DIM ISLES OF DREAM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4232, 17 January 1940, Page 11

DIM ISLES OF DREAM

THE ORKNEY AND SHETLAND ISLANDS.

If one looks at the map of Shetland he will find the island of Unst at the top, and with it a skerry or small island with a lighthouse. Its latitude is 60 deg. 50 min. 9 sec., and it is therefore nearer the North Pole than Cape Farewell, in Greenland. The lighthouse was built, by the Stevenson firm and the visitors* book shows the signature of R.L.S. A little beyond it is a still more romantic “oot stack," for to this lone spot came Lady Franklin to pray for her husband, the famous Arctic explorer. Unst itself is only 12 miles by five, has no trees, scarcely a bush, and even heather- and gorse find it hard to live.

The Shetlands, they are generally called, consist of nearly 100 islands. Islets and skerries. The total area is 551 square miles. Little is known of It in early times. The name Shetland Is from an old Norse word meaning probably “high land.” The hills reach a fair size, but treeless, undulating country, and barren tracts of peat and boulders monopolise a good part of the country. The coast scenery is rich in picturesque cliffs and firths, and one of the Island’s characteristics is that no part of it is more than three miles from the sea.

The climate is moist, the rainfall being about 37 inches, and the mean temperature 47 peg. August, the warmest month, reaches to 53 deg. The winters are long, dark and stormy, but from the middle of May to the end of June darkness is unknown. Sunrise at midsummer is at 2.30 a.m. This has giver, the island the name of “Land of the Simmer.” The prehistoric period has left its mark in the form of primitive stone hammers and axes, stone circles and Pictish brocks or castles, these latter showing signs of massive buildings. Who the early inhabitants were is not known, but the Picts appear to have given way to the Norsemen who held the country from the end of the ninth century till 1468, when it was ceded to Scotland by Denmark. The language is a Scottish dialect with a plentiful mixture of Norse words. In some districts the soil produces good crops, hut a great part of the land is indifferent or poor. About 56 per cent of the male population are classed as farmers or fishermen, or both combined. Lerwick, the chief town, is an important fishing centre. The sheep are small, but the wool is renowned for its softness. Mr Mainland, in his well Informed work, tells us that nearly every Shetland woman is a knitter, and large quantities of their work are exported every year. The Shetland ponies are small, some of them as low as seven hands, but the breed is useful for children and in coal mines. The native cow is also small. The average holding of crofts is about eight acres. As there are practically no trees in Shetland, the fuel is peat, and although it smokes and has little flame, it gives out considerable heat. The women help in securing the family supplies.

What has been said of Shetland is to some extent true of Orkney, but with this important difference, that its interests are overwhelmingly agricultural. The cultivated land in some of the islands runs to about 70 percent of their total areas. There are, however, large stretches of hill and moorland, and travellers see in some parts a close resemblance to the Scottish highlands. Temperature and rainfall are about the same as in Shetland. Both islands are subject to high winds, which gain fresh force owing to the general lowness of the land. The principal towns are Kirkwall and Stromness, Kirkwall being the capital and Stromness one of the most picturesquely situated towns in Scotland. HISTORIC SCAPA FLOW. The cable messages from Britain frequently announce enemy airplanes over Shetland, and the mere mention of Orkney raises memories of the Spanish Armada driven northward by gales, and broken on the Scottish shores. Probably for many of us Orkney will be associated particularly with Scapa Flow. This historic expanse of sea in the south of Orkney has Pomona on the north, Burray and South Ronaldshay on the east and south east, and Hoy on the west and south west. It measures 15 miles from north to south, and is about 8 miles in mean breadth. It has two exits, one into the Atlantic and the other into the North Sea. Admiral Jellicoe chose it as the chief naval base of the British fleet in the Great War. Here, too, the German ships were surrendered in 1918, and interned, and here occurred the dramatic scuttling of nearly all the battleships and cruisers by their own crews. The British Grand Fleet had moved to Scapa Flow in July, 1914, and in spite of many scares no German submarine is said to have achieved the danger-

ous passage into the Flow. What happened quite recently need not be recalled, and the sinking of the Royal Oak caused considerable criticism of the naval authorities. There was a feeling that someone had blundered. It will not be forgotten, although the British naval representatives in 1918 proposed to take over the German vessels, the Allies would not agree. The vessels were therefore interned, and not surrendered in the technical sense. This meant that they retained their officers and crews, and were only under distant observation. Hence the scuttling. The Germans however, had to surrender oilier tonnage, and it was not a happy memory for them that so many of the ships were raised, broken up and sold as scrap iron.

Scalloway Castle in Shetland has a remarkable history. Mary Queen of Scots granted the earldom of Orkney and Shetland to her brother, Lord Robert Stewart, in 1565. His son, Earl Patrick, succeeded him in 1600, and immediately proceeded to subject the inhabitants to serfdom. Attracted by the open bay of Scalloway he built a castle upon a beautiful spot, built it by forced , labour and rapacity. His was “a code of blood,” a history of tears.” The islanders complained to the King, and Earl Patrick was condemned to death.

If any one wishes to read a delightful account of these islands let him take Lockhart’s ‘‘Life of Scott” and read again the journal kept by Sir Walter Scott when he visited them in 1814. He studied the people, thought Lerwick a most beautiful place, and the people highly intelligent. At Kirkwall he admired the palace, the cathedral, and visited what he calls “Scalpa Flow.” His visit gave him some material for “The Pirate,” and “The Lord of the Islesh.”

Ours is a fast moving world, but the population of these interesting islands is not increasing. Climate and soil may be the explanation, and the keen mind and deep sympathy of Scott led him to say: ‘Were I an Orcadian laird I feel I should shuffle on with the old, useless creatures against my better judgment.”