West Linga
Encyclopedia
West Linga is an uninhabited island located between Mainland and Whalsay
in Shetland, Scotland
.
by Linga Sound, and Lunning on Mainland, Shetland to the west. Little Linga
, Swarta Skerry, Lona Skerry and Ketill Holm lie to the west. The Calf of Linga to the south is a drying islet. Wether Holm is separated by a 3 metres (10 ft) deep channel at the north end.
There are two lochs, and a natural arch in the north west. The two main hills are at either end - North and South Ward. There is a cairn
in the south.
The rock is coarse mica
ceous, and hornblendic gneiss
with granite
veins. There is a raised beach
above Croo Wick at the southern extremity.
have hindered settlement.
Some acreage on "Liungøuo í Hwalsøyo" is recorded in 1485 for sale for 10 marks, as part of an illegal land sale, at Korskirken
near Bergen
in Norway
.
Hugh MacDiarmid
who lived on nearby Whalsay
, said in The Uncanny Scot that he had spent three days on the island, living in a cave, with lots of matches and two books. In fact it transpired that he'd been there only for a few hours. Interestingly, one of MacDiarmid's best known poems was On a Raised Beach.
Whalsay
-Geography:Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland Islands. It is situated east of the Shetland Mainland and has an area of . The main settlement is Symbister, where the fishing fleet is based. The fleet is composed of both pelagic and demersal vessels...
in Shetland, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Geography and geology
West Linga is a long narrow island covered in rough heath. It is separated from WhalsayWhalsay
-Geography:Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland Islands. It is situated east of the Shetland Mainland and has an area of . The main settlement is Symbister, where the fishing fleet is based. The fleet is composed of both pelagic and demersal vessels...
by Linga Sound, and Lunning on Mainland, Shetland to the west. Little Linga
Little Linga
Little Linga is a small island in the Shetland Islands. It is near West Linga and Vidlin on Mainland, Shetland. It is at its highest point. Surrounding islands include the Calf of Little Linga, Score Holm, and Beilla Skerry.It measures from north to south....
, Swarta Skerry, Lona Skerry and Ketill Holm lie to the west. The Calf of Linga to the south is a drying islet. Wether Holm is separated by a 3 metres (10 ft) deep channel at the north end.
There are two lochs, and a natural arch in the north west. The two main hills are at either end - North and South Ward. There is a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
in the south.
The rock is coarse mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
ceous, and hornblendic gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
with 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...
veins. There is a raised beach
Raised beach
A raised beach, marine terrace, or perched coastline is an emergent coastal landform. Raised beaches and marine terraces are beaches or wave-cut platforms raised above the shore line by a relative fall in the sea level ....
above Croo Wick at the southern extremity.
History
West Linga appears to have been inhabited intermittently until the late 18th century. The lack of an anchorage and somewhat brackish waterBrackish water
Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...
have hindered settlement.
Some acreage on "Liungøuo í Hwalsøyo" is recorded in 1485 for sale for 10 marks, as part of an illegal land sale, at Korskirken
Korskirken
Korskirken is a cruciform church in Bergen, Norway.-Description:Korskirken is located at the intersection of the streets Kong Oscars gate and Nedre Korskirkeallmenning and dates back to the latter half of the 12th century. The name of the church refers to the True Cross, and is usually rendered in...
near Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
in 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...
.
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
who lived on nearby Whalsay
Whalsay
-Geography:Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland Islands. It is situated east of the Shetland Mainland and has an area of . The main settlement is Symbister, where the fishing fleet is based. The fleet is composed of both pelagic and demersal vessels...
, said in The Uncanny Scot that he had spent three days on the island, living in a cave, with lots of matches and two books. In fact it transpired that he'd been there only for a few hours. Interestingly, one of MacDiarmid's best known poems was On a Raised Beach.