Whitehall, Orkney
Encyclopedia
Whitehall is the village on the island of Stronsay
, in the Orkney Islands
of Scotland
. It is a small village with about 50 houses. It also has a shop, a café and heritage centre, known as the Fish Mart; the Stronsay Hotel, with attached pub; a post office, a fisherman's pier and a ferry pier.
It takes its name from a house built in the 1670s by Patrick Fea, a retired privateer, whose descendant John Fea pioneered the kelp
burning industry on the island in 1722.
The fall of the herring industry came with overfishing, and the outbreak of WWII. There was also a similar decline during WWI, but a brief rebirth in the interbellum. Until then it had been the biggest herring port in the northern Orkney Islands, trading mainly with the Baltic ports. At its height, 300 boats were moored in Whitehall harbour, along with fifteen curing stations, and 1500 fish wives. Many of the population were itinerant. As a side effect, there were forty pubs here in the high season, and many houses took lodgers. The wealth can be seen in the large houses which still dominate the town.
Aside from herring fishing and kelp burning, there was also a smaller industry in occasional whaling
. Fifty whales were once driven into nearby Mill Bay for oil, in a move similar to the Faroese grindadráp.
Stronsay
Stronsay is an island in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland. The main village is Whitehall, home to a heritage centre. It is in size, and at its highest point....
, in the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
of 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...
. It is a small village with about 50 houses. It also has a shop, a café and heritage centre, known as the Fish Mart; the Stronsay Hotel, with attached pub; a post office, a fisherman's pier and a ferry pier.
History
Whitehall is a former boom town, whose historical growth and decline has been linked to that of the herring industry, which was initially developed by the Dutch.It takes its name from a house built in the 1670s by Patrick Fea, a retired privateer, whose descendant John Fea pioneered the kelp
Kelp
Kelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....
burning industry on the island in 1722.
The fall of the herring industry came with overfishing, and the outbreak of WWII. There was also a similar decline during WWI, but a brief rebirth in the interbellum. Until then it had been the biggest herring port in the northern Orkney Islands, trading mainly with the Baltic ports. At its height, 300 boats were moored in Whitehall harbour, along with fifteen curing stations, and 1500 fish wives. Many of the population were itinerant. As a side effect, there were forty pubs here in the high season, and many houses took lodgers. The wealth can be seen in the large houses which still dominate the town.
Aside from herring fishing and kelp burning, there was also a smaller industry in occasional whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
. Fifty whales were once driven into nearby Mill Bay for oil, in a move similar to the Faroese grindadráp.