| Scottish Gaelic name | Iadaigh |
|---|---|
| Scots name | Aidee[1] |
| Old Norse name | Eiðøy[2] |
| Meaning of name | Old Norse for "isthmus island"[2][3] |
 One of Eday's beaches, with sea caves adjacent to the southern end of Calf Sound | |
| Location | |
  Eday Eday shown within Orkney | |
| OS grid reference | HY560338 |
| Coordinates | 59°10′19″N2°46′59″W / 59.172°N 2.783°W /59.172; -2.783 |
| Physical geography | |
| Island group | Orkney |
| Area | 2,745 ha (6,780 acres)[2] |
| Area rank | 31 [5] |
| Highest elevation | Ward Hill 101 m (331 ft)[2][4] |
| Administration | |
| Council area | Orkney Islands |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 102[6] |
| Population rank | 45 [5] |
| Population density | 3.7 people/km2[2][6] |
| Largest settlement | Backaland |
 | |
| References | [7] |
| Calf of Eday Lighthouse Calf Sound   | |
 Lighthouse on Calf Sound, Eday. The land on the upper right of the picture is the northern tip of the Calf of Eday. | |
| Coordinates | 59°14′13″N2°45′48″W / 59.236906°N 2.763399°W /59.236906; -2.763399 |
| Constructed | 1909 (first) |
| Foundation | concrete base |
| Construction | aluminium tower |
| Automated | 2002 |
| Height | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Shape | octagonal prism tower with balcony and lantern |
| Markings | white tower and lantern |
| Power source | solar power |
| Operator | Northern Lighthouse Board[8] |
| First lit | 2002 (current) |
| Focal height | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Range | 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) (white), 6 nmi (11 km; 6.9 mi) (red, green) |
| Characteristic | Fl (3) WRG 10 s |
Eday (/ˈiːdiː/,Scots:Aidee) is one of the islands ofOrkney, which are located to the north of the Scottish mainland. One of the North Isles, Eday is about 24 kilometres (13 nautical miles) from theOrkney Mainland. With an area of 27 km2 (10 sq mi), it is the ninth-largestisland of the archipelago. The bedrock of the island isOld Red Sandstone, which is exposed along the sea-cliffs.
There are various well-preservedNeolithic tombs, as well as evidence ofBronze Age settlement and the remains of aNorse-era castle. During the period ofScottish rule the substantial property of Carrick House was developed at Calfsound, which became aburgh for a short period. During the British era manyagricultural improvements were introduced, although there has been a substantial decline in the population since the mid-nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century the Eday Partnership has had success in promoting the island's economy. Local placenames reflect the diverse linguistic heritage and the landscapes of the island and its surrounding seas attract abundant wildlife.
"Eday" is a name derived from theOld Norseeið and means "isthmus island".[2][9] This is a name specifically associated with economic activity used only where the isthmus has been a "route for the movement of goods and/or boats from one coast to another".[10]
There are numerous othereið names in the islands of the North Atlantic and those in Orkney include Hoxa (Haugeið) onSouth Ronaldsay, Aith (found onWalls, Stronsay and the westMainland) and Scapa inSt Ola which is derived from the NorseSkálpeið.[11] Bay of Doomy, near the central isthmus on Eday, may also have a name derived fromdómr-eið, meaning "isthmus of the courthouse", indicating it could have been an important meeting place during theNorse period of Scottish history.[9] In the 17th century Eday was also known as "Heth Øy".[12]
In common with elsewhere in the Orkney islands, place names are generally a mixture of Norse,Scots andEnglish influences. Any Pictish names that existed before the arrival of Scandinavian settlers on Eday appear to have been obliterated.[13] The common suffix -quoy is from the Old Norsekví-ló and signifies an enclosure in a marshy area.[14] Skaill on the east coast is from the Norseskáli and suggests an important farm on good fertile land that was associated with several smaller tunships.[15] The Bay of London also has Norse origins,lund-inn meaning "woodland", although this is no longer an apt description for this largely treeless landscape.[16]
Orkney was Christianised before the arrival of Viking settlers, and there are various local "Papa" names that reflect the activities of the pre-Norsepapar monks there. The farm of Papleyhouse near Linkataing may indicate such a link to the past, although the connection is by no means certain.[17][Note 1] The name "geo", which occurs frequently around the rocky coast, is from the Norsegjá and means a narrow and deep cleft in the face of a cliff.[19]
