Talk:Foula

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I removed the 'most westerly in Britain' claim as it's east of most of the Scottish mainland.--JBellis 20:04, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

I find the claim that Foula uses the Julian calendar extremely suspicious. All the online references I can find are just copies of the Wikipedia entry. Can anyone point at an authoritative source for this? -- DrHydeous 2006-01-25 22:49.

How about Visit Shetlandor part of lonely-isles.com? SteveCrook 07:50, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

OK. Is there any indication that it has any official use though? -- DrHydeous 2006-01-28 10:08

There aren't many people there, I don't think that what little government or official organisations exist on the island have a web site SteveCrook 13:12, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The Julian calendar is not really used day-to-day, but Foula, along with some other remote parts of Shetland, still celebrates "Old Yule", which I think falls on January 6th, and New Year on January 13th. The island did not change to the Gregorian calendar along with the rest of the UK. It has had leap years on different years from the rest of the UK, and did not have a leap year in 1900. But I think the rigours of the modern world have forced the Gregorian calendar upon daily life, though I suspect the Julian is still "officially" in place. [User: Manteloy - 14.2.08 -12.09] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manteloy (talk • contribs) 12:09, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Most remote

The article says "Foula (Fugløy "fowl island") is Great Britain’s most remote permanently inhabited island". I don't understand the basis for saying this, but haven't edited it in case I am missing something. Fair Isle seems to be further from both the Shetlands and the Orkneys, which I assume makes it more remote. Alternatively Unst, at the north of the Shetlands seems to be the furthest from the mainland. As far as I know both Fair Isle and Unst are permanently inhabited. Rkidley 17:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I think Fair Isle probably takes the prize. "Remote" would normally be taken as being remote from a large community. There are large communities on both Shetland (22,000) and Orkney (19-20,000). Unst is part of Shetland so can't really be counted as remote. Foula is about 15 miles from Shetland whereas Fair Isle is about 40 miles from Orkney and a similar distance from Shetland. -- SteveCrook 22:26, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The reason for Unst is not remoteness from other islands but, as far as I can see, being the furthest from its two capitals of Edinburgh and London. Fair Isle claims to be the most remote on this website http://www.fairisle.org.uk but to me it is a fuzzy issue. I will hold off a bit longer from updating in case some Foula nationalist can come up with a convincing arguement. (Being far away in London I am loathe to "downgrade" them likely!). Rkidley 00:56, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Fair Isle is generally considered to be the most remote inhabited island because it is the furthest from any 'main' island - 25 miles from Shetland mainland. This claim that Foula is more remote is a mistake that has simply been repeated without ever being checked. Indeed, it continues to be repeated in the national media (perhaps because they check their facts on Wikipedia rather than on a map). It certainly shouldn't be used here without some explanation of the criteria being used, otherwise it is simply misleading. [Manteloy 19:06 9 Feb 2008]

[edit] How far away?

The article says "the nearest other settlement is fourteen miles (21 km) across the Atlantic Ocean" shortly followed by "Lying as it does some fifteen miles (24 km) west of the Shetland mainland", so how far from Shetland is it? And does it need stating twice? Oh, and 14 miles is 22.53 km. My map shows Ham on Foula as being closer to 17.4 miles (28 km) from Vaila Hall on Shetland Mainland -- SteveCrook (talk) 13:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. Fixed with 14 miles being the distance quoted by Visit Scotland.com. Ben MacDui^Talk/Walk 14:47, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

The distance between Foula and the nearest point of the Shetland mainland (Wats Ness) is about 14 miles (as the Visit Scotland site suggests), but the distance between Ham and the nearest other settlement (Vaila) is about 17 miles, as Steve Crook said. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:28, 1 February 2008 (UTC)