Linga is one of the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, near

Vaila Vaila (Old Norse: "Valey") is an island in Shetland, Scotland, lying south of the Westland peninsula of the Shetland Mainland. It has an area of , and is at its highest point.Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canong ...

and

Walls Walls may refer to: *The plural of wall, a structure * Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places * Walls, Louisiana, United States *Walls, Mississippi, United States * Walls, Ontario, neighborhood in Perry, Ontario, C ...

Mainland, Shetland The Mainland is the main island of Shetland, Scotland. The island contains Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick, and is the centre of Shetland's ferry and air connections. Geography It has an area of , making it the third-largest Scottish island a ...

. Its highest elevation is 28 metres (91 ft). In 2014 and 2018 it was reported that the island was for sale for £250,000.

Geography and geology

Linga is made up of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, subjected to ancient glacial erosion. Linga is to the north east of the island of Vaila, in Vaila Sound surrounded by

on three sides. The Holm of Breibister is to the west, the Baa of Linga to the south (''baa'' is a Shetland word for a sunken rock) and the village of

is in the North, on the mainland. The surface area is about 65 acres (20 hectares) and there are two derelict cottages on Linga. The local council granted planning permission in 2011 to an oil industry engineer develop the island but by 2018 these plans had not come to fruition.

History

In 2018 it was reported that nobody had lived on Linga since 1934. There were two inhabitants in 1931, 13 in 1881 and nine in 1841.Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer of Scotland'' (Edinburgh, 1882) Published by W. & A.K. Johnstone A dead

killer whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...

was found on a beach on Linga in 2017.

References

Uninhabited islands of Shetland Former populated places in Scotland {{Shetland-geo-stub