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Fair Isle
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Fair Isle
Fair Isle (/ˌfɛər ˈaɪl/ fair EYEL; Old Norse: Friðarey) is the southernmost of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is situated at the approximate midpoint between the southern tip of Mainland, Shetland; and North Ronaldsay, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands; in an area bordering the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean known as the Fair Isle Gap.
As the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is known for its wild bird observatory, historic shipwrecks, Scottish and Shetland-style traditional music, and its traditional style of knitting, also called "Fair Isle". The island has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1954.
Fair Isle has been occupied since Neolithic times, which is remarkable given the lack of raw materials on the island, although it is surrounded by rich fishing waters. There are two known Iron Age sites: a promontory fort at Landberg and the foundations of a house underlying an early Christian settlement at Kirkigeo.
Most of the place names date from after the 9th-century Norse settlement of the Northern Isles. By that time the croft lands had clearly been in use for centuries.
Between the 9th and 15th centuries, Fair Isle was a Norwegian possession. In 1469, Shetland, along with Orkney, was part of the dowry of the King of Denmark's daughter, Margaret, on her marriage to James III of Scotland.
On 27 September 1588 [Old Style] the flagship of the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grifón, was shipwrecked in the cove of Stroms Hellier, forcing its 300 sailors to spend six weeks living with the islanders. The wreck was discovered in 1970. A first hand account of the Spanish on Fair Isle comes from a diary of an unknown Spaniard from the El Gran Grifón (translation by Mike Shepherd).
We settled in a shelter we found on the day we ran into this great danger, which was 27 September 1588. We found it populated by up to seventeen neighbours in small houses that were more like huts than anything else; a savage people. They eat mostly fish and they do not have bread, or very little, and cakes baked from barley. They cook these over fires fed with fuel taken from the earth, which they call turba [peat]. They have cattle, quite a lot for them because they seldom eat meat. They herd cows, sheep, and pigs; the cows sustain them and they make more money from the milk and butter. They get wool from the sheep for their clothes. They are very dirty people. They are not Christian but not quite heretics either. Their minister comes from an island to preach to them once a year. They do not like this but cannot do anything about it. It is a shame. Three hundred men landed on this island without any food. From September 28th to November 14th fifty men have died. Most of them from hunger. It is the biggest sorrow in the world. We decided to send messengers to the neighbouring island to get boats to Scotland. However, because the weather was so bad, this was not possible until October 27th, which was a pleasant day. They have not returned yet because the seas have been so rough. [The diary ends here.]
The large Canadian sailing ship Black Watch was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1877.
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Fair Isle
Fair Isle (/ˌfɛər ˈaɪl/ fair EYEL; Old Norse: Friðarey) is the southernmost of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is situated at the approximate midpoint between the southern tip of Mainland, Shetland; and North Ronaldsay, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands; in an area bordering the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean known as the Fair Isle Gap.
As the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is known for its wild bird observatory, historic shipwrecks, Scottish and Shetland-style traditional music, and its traditional style of knitting, also called "Fair Isle". The island has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1954.
Fair Isle has been occupied since Neolithic times, which is remarkable given the lack of raw materials on the island, although it is surrounded by rich fishing waters. There are two known Iron Age sites: a promontory fort at Landberg and the foundations of a house underlying an early Christian settlement at Kirkigeo.
Most of the place names date from after the 9th-century Norse settlement of the Northern Isles. By that time the croft lands had clearly been in use for centuries.
Between the 9th and 15th centuries, Fair Isle was a Norwegian possession. In 1469, Shetland, along with Orkney, was part of the dowry of the King of Denmark's daughter, Margaret, on her marriage to James III of Scotland.
On 27 September 1588 [Old Style] the flagship of the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grifón, was shipwrecked in the cove of Stroms Hellier, forcing its 300 sailors to spend six weeks living with the islanders. The wreck was discovered in 1970. A first hand account of the Spanish on Fair Isle comes from a diary of an unknown Spaniard from the El Gran Grifón (translation by Mike Shepherd).
We settled in a shelter we found on the day we ran into this great danger, which was 27 September 1588. We found it populated by up to seventeen neighbours in small houses that were more like huts than anything else; a savage people. They eat mostly fish and they do not have bread, or very little, and cakes baked from barley. They cook these over fires fed with fuel taken from the earth, which they call turba [peat]. They have cattle, quite a lot for them because they seldom eat meat. They herd cows, sheep, and pigs; the cows sustain them and they make more money from the milk and butter. They get wool from the sheep for their clothes. They are very dirty people. They are not Christian but not quite heretics either. Their minister comes from an island to preach to them once a year. They do not like this but cannot do anything about it. It is a shame. Three hundred men landed on this island without any food. From September 28th to November 14th fifty men have died. Most of them from hunger. It is the biggest sorrow in the world. We decided to send messengers to the neighbouring island to get boats to Scotland. However, because the weather was so bad, this was not possible until October 27th, which was a pleasant day. They have not returned yet because the seas have been so rough. [The diary ends here.]
The large Canadian sailing ship Black Watch was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1877.
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