| Foula | |
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| Location | |
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Foula
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| Foula shown within Scotland | |
| OS grid reference | HT960392 |
| Names | |
| Gaelic name | Fughlaigh[1] |
| Norse name | Fuglaey |
| Meaning of name | Old Norse for 'bird island' |
| Area and summit | |
| Area | 1,265 hectares (4.88 sq mi) |
| Area rank | 43 |
| Highest elevation | The Sneug - 418 metres (1,371 ft) |
| Population | |
| Population | 31 |
| Population rank | 59 out of 99 |
| Main settlement | Ham |
| Groupings | |
| Island group | Shetland |
| Local Authority | Shetland Islands |
| References | [2][3][4] |
| If shown, area and population ranks are for all Scottish islands and all inhabited Scottish islands respectively. Population data is from 2001 census. | |
Foula (Old Norse Fuglaey, "bird island", compare Norwegian Fugløy, "fowl island", Gaelic Fughlaigh) in the Shetland Islands of Scotland is one of Great Britain’s most remote permanently inhabited islands. Owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family, the island was the location for the film The Edge of the World. RMS Oceanic was wrecked on the nearby Shaalds of Foula.
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Foula is a bleak, yet spectacular island in the Atlantic Ocean, 20 miles west of Walls in Shetland. The island is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) by 3.5 miles (5.6 km), with a low-lying coastal strip along the east side. With an area of 4.9 square miles (12.7 km2), it is the seventh largest and most westerly of the Shetland Islands. It rises from low broken cliffs in the east to precipitous 150 to 365m cliffs on the west.[3] The island has five peaks, rising to 418m (1371 feet) at The Sneug and 376m (1220 feet) at The Kame.[5] At the north end is Gaada Stack a natural arch. Foula lies on the same latitude as Saint Petersburg.
Foula has a population of 31 people,[2] living in Hametown and Ham, Shetland. Islanders previously made a living from fishing - first for white fish, then lobster.[6] Today, most islanders are crofters[7] with income from sheep farming and ornithological tourism.
A hidden reef, the 'Hoevdi Grund' or the terrible 'Shaalds of Foula', lies just over two miles (3 km) east of Foula between the island and the Shetland mainland. The reef comes to within a few feet of the surface and poses a major threat to shipping.
Ferries sail from Ham to Walls and Scalloway on the Shetland Mainland, and flights head from Foula's airstrip to Tingwall Airport.
There is little shelter for boats on the island. The only beach is at the head of Ham Voe on the east coast. Local boats, including the mail boat are hauled out of the water.[3]
The island's 370 metre-high (1200 ft) cliffs are home to birds, including Arctic Terns, Red-throated Divers and Great Skuas.
Foula was first inhabited as far back as 5000 years ago.[8] Between 2006-2008, the Bath & Camerton Archeological Society took several trips to the Island of Foula to study prehistoric standing stones. A particular sub-circular stone circle of interest, was discovered in 2006 at "Da Heights" on the north of Foula.[9] A further investigation launched in 2007 revealed that the sub-circular stone construction was manmade, elliptical in shape, with the axis pointing towards the mid-winter solstice, built before 1000 BCE. [3]
In 1490, the Ciske family's estates were divided and Vaila and Foula became the property of Alv Knutsson. However, the Ciskes were Norwegian, and as Scotland had annexed Shetland a few decades before, there were confusing and conflicting claims of ownership.[3]
Foula remained on the Julian calendar when the rest of the United Kingdom adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Foula adhered to the Julian calendar by keeping 1800 as a leap year, but did not observe a leap year in 1900. As a result, Foula is now one day ahead of the Julian calendar and 12 days behind the Gregorian, observing Christmas Day on January 6 Gregorian and New Year on January 13 Gregorian.[3][10]
In 1720, a smallpox epidemic struck the 200 people living on Foula. Because the islanders were so isolated from the rest of the world, they had no immunity, unlike most north European peoples at that time. Ninety percent of the island's population died in the epidemic.[11]
The writer and journalist John Sands lived on Foula and Papa Stour for a while during the late nineteenth century. He fought hard against the prevailing truck system and created political cartoons lampooning its deficiencies. In one he drew Foula as a beautiful young woman being strangled by a boa-constrictor labelled 'landlordism' watched by other reptiles called 'missionary', 'laird' and 'truck'.[12]
The island was also one of the last places where Norn was used as a first language (although it is claimed that Walter Sutherland of Skaw on Unst was the last speaker), and the local dialect is strongly influenced by Norse. The island was also the last place in Scotland where Udal Law was used.
Professor Ian S. Holbourn, the last Laird of Foula, describes the disaster of 8 September 1914, when the White Star Line RMS Oceanic hit the Shaalds of Foula, becoming a wreck within two weeks. Holbourn's remarkable luck with steamship travel held through the following May, when he embarked upon the RMS Lusitania.
The professor's grandson, Robert Holbourn, a Naval architect, acted as the island's "Peet Marshal" for many years. Peat is valuable and scarce resource for heat and fuel in Shetland. Its cutting requires skill, taking several years to master. The most able islanders become known as the 'Cutters' and, in the spirit of a long standing Foula tradition, all able-bodied men are now and then 'bid to the banks' of women who 'didn't have a cutter in the house.'
Simon Martin, who stayed on the Isle of Foula for five years during his prolonged claim upon the wrecked Oceanic, describes the island as follows:
The Holbourns of Foula are descended from John of Westby (Westbie), Lincolnshire, who was the father of John of Westby, Churchwarden of that village.
A lighthouse at the southern tip of the island was built in 1986. Originally powered by acetylene gas, it has been converted to solar and wind power.[13]
Vagaland's poem Da Sang o da Papa men[14] about the fishermen of Papa Stour includes an insistent chorus chant, "Rowin Foula Doon".[15] This refers to the fishermen's practice of rowing their open fishing boat out to sea until the high cliffs of Foula were no longer visible. This entailed the boat being some 96 kilometres (60 mi) west of Papa Stour.[16][17]
Michael Powell made The Edge of the World in 1937. This film is a dramatisation based on the true story of the evacuation of the last thirty-six inhabitants of the remote island of St Kilda on 29 August 1930. St Kilda lies in the Atlantic Ocean, 64 kilometres west-northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides; the inhabitants spoke Gaelic. Powell was unable to get permission to film on St Kilda. Undaunted, he made the film over four months during the summer of 1936 on the island of Foula, in the Shetland Isles. Despite the fact that the Foula islanders speak the Shetlandic dialect, the film loses none of its power.
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