Among Islands
Jim Crumley is a DundonianDundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
who bought a semi-ruined cottage on Yell. He has written extensively on Yell in the book Among Islands (1994), which contains subject matter ranging from St Kilda
St Kilda, Scotland
St Kilda is an isolated archipelago west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom and three other islands , were also used for...
and the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
to Shetland. He says his original interest in islands sprung from seeing Inchcape
Inchcape
Inchcape or the Bell Rock is a notorious reef off the east coast of Angus, Scotland, near Dundee and Fife . Bell Rock Lighthouse, an automatic lighthouse, occupies the reef...
out in the distance, as a teenager. He worked for over twenty years in various newspapers, usually writing about Scottish wildlife and landscapes; his later work has included a number of books on the Scottish islands, and mountains, often including his own photographs.
Crumley has said, "You could never argue with conviction that Yell is a beautiful place", but some others such as Jill Blackadder rate the Sands of Breckon and the cliff scenery of Gloup Voe as some of the best in Shetland. Despite issuing an apparent dismissal, Crumley still has a definite affection for the island, and its almost mechanical role in the Shetlandic whole. In fact, the statement turns out to be a kind of a backhanded compliment
Backhanded compliment
A backhanded compliment, also known as a left handed compliment, or asteism is an insult that is disguised as a compliment. Sometimes, a backhanded compliment may be inadvertent. However, the term usually connotes an intent to belittle or condescend...
:
- "It looks the way Orkney must have in centuries past before that relentless greening began. The only green on a Yell moor in April is a boggy ooze. Yet Yell is the Shetland I carry with me, the Shetland I pack when I leave, the Shetland I am impatient for when I return. It works because of where it is, an island among islands, a perfectly sealed lynchpin, which makes geographical sense of Shetland, and without which the whole archipelago would slide out of kilter and slither uncontrollably into the sea."
As an incomer himself, he writes on the complications that this has caused the island:
- "As elsewhere, the island has suffered from depopulation, and has been challenged by repopulation... good intentions do not turn an incomer into a son of the island soil. That is not to say that there is no place for the incomer [though]'.'"
Notable residents
These include:- Bobby TullochBobby TullochRobert John Tulloch MBE was a naturalist from the Shetland Islands, in the north of Scotland. He was born on a croft at Aywick on the eastern side of Yell, as the oldest of four children, and lived much of his life in the village of Mid Yell.Tulloch started as an apprentice baker and remained in...
, perhaps the best known resident of Yell and noted Shetland ornithologistOrnithologyOrnithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
, who rocked the bird watching establishment, by discovering a pair of breeding Snowy OwlSnowy OwlThe Snowy Owl is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae. The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The bird is also known in North America as the Arctic Owl, Great...
s on neighbouring FetlarFetlarFetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...
when working as a tourist guide. Tulloch came from a prominent local family, and lived in Mid YellMid YellMid Yell is a coastal settlement on the island of Yell, the second-largest of the Shetland Islands, Scotland.Mid Yell, the largest settlement on the island, is at the head of Mid Yell Voe on the B9081 road about a mile from its junction with the A968 road....
most of his life. He was born in a croft at AywickAywickAywick is a small settlement on the east side of Yell, an island forming part of the Shetland Islands north of Scotland.The naturalist Bobby Tulloch was born in Aywick.- External links :*...
on the other side of the island. - Bobbie Jamieson of CullivoeCullivoeCullivoe , is a village on Yell in the Shetland Islands. It is in the north east of the island, near Bluemull Sound, not far from Unst....
, a fiddle player. - Jim Crumley, writer and photographer (see "Literature" above).
- Jake Davis, alleged to be hacktivist TopiaryTopiary (hacktivist)Topiary is a hacktivist and self-described "Supporter of Anonymous Operations, WikiLeaks, and maintaining freedom on the Internet". He is heavily involved with the Internet group Anonymous, which have publicly claimed various online attacks, including hacking HBGary, Westboro Baptist Church, and...
.