Anayre is the name used forshingle beaches found inOrkney,Shetland, theIsle of Man,Lancashire,Cumbria andNorthumbria.[1][2] The word is derived from theOld Norseeyrr, meaning ashingle beach or gravelly place,[3] and may be applied to ordinary beaches, cliff-foot beaches such as theLang Ayre[4] inNorthmavine, Shetland,spits,bars ortombolos, but only if formed of shingle.
More than 130 such shingle beaches are named onOrdnance Survey maps of Shetland, but far fewer in Orkney, where most beaches are formed of sand. The word in its Old Norse form is common inIceland, and it also occurs in a few place names in the north and west of the Scottish mainland which had a strong Norse influence, such asEriboll ("a homestead on a shingle beach") and in the names of several shingle banks—Salt Ayre, Green Ayre, Stake Ayre, Rabbit Ayre and Whinny Ayre—in the tidal reach of theRiver Lune atLancaster.
Churchill Barrier number 4 in Orkney used a shingle spit, the Ayre of Cara onSouth Ronaldsay, as its southern landfall. This ayre is still named on maps, despite having all but vanished under the causeway and the sand dunes that have accumulated on its eastern side.
The term "ayre" is sometimes wrongly applied to sand tombolos (e.g.St. Ninian's tombolo in Shetland) and to the lakes and lagoons impounded by bay-head bars, which are more properly calledoyce[5] in Orkney andhoubs in Shetland.
