Foula
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- See Fula for the African people and language family.
| Foula | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
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| OS grid reference: | HT960392 |
| Names | |
| Gaelic name: | Fughlaigh[1] |
| Norse name: | Fugløy |
| Meaning of name: | Old Norse for 'bird island' |
| Area and Summit | |
| Area: | 1,265 ha |
| Area rank (Scottish islands): | 43 |
| Highest elevation: | The Sneug 418 m |
| Population | |
| Population (2001): | 31 |
| Population rank (inhabited Scottish islands): | 59 out of 97 |
| Main settlement: | Ham |
| Groupings | |
| Island Group: | Shetland |
| Local Authority: | Shetland Islands |
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| References: | [2][3][4] |
Foula (Fugløy "fowl island") is one of Great Britain’s most remote permanently inhabited islands, being one of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, and owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family. The bleak and yet spectacular island lies on the same latitude as Saint Petersburg. Foula measures 2.5 miles (4.0 km) by 3.5 miles (5.6 km), and has an area of 4.9 square miles (13 km²), making it the seventh largest of the Shetland Islands.
Foula has a population of 26 people, and the nearest other settlement is about 17 miles (27 km) across the Atlantic Ocean. The film The Edge of the World used Foula as its location.
Foula poses a major threat to shipping, as nearby is a hidden reef, the 'Hoevdi Grund' or the terrible 'Shaalds of Foula', a reef that comes to within a few feet of the surface, but which in calm weather gives no warning sign to the unwary mariner. The Shaalds lies just over two miles (3 km) east of Foula between the island and the Shetland mainland.
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[edit] History
[edit] 15th to 19th centuries
In 1490, the Ciske family's estates were divided and Vaila and Foula became the property of Alv Knutsson. However, the Ciskes were Norwegian, and as Scotland had annexed Shetland a few decades before, there were confusing and conflicting claims of ownership.[3]
Foula remained on the Julian calendar when the rest of the United Kingdom adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Foula adhered to the Julian calendar by keeping 1800 as a leap year, but did not observe a leap year in 1900. As a result, Foula is now one day ahead of the Julian calendar and 12 days behind the Gregorian, observing Christmas Day on January 6 Gregorian and New Year on January 13 Gregorian.[3][5]
In 1720, a smallpox epidemic struck the 200 people living on Foula. Because the islanders were so isolated from the rest of the world, they had no immunity, unlike most north European peoples at that time. Ninety percent of the island's population died in the epidemic.[6]
The writer and journalist John Sands lived on Foula and Papa Stour for a while during the late nineteenth century. He fought hard against the prevailing truck system and created political cartoons lampooning its deficiencies. In one he drew Foula as a beautiful young woman being strangled by a boa-constrictor labelled 'landlordism' watched by other reptiles called 'missionary', 'laird' and 'truck'.[7]
The island was also one of the last places where Norn was used as a first language (although it is claimed that Walter Sutherland of Skaw on Unst was the last speaker), and the local dialect is strongly influenced by Norse. The island was also the last place in Scotland where Udal Law was used.[citation needed]
[edit] 20th century
The last Laird of Foula, Professor Ian S. Holbourn, mentioned in his book on the Isle of Foula the disaster of the 25 August 1914, when RMS Oceanic collided with the Shaalds of Foula causing this great liner to become a wreck within two weeks. Holbourn's remarkable luck with steamship travel held through the following May, when he embarked upon the RMS Lusitania. The Professor's grandson Robert Holbourn, otherwise qualified in Naval architecture (shipwright) acted as the island's "Peet Marshal" for many years. This valuable resource for heat and fuel has to be conserved. Peat cutting in Shetland requiring a certain skill, taking several years to master, resources are not available to be wasted. Those most able islanders become known as the 'Cutters' and in the spirit of a long standing Foula tradition all able-bodied men are now and then 'bid to the banks' of women who 'didn't have a cutter in the house.'
