Uyea () is an uninhabited
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
, lying south of
Unst
Unst (; ) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Shetland Mainland, Mainland and Yell (island), Yell. It has an area o ...
in
Shetland
Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.
Etymology
The
Norn word for an island is ''øy'', so Uyea (pronounced "Øya") simply means "the isle." This name was given to it by the people of southern
Unst
Unst (; ) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Shetland Mainland, Mainland and Yell (island), Yell. It has an area o ...
as it is the largest island near their shores (excluding
Yell), and they thought of Unst itself as the mainland.
History
The island was inhabited as early as the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
, and a
chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
can still be seen. In the twelfth century,
Saint Olaf
Saint Olaf ( – 29 July 1030), also called Olaf the Holy, Olaf II, Olaf Haraldsson, and Olaf the Stout or "Large", was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the ...
's
chapel
A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
overlooking
Brei Wick was built.
In 1745, two girls from Uyea rowed to the small island of
Haaf Gruney to milk some of the cows grazing here. They were caught in a storm when trying to return, and eventually they found their tiny boat blown to
Karmøy
Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is southwest of the town of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kopervik.
Most of the municipality lies on ...
in south west
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. The Uyea girls ended up marrying Karmøy men, and their descendants still live there.
, in his memoir of the isle during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, described it as "a beachcomber's dream - washed as it is with a westerly
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
tide through Bluemull Sound, fed from the east by waters of the
Norwegian basin and finally the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
pressing up from among the isles through the narrow channel between
Yell and
Fetlar and feeding Colgrave Sound on the south side of Uyea Isle."
[Priest, Jack ''Island at War'' (1994)]
The island was the home of Sir
Basil Neven-Spence
Sir Basil Hamilton Hebden Neven-Spence (12 June 1888 – 13 September 1974) was a Scottish Unionist Party politician and military physician.
Neven-Spence came from a prominent landowning family in the Shetland Islands. Neven-Spence graduated ...
, who was the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Member of Parliament for
Orkney and Shetland from 1935 to 1950.
To the present day, Neven-Spence is the most recent person not from the Liberal Democrats or the Liberal Party to represent the constituency.
See also
*
Uyea, Northmavine
Footnotes
References
*
External links
"Brochs and photos from Shetland, UK"Licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights ...
Uninhabited islands of Shetland
Former populated places in Scotland
Underwater diving sites in Scotland
{{Shetland-geo-stub