Aerial view of the east coast of Sanday

Natural History

Sanday, so called because of its sandy beaches ("sand island"), is thought to have been mostly underwater at some periods of prehistory. Archaeological evidence suggests that it at one time consisted of several smaller islands which joined together when the sea level decreased. There is a similarly named island, Sandoy, in the Faroe Islands. The island has large sand dunes where seals and otters can be found. Inland it is fertile and agricultural and there is some commercial lobster fishing. The underlying geology is predominantly Devonian sediments of the Rousay flagstone group with Eday sandstone in the south east.^[1]

The novelist Eric Linklater described Sanday's shape as being like that of a fossilised bat.^[2]

History

Attractions on the island include the Quoyness chambered cairn, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. A large man-made mound at Pool was excavated in the 1980s. This indicated a Neolithic structure made of turf or burnt peat, a later pre-Viking sub-circular structure with pavings and cells, and a Viking stone and turf rectangular building dated to the late 8th or early 9th century. Various implements were also discovered including pre-Norse hipped pins and pottery from both the pre-Viking and Norse periods. A predominance of fish and animal bones suggests the site was used for meat processing.^[1] Storms in January 2005 exposed a Bronze Age burnt burial mound at Meur.^[3] At the ruined Kirk of Lady, near Overbister, are the Devil's Fingermarks, a petrosomatoglyph, incised as parallel grooves into the parapet of the kirk. During World War II, the Royal Air Force built a Chain Home radar station at Whale Head on Sanday. Sanday also once boasted the most northerly passenger railway in the United Kingdom, Sanday Light Railway.

Lighthouse

Start Point lighthouse

Despite the presence of the lighthouse HMS Goldfinch was wrecked in fog on Start Point in 1915.^[5]

Current island activities

Sanday boasts two golf courses: a 9 hole links course of 2,600 yards run by Sanday Golf Club and the 1 hole meadowland "Peedie Golf Course" of 57 yards (believed to be Scotland's shortest).^[6]

In 2004, three wind turbines with an installed capacity of 8.25MW were erected by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) at Spurness.^[7][8][9] Sanday [[Community Council]] successfully negotiated a wind farm community fund with SSE which will be benefitting the people of the island for the lifetime of the turbines, anticipated to be 20 to 25 years.^[10]

Back in 1996, the Sanday Development Group was formed to promote tourism. This group became Sanday Development Trust in 2004, which has a vision to:

create an economically prosperous, sustainable community that is connected with the wider world, but remains a safe, clean environment, where we are proud to live, able to work, to bring up and educate our children, to fulfill our own hopes and ambitions, and to grow old gracefully, enjoying a quality of life that is second to none.

Current projects include the establishment of a sports hall and youth centre, the creation of a local sound archive, and a countryside ranger service.^[11] With the help of funding from HICEC, the Trust have purchased a weather station, including a wind-logger. Initially located in the grounds of Sanday School, the wind-logger will be placed in various positions around the island for a month at a time to compare differences in wind speed with those recorded at the school.^[12]

Sanday Tartan

People associated with Sanday

Sanday's West Manse

• Matthew Armour (1820-1903), Sanday?s radical Free Kirk Minister who lived at The West Manse (formerly the Free Church of Scotland manse) for over half a century
• Stuart Christie (b. 1946), Glasgow Anarchist, who ran the radical publishing house Cienfuegos Press from here during the late 1970's.^[15]
• William Towrie Cutt (1898 - 1981), author born on Sanday
• Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934), Master of the Queen's Music
• Walter Traill Dennison (1826 - 1894), Orcadian folklorist born on Sanday
• David Harvey (b. 1948), former Leeds United goalkeeper
• Geoffrey Hayes, actor and children's TV presenter, had a holiday cottage here in the early 1980's
• George Faulknor Francis Horwood (1838-1897), Deputy Lieutenant of Orkney (and youngest son of Edward Horwood, of Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire) who lived at Scar House.
• Liam McArthur MSP for Orkney
• John D Mackay (b. 1909), Headmaster of Sanday School from 1946 to 1970
• William Sichel (b. 1953). International ultra distance runner; World No.1 for the Six Day event in 2006; represented Great Britain eleven times since 1996.

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} Omand, Donald (ed) (2003) The Orkney Book. Edinburgh. Birlinn.
2. ↑
3. ↑ Archaeological Find at Meur Retrieved 2 June 2007.
4. ↑ Start Point Lighthouse
5. ↑ "Remains of HMS Goldfinch" Orkney Image Library. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
6. ↑ "The Islands of Orkney" brochure 2008
7. ↑ Island of Sanday website
8. ↑ Your Energy Ltd. Retrieved 2 June 2007.
9. ↑ Orkney Renewable Energy Forum reports 2004-5 Retrieved 3 June 2007.
10. ↑ Various minutes of Sanday Community Council
11. ↑ DTA Scotland members Retrieved 2 June 2007.
12. ↑ "A weather eye on Sanday " (June 07) (pdf) Community Energy News No 5. Dingwall. HICEC.
13. ↑ Scotsheraldry.com re Sanday Tartan Retrieved 2 June 2007.
14. ↑ "Island of Sanday hits the right note " Local People Leading. Retrieved 19 July 2008.
15. ↑ " Pamphlets and Papers: Anarchism" Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved 2 August 2008.

External links

• Sanday Tourism Association website

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