Eday is 14 kilometres (8+1⁄2 mi) long from north to south but only just over 500 metres wide at the narrow neck of land between the Sands of Doomy and Bay of London[4] and has been described as being "nipped at the waist".[20] The centre of the island is largelymoorland covered withheather, and cultivation is confined to the coasts.[21]
The highest points are Flaughton Hill at the island's centre, Fersness Hill at West Side, Vinquoy Hill to the north and Ward Hill to the south, which reaches 101 metres (331 ft).[4] In Orkney this last name, which derives from the Norsevarði, is a common one for the highest point on an island as in the past they were used for lightingwarning beacons.[22]
The largest body of water is the ten-hectare (25-acre) sea southeast of Vinquoy Hill.[23] Loch of Doomy lies on the western side of the narrow "waist" and the smaller Loch Carrick on the north coast.[4]
The population is dispersed along the coastal farmsteads and nowhere on the island has the status of avillage. Calfsound is the most populous of the settled areas, with other concentrations at Millbounds on the east coast, which has apost office and a community facility in a converted chapel, andBackaland in the south where the ferry from the Mainland docks.[4]
Eday is surrounded by other small islands that make up the "seemingly impossible green and russet jigsaw of Orkney's North Isles".[20]Calf of Eday lies 350 metres (1,100 ft) north of the settlement of Calfsound. Further east isSanday across the Eday Sound.Stronsay andLinga Holm are to the south east andMuckle Green Holm to the south west beyond the straits known as theFall of Warness.Egilsay lies somefive kilometres (2+1⁄2 nmi) due west.Rusk Holm,Faray andHolm of Faray lie beyond the Sound of Faray to the northwest, and beyond them is the larger island ofWestray.[4]
In common with its neighbouring isles, Eday is largely formed from MiddleDevonianOld Red Sandstone deposited in theOrcadian Basin. TheEday Group is the name for a substantial sequence of sandstones that is found at many locations in Orkney, for which Eday and the area around Eday Sound are thetype area.[24] In places it is up to 800 metres (2,600 ft) thick, and is largely composed of yellow and red sandstones with intervening grey flagstones andmarls.[25] The rock is easily quarried and some of the yellow sandstones from Fersness were used in the construction ofSt Magnus Cathedral inKirkwall.[2][16] The Devonian sequence is deformed into a majorfold, the north–south trending Eday Syncline, with the youngest part of the sequence, the Upper Eday Sandstone outcropping in the north of the island from Bay of Cusby to Red Head. The oldest part of the sequence, theRousay Flagstones are found on the eastern side of the island at Bight of Milldale and from Kirk Taing to War Ness, and to the west from Sealskerry Bay to Fersness. Veness is formed of Upper Eday Sandstonedownfaulted against the flagstones.[26]
The very limitedarchaeological record provides scant evidence ofMesolithic life in Orkney, but the later assemblage of houses and monumentalNeolithic structures in the archipelago is without parallel in the United Kingdom.[27]
Vinquoy chambered cairn, located in a commanding position overlooking the Calf Sound, is 17 metres (56 ft) in diameter and 2.5 m (8 ft) high. The narrow entrance passage of thisMaeshowe-type tomb leads to a central chamber with four side-cells.[28] Other sites of interest on Eday include the Stone of Setterstanding stone that dominates the col north of Mill Loch, and which at 4.5 m (15 ft) high is one of the tallest monoliths in Orkney.[29] There are two more chambered cairns atBraeside andHuntersquoy[4] and another on the Calf of Eday. Rectangular in shape, it was excavated in 1936–37 and contains a small chamber with two compartments and a larger one with four stalls that has a separate entrance and was probably added at a later date.[30]
Although there are severalBronze Age sites on the island, they provide less dramatic remains. At Warness in the south west there is aburnt mound from this period and there are the ruins of two houses of a similar age on Holm of Faray near the Point of Dogs Bones.[32] The Fold of Setter is an 85-metre-diameter (279 ft) Bronze Age enclosure located to the north of Mill Loch.[33] There is the site of a largeIron Ageroundhouse containing asaddle quern at Linkataing in north west Eday.[34] Latterly, Orkney was settled by thePicts although the archaeological evidence is sparse.[35]
