Sea stack near Yesnaby on Orkney mainland - geograph

Yesnaby is an area in Sandwick, on the west coast of

Orkney Mainland The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of O ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, south of

Skara Brae Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams t ...

. It is renowned for its spectacular

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

coastal cliff scenery which includes

sea stack A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. ...

s, blowholes,

geo Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...

s and frequently boiling seas. A car park, coastal trail and interpretive panels serve visitors. The area is popular with climbers because of

Yesnaby Castle Yesnaby is an area in Sandwick, on the west coast of Orkney Mainland, Scotland, south of Skara Brae. It is renowned for its spectacular Old Red Sandstone coastal cliff scenery which includes sea stacks, blowholes, geos and frequently boiling se ...

, a two-legged sea stack just south of the Brough of Bigging. The stack is sometimes described as a smaller version of the

Old Man of Hoy The Old Man of Hoy is a sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. Formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in the United Kingdom. The Old Man is popular with climbers, and was first c ...

. Yesnaby is also one of the very few places where

Primula scotica ''Primula scotica'', commonly known as Scottish primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family, Primulaceae, the primroses and their relatives. It was discovered by James Smith, and is endemic to the north coast of Scotland. Descripti ...

grows.

Geology

The coastal cliffs are formed from the Lower

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

sandstones ascribed to the Yesnaby Sandstone Group - a set of geological formations restricted to the Yesnaby area, and to the overlying beds of the Lower Stromness Flagstones. Fossil

stromatolite Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). The ...

s from 390 to 400 million years ago can be found in the cliffs in the latter. They are locally known as Horse Tooth Stones from a supposed resemblance.

Culture

Orkney folklore has it that a woman known as the "Yesnaby Healer" had the ability to stop bleeding in any person, even over a distance. The

Orkney 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 ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music ...

has immortalised Yesnaby through "Yesnaby Ground", an

Interlude Interlude may refer to: *a short play or, in general, any representation between parts of a larger stage production *''Entr'acte'', a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production *a section in a movement of a musical piece, se ...

for solo piano. The Archaeology Institute of the

University of the Highlands and Islands , type = federal, public , image_name = UHI Coat of Arms.jpg , image_size = 150px , established = 2011 – University status 1992 – UHI Millennium Institute , chancellor = The Princess Royal , vice_chancellor = , budget = £139m (2022 ...

initiated the Yesnaby Art & Archaeology Research Project

History

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

anti-aircraft battery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes Surface-to-air m ...

was built on the cliff top at Yesnaby as part of the defences of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

base at

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...

. The battery was manned by the Royal Navy and some traces of the wartime buildings remain.

Photo gallery

Image:Yesnaby.jpg, Panorama of Yesnaby Image:Yesnaby01.jpg, Sea cliffs Image:YesnabyPuffin.jpg, Puffin Image:Yesnaby08.jpg, Geo (inlet) Image:YesnabyBlackguillemots.jpg, Black Guillemots Image:Yesnaby Cliffs 2018.jpg, Black Guillemots in summer plumage Image:Yesnaby07.jpg, Cliff Image:Yesnaby06.jpg, Cliffs Image:Yesnaby05.jpg, Cliff Image:Yesnaby04.jpg, Cliffs

References

External links

Yesnaby Geology MapOfficial Orkney Tourism site
{{coord, 59.023, -3.352, dim:5000_region:GB, display=title Protected areas of Orkney Landforms of Orkney Geological type localities of Scotland Cliffs of Scotland Villages on Mainland, Orkney