Talk:Shapinsay

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Contents

[edit] Etymology

Unfortunately Haswell-Smith and www.orkneyjar.com don't agree, and the latter is little aspecific. Neither cite their own sources. I have assumed that 'Scalpandisay' is a Celtic era adaptation of an Old Norse phrase, but this is simply a guess. This reappears in a modern guise of the Legends role playing game which refers to 'Scalpandisay or Judge’s islands,' [1] which trivia I leave here as it might be of interest if the above can be sorted out. Ben MacDui (Talk) 15:34, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stone gasometer

I removed the bit about the stone gasometer as it didn't make sense to me and I couldn't find any other reference to it. --JBellis 19:31, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

I found a reference for this. Strange, but apparently true. Ben MacDui (Talk) 11:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History section

I'm not sure about the statement that the island was given to the Blafour family in the 1200s. The sources I used to write the Balfour, Orkney article said that Thomas Balfour was something of a self-made man who was originally a tenant farmer, and accquired the money to buy an estate on the island by marrying a rich woman. Lurker (said · done) 18:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

According to Historic Scotland (who are talking about one estate which didn't seem to cover the whole island) "The estate of Sound covered the westerly part of Shapinsay, passing from the Tulloch family to the Buchanans in the 17th century and to the Feas of Clestrain, in Stronsay in the 1720s. The House of Sound was burnt by Hanoverian troops in 1746 but was replaced. Laings of Papdale acquired the estate in 1770 and then in 1782 it was sold to Major Thomas Balfour."
This link is also interesting. Lurker (said · done) 18:39, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
Good one. The existing stuff about the 13th C Balfours is uncited. Pls zap it and replace with the above. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:37, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Black list

suite101.com is blacklisted by some Wikimedia spam filter. I have removed the '101' in the web address http://www.suite.com/article.cfm/all_things_scottish/28389 so that the page can be saved. I will try to get it whitelisted. If not there may be another suitable reference. I notice one of the two uses is in H-Smith (re kelp), and is basically a quote suite101 nicked from there, which may be why the site is blacklisted. Ben MacDui (Talk) 18:43, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BBC Island blog

There is a blog concerning Shapinsay on the BBC Scotland website, which may provide some useful info- On Top of Ward Hill Lurker (said · done) 12:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

The article is very well written and well referenced. I believe it mostly meets the Good Article criteria. There's a couple of minor issues that need to be resolved before the article can be promoted, though. I did make a lot of copyedits, though most of these are pretty minor.

  • The first two sentences ("With an area of 2,948 hectares (11 sq mi), Shapinsay is the eighth largest Orkney Island and the 29th largest Scottish island. The highest point of Ward Hill is only 64 metres (210 ft) above sea level.") in the geography section have no inline citations. Facts and figures need to be cited. Done. Lurker (said · done) 17:15, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
  • Possible spelling error: "Stewart Depute" --> "Stewart Deputy". Not sure if this is actually misspelled, though; it could be just a geographical variation in spelling? Not a spelling mistake Lurker (said · done) 15:07, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
  • The last paragraph of the 19th century subsection under 'history' could be expanded. It seems to talk about cod and herring, then jumps to talking about the kelp industry collapsing. Why did it collapse? Why did the cod & herring industries become important? Done Lurker (said · done) 14:11, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
  • In the 'geology' section, it might be a good idea to clarify exactly what in the heck "volcanic amygdaloidal diabase" is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Derek.cashman (talk • contribs) 22:42, 28 October 2007 (UTC) I've added wikilinks for context. Lurker (said · done) 15:17, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
  • Recommend changing the 'population' section to 'demographics'. Include more information in this section on the different types of people (ethnicities?) living on the island. Where are they from, primarily? The two tables could probably be combined into one single table with two main columns; they look a bit awkward being separated by so much space. -I've made a 2-column table. It reaches past the section line, but that won't happen once the section is expanded. Lurker (said · done) 17:54, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Done. I couldn't find data on ethnicity (or religion) for the island, but I have found data on birthplace and added some age-related stats too. Lurker (said · done) 13:08, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Eliminate the subsections under 'references and footnotes'. "General references" should not be included in the article, and the 'references' section should only contain inline citations, or citations that refer specifically to information in the article. You could move the "general references" to a 'further reading' section, as these might be other sources that someone doing research can go to to find more information on the subject; but they are not "references", as they are not explicitly citing information in the article. Done Lurker (said · done) 15:07, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Once these issues are addressed, I believe the article can be promoted to Good Article status. Cheers! Dr. Cash 22:39, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

"Depute" is a traditional formal title used in Scotland, it's alright. --MacRusgail 12:09, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Article looks good, and will be listed. Congratulations! Dr. Cash 00:45, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Comment needs more pre-18th century history. Having done some research on this myself, I must admit it's quite difficult. The saga period reveals surprisingly little. --MacRusgail 18:20, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyedit

This article, or a prior version of it, was copyedited by the League of Copyeditors on 22:01, 20 February 2008 (UTC). The League is always in need of editors with a good grasp of English to review articles. Visit the Project page if you are interested in helping.

Copyedited by Finetooth (talk) – 20:59, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Proofread by Galena11 (talk) – 22:01, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
It was a pleasure to read, and my tweaks were all minor. Finetooth (talk) 21:09, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for your work. Lurker (said · done) 11:37, 22 January 2008 (UTC)