''Note: There is also a "Sweyn Holm" off

St Ninian's Isle St Ninian's Isle is a small tied island connected by the largest tombolo in the UK to the south-western coast of the Mainland, Shetland, in Scotland. It is part of the civil parish of Dunrossness on the South Mainland. The tombolo, known locally ...

, Shetland'' Sweyn Holm is a small island in the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, next to

Gairsay Gairsay (Old Norse: ''Gáreksey'') is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, located in the parish of Rendall, off the coast, astride one of the approaches to the bays of Firth and Kirkwall. It is about long and wide and includes one conical hill ...

. It is thought to be named for

Sweyn Asleifsson Sweyn Asleifsson or Sveinn Ásleifarson ( 1115 – 1171) was a twelfth-century Viking who appears in the '' Orkneyinga Saga''. Early career Sweyn was born in Caithness in the early twelfth century, to Olaf Hrolfsson and his wife Åsleik. Accordin ...

(Sveinn), who was connected with Gairsay or possibly a corruption of "servant's island" in Norse.

Geography and geology

Sweyn Holm is made up of red

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) ...

References

Uninhabited islands of Orkney {{Orkney-geo-stub