iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Fair Isle

This page is about the physical island. For the knitting technique, see Fair Isle (technique).


Fair Isle
Location
OS grid reference:HZ209717
Names
Gaelic name:
Norse name:Frjóey/Friðarey
Meaning of name:"Sheep island", from Norse
Area and Summit
Area:768 ha
Area rank (Scottish islands):61
Highest elevation:Ward Hill 217 m
Population
Population (2001):69
Population rank (inhabited Scottish islands):50 out of 97
Groupings
Island Group:Shetland
Local Authority:
References:[1][2][3][4][5]
Enlarge picture
West cliffs, looking southwest towards Malcolm's Head.
Enlarge picture
Sunset over the South Lighthouse
Fair Isle (from Old Norse Frjóey) is an island off Scotland, lying around halfway between Shetland and the Orkney Islands. Three miles (4.8 km) in length and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, it has an area of 1402 acres (2.2 square miles or 5.61 km²). The island is situated around 25 miles (40 km) south-west of Sumburgh Head on the Mainland of Shetland. Although it is marginally closer to North Ronaldsay Orkney, Fair Isle is administratively part of Shetland. It gives its name to one of the British Sea Areas.

The majority of the seventy islanders live in the crofts on the southern half of the island, with the northern half consisting of rocky moorland. The western coast consists of cliffs of up to 660 feet (two hundred metres) in height. The population has been decreasing steadily from around four hundred in around 1900. There are no pubs or restaurants on the island, but there is a single primary school. After the age of eleven, children must attend a boarding school in Lerwick.

Fair Isle has been occupied since the Bronze Age which is remarkable because of the lack of raw materials on the island, although it is surrounded by rich fishing waters. It has a permanent bird observatory because of its importance as a bird migration watchpoint and this provides most of the accommodation on the island. It is unusual amongst bird observatories in providing catered accommodation rather than hostel-style. Many rare species of bird have been found on the island, and it is probably the best place in western Europe to see skulking Siberian passerines like Pechora Pipit, Lanceolated Warbler and Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler.

The island was bought by the National Trust for Scotland in 1954 from George Waterson, the founder of the bird observatory.

Enlarge picture
Croft houses.
Fair Isle is famous for its knitted jumpers, with knitting forming an important source of income for the women of the islands. The principal activity for the male islanders is crofting.

Since 1982, two thirds of the community's power has been supplied by wind turbines, and just one third by diesel generators. The island has a distinctive double electrical network. Standard electricity service is provided on one network, and electric heating is delivered by a second set of cables. The electric heating is mainly served by excess electricity from the two wind turbines that would otherwise have had to be dumped. Remote frequency-sensitive programmable relays control individual water heaters and storage heaters in the buildings of the community.

Ward Hill (715ft) played host to a hastily built RAF radar station during WWII, the ruins of which are still present today. There are also substantial sections of a crashed Heinkel He 111.

On August 20, 1588 the flagship of the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grifón, was shipwrecked in the cove of Stroms Heelor, forcing its 300 sailors to spend six weeks living with the islanders. The wreck was discovered in 1970.

On January 29, 2004, Fair Isle was granted Fairtrade Island status.

Enlarge picture
Fair Isle jumper done in the traditional style, from Fair Isle.

Transport

External links

Footnotes

1. ^ 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
2. ^ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 1-84195-454-3. 
3. ^ Ordnance Survey
4. ^ Iain Mac an Tailleir. Placenames. Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
5. ^ Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) Orkneyinga Saga. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie. Edinburgh. James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint). ISBN 0-901824-25-9


 
Scotland | Shetland Islands
Inhabited islands: Mainland | Bressay | Burra | Fair Isle | Fetlar | Foula | Muckle Roe | Out Skerries | Papa Stour | Trondra | Unst | Vaila | Whalsay | Yell
Other islands: Mousa | Noss
Towns and villages: Lerwick | Aith | Baltasound | Brae | Grutness | Gutcher | Haroldswick | Scalloway | Symbister | Toft | Ulsta | Uyeasound | Vidlin |Walls
Extreme points: Hermaness | Sumburgh Head
Archaeological sites: Jarlshof, Mousa Broch


Coordinates:
Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named for Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland, between the Orkney and Shetland islands.
..... Click the link for more information.
The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude.

