Haaf Gruney is a small island in the north east of the Shetland Islands

Shetland Islands

Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...

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Geography and geology

The island is between Unst

Unst

Unst is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third largest island in Shetland after the Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .Unst is largely grassland, with coastal cliffs...

 and Fetlar

Fetlar

Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a population of 86 at the time of the 2001 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre...

 which are to the north and south respectively. Between it and Yell

Yell

Yell is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland. In the 2001 census it had a usually resident population of 957. It is the second largest island in Shetland after the Mainland with an area of , and is the third most populous in the archipelago , after the Mainland and Whalsay.The island's...

 are a mini-archipelago of small islands including Linga

Linga, Yell

Linga is a very small uninhabited island in the Bluemull Sound, Shetland, Scotland. It is one of many islands in Shetland called Linga. It has an area of 45 ha and is 26m at its highest point.-Geography and geology:...

, Sound Gruney

Sound Gruney

For other islands with similar names, see Gruney Sound Gruney is one of the Shetland islands. It lies about north of Hamars Ness on Fetlar, south of Unst, and to the east of Yell.-Geography:...

, Urie Lingey

Urie Lingey

For other islands with similar names, see Linga Urie Lingey is one of the Shetland Islands. It is between Fetlar and Unst, and Yell is to the west.-Geography:...

, Daaey and Wedder Holm. Uyea is also to the west.

There was formerly a chromate

Chromate

Chromate salts contain the chromate anion, CrO42−. Dichromate salts contain the dichromate anion, Cr2O72−. They are oxyanions of chromium in the oxidation state +6. They are moderately strong oxidizing agents.- Chemical properties :...

 mine.

Name

The island's name is a corruption of the Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 hafgröney, gröney meaning "green island", and "ha(a)f" being an old word (still in some use in Shetland), meaning deep open water, especially that used for fishing. "Haaf" is added to distinguish it from other islands, such as Sound Gruney

Sound Gruney

For other islands with similar names, see Gruney Sound Gruney is one of the Shetland islands. It lies about north of Hamars Ness on Fetlar, south of Unst, and to the east of Yell.-Geography:...

 nearby.

A voyage to Karmøy

On August 4, 1745, two girls from Uyea rowed here to milk some of the cows grazing here. Unfortunately, their return was marred by a strong storm, and eventually they found their tiny boat blown to Karmøy

Karmøy

Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located southwest of the city of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland....

 in south west Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The Uyea girls ended up marrying Karmøy men, and their descendants still live there.

Wildlife

Haaf Gruney is a National Nature Reserve

National Nature Reserve

For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...

 for the storm petrels which breed there. Mousa

Mousa

Mousa is a small island in Shetland, Scotland, uninhabited since the nineteenth century. The island is known for the Broch of Mousa, an Iron Age round tower, and is designated as a Special Protection Area for storm-petrel breeding colonies.-Geography:...

 in the southern Shetland islands also has a strong colony.

The islet is no longer used for grazing, but there are sea otter

Sea Otter

The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...

s living here, and the usual seals

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

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