Simon Martin, who stayed on the Isle of Foula for five years during his prolonged claim upon the wrecked Oceanic, describes the island as follows:
- "Foula, or Ultima Thule, as it was known as far back as the Roman times, rises impurely out of the water, and from the Shetland Isles mainland its five peaks, the Noup, Hamnafield, the Sneug, Kame and Soberlie stand out starkly and characteristically. The cliffs on the west side vie with those of St Kilda as the highest sheer cliffs in Britain, 1,200-foot (370 m) of solid rock towering from the sea.
- "Foula, or Fughley as it was once also known, means literally 'Bird Island', with an estimated half million birds of various breeds sharing the rock with the inhabitants. The island’s surface largely consisting of a peat bog on rock."[citation needed]
The Holbourns of Foula are descended from John of Westby (Westbie), Lincolnshire, who was the father John of Westby, Churchwarden of that village.
A lighthouse was built at the southern tip of the island in 1986. Originally powered by acetylene gas, it has been converted to solar and wind power.[8]
[edit] Transport
Ferries from the island sail from the main settlement of Ham to Walls and Scalloway on the Shetland Mainland, and flights head from Foula's airstrip to Tingwall Airport.
[edit] Wildlife
The island's main industries are sheep farming and ornithological tourism. The island is known for its 370 metre-high (1200 ft) cliffs and its birds, including Arctic Terns, Red-throated Divers and Great Skuas.
[edit] Culture and the arts
[edit] Rowin Foula doon!
Vagaland's poem Da Sang o da Papa men about the fishermen of Papa Stour includes an insistent chorus chant, "Rowin Foula Doon!" This refers to the fishermens' practice of rowing their open fishing boat out to sea until the high cliffs of Foula were no longer visible. This entailed the boat being some 96 kilometres (60 miles) west of Papa Stour.[9][10][11][12]
[edit] The Edge of the World
Michael Powell made The Edge of the World in 1937. This film is a dramatisation based on the true story of the evacuation of the last thirty-six inhabitants of the remote island of St Kilda on 29 August 1930. St Kilda lies in the Atlantic Ocean, 64 kilometres west-northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides; the inhabitants spoke Gaelic. Powell was unable to get permission to film on St. Kilda. Undaunted, he made the film over four months during the summer of 1936 on the island of Foula, in the Shetland Isles. Despite the fact that the Foula islanders speak the Norse-tinged dialect of Shetland, the film loses none of its power.
- The Edge of the World (1937) dramatises the evacuation of the Islands and the ensuing tragedy.
- Return To The Edge Of The World (1978) was a documentary capturing a reunion of cast and crew of 1937's The Edge Of The World, forty years after the fact, as they revisit the island.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Sabhal Mòr database UHI. Retrieved 3 April 2008.
- ^ 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
- ^ a b c Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canongate.
- ^ Ordnance Survey
- ^ Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. London. HarperCollins.
- ^ Watts, Sheldon (1997). Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism, pp. 85-86. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300080875.
- ^ Fleming, Andrew (2005) St Kilda and the Wider World: Tales of an iconic island. Macclesfield. Windgather Press. Page 159. Fleming credits the source of this information as Nicolson, J. (03 July 1937) John Sands. Shetland Times.
- ^ "Foula Lighthouse". Northern Lighthouse Board. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
- ^ Fleming, Richard "Da Song o’ da Papa Men including a translation" (pdf) Papa Stour magazine, Retrieved 13 September 2007.
- ^ "Rowin Foula doon" (pdf) Papa Stour magazine, Retrieved 13 September 2007.
- ^ Vagaland (edited by M. Robertson) (1975) The Collected Poems of Vagaland. Lerwick. The Shetland Times.
- ^ "Papa Stour" Shetlopedia. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
[edit] Further reading
- Holbourn, Ian B. Stoughton (reprint 2001). The Isle of Foula: A Series of Articles on Britain's Loneliest Inhabited Isle. ISBN 1-84158-161-5.
[edit] External links
- Foula Heritage
- "Living at the edge of the world". February 2008 Guardian article about life on Foula
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