It is not known "when and how the Vikings conquered and occupied the Isles",[36] and although Norse contacts with Scotland certainly predate the first written records in the 8th century, their nature and frequency are unknown.[37] The place name evidence of a Norse presence on Eday is conclusive and very little is known about the specifics of life on the island at this time. The Norse-era ruins of the Castle of Stackel Brae, which dates from the 12th or 13th century, lie under a green mound to the east of the Bay of Greentoft.[38] The castle may have been the most important building on Eday at this time.[39]
In 1468 Orkney became part of theKingdom of Scotland[40] and an influx of Scottish entrepreneurs helped to create a diverse and independent community that included farmers, fishermen and merchants that called themselvescomunitatis Orcadie and who proved themselves increasingly able to defend their rights against their feudal overlords.[41][42] Nonetheless, the actions of the aristocracy continue to provide much of the information known about affairs on Eday at the time. In 1561, during theReformation, Edward Sinclair was granted thefeu of Eday by Adam Bothwell,Bishop of Orkney. These were turbulent times—Sinclair's duties included to defend the reforming Bishop "against whatsoever invaders"[43]—and later that year he was one of the ringleaders of an anti-Catholic riot in Kirkwall.[43][Note 2]
His son William took over the running of the Eday estate in due course, but it became burdened with debt. In 1601 when Edward was "an auld decrepit man ... aged 100 or thereby" William attempted to sell the family interest to George Sinclair theEarl of Caithness.[45][Note 3] The new proprietor sent half a dozen boatloads of "vagabondis,broken Highland men of Caithness" to Eday, much to the alarm of the notoriousEarl Patrick of Orkney. Earl Patrick was able to use the poor relationship between the elderly father Edward and his son, (the former claiming William fired muskets at him and grabbed him by the neck like a dog) to take action. Acting, so he alleged, on behalf of Edward, Earl Patrick evicted William, took the Eday the rents for himself and profited from the extraction of building stone from Towback quarry.[45]
John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, the brother of Earl Patrick, was granted Eday in 1632[46][Note 4] and he constructed Carrick House at Calfsound shortly thereafter.[49] He usedpeat to manufacture salt fromsalt pans at both Carrick and on the Calf of Eday. The product was described as "quite fine" in the 17th century when it was undertaken on a substantial scale[49] although of "indifferent quality"[50] in the early 19th century when it was being conducted as acottage industry.[51] Peat extraction was also an important industry in the past as Sanday andNorth Ronaldsay obtained most of their fuel from Eday and this material was also exported towhisky distilleries on mainland Scotland.[21]
Stewart's ambitions for Calfsound were considerable. Described as the "town and port" of Carrick it became aburgh (the only other one in Orkney being Kirkwall) with the right to appointbaillies and hold markets but it was never likely to flourish in such a location.[48]
From the first decade of the 18th century Orkney became part of the newKingdom of Great Britain. This was a time of great interest inagricultural improvement although the changes this brought about were not of significance in Orkney until the mid-nineteenth century.[52] For example, no potatoes were grown on Eday until around 1780.[53] By comparison to these gradual changes, Carrick House saw drama in 1725. The property was now owned by James Fea who had been a school friend of a "Mr Smith", a trader ofStromness. When Smith was unmasked as the notorious pirateJohn Gow he sought to escape the attentions of the authorities by making for Eday via a raid on Hall of Clestrain, inOrphir. When Gow's shipRevenge ran aground on the Calf of Eday, Fea's men took him prisoner and held him at Carrick House, for which Fea was given a £1,700 reward. The bell from theRevenge is still in Carrick House.[46][54][55][56]