The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data,
..... Click the link for more information.
Scottish Gaelic}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Scotland
Regulated by: Bòrd na Gàidhlig
Language codes
ISO 639-1: gd
ISO 639-2: gla
ISO 639-3: gla

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig
..... Click the link for more information.
Old Norse}}} 
Writing system: Runic, later Latin alphabet.
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: non
ISO 639-3: non

Old Norse
..... Click the link for more information.
Birth rate: 10.7 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate: 11.0 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate: 4.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.4% (2005 est.
..... Click the link for more information.
Shetland Islands
Sealtainn


Flag Coat of arms
Location

Geography

Area Ranked 12th
 - Total 1,466 km²
 - % Water ?
Admin HQ Lerwick
GB-ZET
..... Click the link for more information.
Scotland

This article is part of the series:
Politics of Scotland

Scottish Parliament
Scottish Executive
Presiding Officer
First Minister
Lord Advocate
Solicitor General
Members of Parliament (MSPs)
Local government
Elections
..... Click the link for more information.
Old Norse}}} 
Writing system: Runic, later Latin alphabet.
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: non
ISO 639-3: non

Old Norse
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Nemo me impune lacessit   (Latin)
"No one provokes me with impunity"
"Cha togar m'fhearg gun dioladh"   
..... Click the link for more information.
Shetland Islands
Sealtainn


Flag Coat of arms
Location

Geography

Area Ranked 12th
 - Total 1,466 km²
 - % Water ?
Admin HQ Lerwick
GB-ZET
..... Click the link for more information.
Orkney
Àrcaibh


Flag of Orkney Coat of arms
Location

Geography

Area Ranked 16th
 - Total 990 km²
 - % Water ?
Admin HQ Kirkwall
GB-ORK
..... Click the link for more information.
Sumburgh Head is located at the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland in northern Scotland. The head is a 100 m high rocky spur capped by the Sumburgh Head lighthouse.
..... Click the link for more information.
Mainland, Shetland

Location

OS grid reference: HU414553

Names

Gaelic name: Unknown
Norse name: Megenland
Meaning of name: Old Norse for 'mainland'

Area and Summit
Area: 96,879 ha
Area rank (Scottish islands): 3
..... Click the link for more information.
North Ronaldsay

Location

OS grid reference: HY759542

Names

Gaelic name: N/A
Norse name: Rínansey/Rínarsey
Meaning of name: Old Norse for 'St Ninian's Isle', or possibly 'Ringa's Isle' or 'St Ronan's Isle'

Area and Summit
..... Click the link for more information.
The Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of Britain and Ireland.

It is produced by the UK Meteorological Office (part of MOD) and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and
..... Click the link for more information.
croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land.

The word croft
..... Click the link for more information.
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas, characterised by acidic soils. Moorland habitats are most extensive in the neotropics and tropical Africa but also occur in small scattered locations in northern and western Europe, Northern Australia, North
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century
1870s  1880s  1890s  - 1900s -  1910s  1920s  1930s
1897 1898 1899 - 1900 - 1901 1902 1903

Year 1900 (MCM
..... Click the link for more information.
Lerwick

Population 6830
OS grid reference HU474414
Council area Shetland
Lieutenancy area Shetland
Constituent country Scotland
..... Click the link for more information.
The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consists of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in
..... Click the link for more information.
A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far flung areas.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
..... Click the link for more information.
Western Europe is mainly a socio-political concept forged during the Cold War, which largely defined its borders. Its boundaries were effectively forged during the final stages of World War II and came to encompass all European countries which did not come under Soviet control and
..... Click the link for more information.
Siberia (Russian: Сиби́рь, Sibir); is a vast region on the eastern and North-Eastern part of the Russian Federation constituting almost all of Northern Asia and comprising a large part of the
..... Click the link for more information.
Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
..... Click the link for more information.
A. gustavi

Binomial name
Anthus gustavi
Swinhoe, 1863

The Pechora Pipit (Anthus gustavi
..... Click the link for more information.
L. lanceolata

Binomial name
Locustella lanceolata
(Temminck, 1840)

The Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata) is an Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus Locustella.
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) describes itself as the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland's natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to enjoy.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter