History

The island's name is 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....

 in origin, from , meaning "small red island" in contradistinction to Muckle Roe

Muckle Roe

Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in Saint Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland, Shetland. It has a population of around 100 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island...

, which is not nearby, but in St Magnus Bay
In 1841, eleven people lived here, all in the same house.
A light beacon has been built on the island.

Geography and geology

The island's name derives from its red granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

. It is at 60.4982°N 1.2682°W, due east of the Northmavine

Northmavine

Northmavine is a peninsula of Shetland in Scotland. It is in the north west of the island, and contains the villages of Hillswick, Ollaberry, and North Roe...

 at the entrance to Sullom Voe

Sullom Voe

Sullom Voe is an inlet between North Mainland and Northmavine on Shetland in Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal. The word Voe is from the Old Norse vagr and denotes a small bay or narrow creek...

.
Lamba

Lamba (island)

Lamba is an uninhabited island in Yell Sound in the Shetland Islands. It lies north of the entrance to the Sullom Voe inlet. Rising 35 metres above sea level, it has an area of . Its main features are a 27m high light marking the entrance to Sullom Voe, and an adjacent communications mast.There...

 is due north, and Uynarey

Uynarey

Uynarey is one of the Shetland islands in Yell Sound, just to the north of Bigga, and east of Brother Island. It is an RSPB reserve.The name comes from the Norse for "venerated island", and this may reflect a Culdee connection.-Geology and geography:...

, Brother Isle

Brother Isle

Brother Isle is a small, uninhabited island in Shetland, Scotland. It lies between the islands of Yell and Shetland Mainland. It is in size.- Geography and geology :The island's rock is "undifferentiated moine gneiss and quartzite."- History :...

 and Bigga

Bigga, Shetland

Bigga is an uninhabited island in the Sound of Yell between the Mainland and Yell in Shetland, Scotland.-Geography and geology:Just over long, Bigga is in size, and is tall at its highest point. Bigga is a long thin island with a "head" and a "torso"...

 between it and Yell

Wildlife

Otter

Otter

The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....

s occasionally visit here, and puffin

Puffin

Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...

s and storm petrels also nest here.