In the early nineteenth century thekelp industry provided significant employment on some of the Orkney islands, but when the market collapsed between 1830 and 1832 it caused considerable hardship.North Ronaldsay was especially hard-hit and several families were allowed to resettle from there to develop land at Westside on Eday.[57] Rising populations meant increasing land values, especially for small tenancies. In 1843 crofts were valued at£1 per acre (£2+1⁄2 per hectare) on Eday, nearly three times the price for larger farms.[58] However, the 20th century saw decline. Immigration even from mainland Scotland was essentially unknown even in the late 1950s[59] and the population in 2001 was about an eighth of the total 160 years earlier.[2] In the census of 2011, it was found that 50% of the residents of the island were born in England, the most of all Scotland's islands.[60]
| Year | 1841 | 1881 | 1891 | 1931 | 1961 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 944 | 730 | 647 | 430 | 198 | 147 | 166 | 121[2] | 160[61] | 102[6] |
 |  |  |
Eday can be reached by both sea and air from the Orkney Mainland.Orkney Ferries provide daily ferry crossings to Backaland on Eday fromKirkwall.[62] The Orkney inter-island air service, operated byLoganair, connectsKirkwall Airport withEday London Airport.[63] In 2014 the Orkney Islands Council beganconsultation to build a number of fixed crossings between seven of the Orkney Islands. This includes the possibility of a 2.6 mile bridge between Eday and Papa Westray.[64]
Farming andcrofting are mainstays of the local economy, especially livestock husbandry. Flocks of sheep are also kept on Faray.[65]
TheEuropean Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) based at Stromness is aScottish Government-backed research facility. They have installed a wave testing system at Billia Croo on the Orkney mainland and atidal power testing station, overlooking theFall of Warness, on Eday.[66] The test site was chosen because of the marine currents that reach almost 4 m/s (7.8 kn) atspring tides. There are seven offshore testing berths connected to the 33KV North Isles section of the national grid, via an underground cable.[67]
Eday Partnership, the localdevelopment trust is active in promoting the island's economy and has instigated numerous projects, including Eday Heritage Centre, and the purchase of a new diesel tank for the island. Eday's various community projects contributed £380,000 to the island's economy from 2005 to 2007 and a 900 kW community-owned wind turbine is planned.[68][69] The income that this asset will generate is expected to reduce fuel poverty on the island, support new community enterprises and create affordable housing.[70]
In July 2008, the island celebrated the opening of the Eday Heritage and Visitor Centre in the restored former Baptist Church. There is a heritage display area, a permanent archive, a café and a tourist information point. The Eday Oral History Project records life on the island in the past and is also housed within the centre, which has its own 6 kW wind turbine.[71][72]
The island's population was 160 as recorded by the2011 census[61] an increase of over 30% since 2001 when there were 121 usual residents.[73] During the same periodScottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.[74]
In the early 19th century Patrick Neill wrote of the local flora that "Eda is a mossy island; a great part of it consisting of barren marshy heaths.Juncus uliginosus here covers whole acres; and the pretty little plantRadiola millegran, or all-seed, is everywhere strewed."[50][Note 5] Over 120 species of wild plants have been recorded on the island,[20] includingbog myrtle found nowhere else in Orkney.[55]
In the mid-17th century, Eday was described as being "absolutely full of moorland birds",[49] and today there arered-throated divers on Mill Loch,Arctic skuas andbonxies on the moors andblack guillemot offshore. Shore birds includemeadow pipit,rock pipit andringed plover. The woodland at Carrick House attracts a variety of migrants, andotters can be seen around the coasts.[55] There are colonies ofharbour andgrey seals on Muckle Green Holm, Little Green Holm, Faray and Holm of Faray, andwhite-beaked dolphin,minke whale andkiller whale are occasional visitors to the area.[77] A ranger provides guided walks throughout the year.[78]
59°11′N2°47′W / 59.183°N 2.783°W /59.183; -2.783
|  | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Calf of Eday light | |
