The Horse of Copinsay, also known as the Horse, is a rectangular uninhabited

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 ...

to the north east of

Copinsay Copinsay ( non, Kolbeinsey) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, lying off the east coast of the Orkney Mainland. The smaller companion island to Copinsay, Horse of Copinsay lies to the northeast. The Horse is uninhabited, and is managed a ...

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) no ...

, Scotland.

Name

The Norse were fond of zoomorphising smaller islands - for example, smaller islands lying off a larger one are often termed "Calf", e.g.

Calf of Flotta The Calf of Flotta is a small island in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The Calf is next to Flotta, with "Calf" deriving from Old Norse/Norn and meaning a smaller island by a larger one. Geography and geology The Calf is made of red sandstone Sandstone ...

Calf of Man Calf of Man ( gv, Yn Cholloo ) is a island, off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is ...

or even Calf of Cava (the latter a tautology). Some are even "hens", like the Hen of Gairsay. However "horses" are fairly rare. Coincidentally, the old name of

Mainland, Orkney 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 ...

meant "horse island".Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) ''Orkneyinga Saga''. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie. Edinburgh. James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint).

Geography and geology

Like most of the other islands of Orkney, the bedrock is Middle Old Red Randstone of Rousay type of the

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, wh ...

period, but much eroded and tilted. The islet is separated from Copinsay by Horse Sound, and to the southwest is

Corn Holm Corn Holm is a small tidal island in Orkney, near Copinsay to the west, off the north-eastern coast of Scotland. There was once a small chapel there,Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) ''The Scottish Islands''. Edinburgh. Canongate. and it is covered ...

. Mainland Orkney is due west, and Auskerry and Stronsay are much further to the north. The Horse is the easternmost of the southern Orkney islands. The Blaster Hole is a sea jet, of the type known in the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are th ...

as a ''

gloup ''Note: ''Gloup'' is common in Scottish placenames referring to a sea jet.'' Gloup is a village in the far north of the island of Yell in the Shetland Islands. It lends its name to nearby island of Gloup Holm. Gloup Holm derives its name from ...

''. When a storm blows in from the east, the aptly named Blaster Hole can produce a spout of nearly highly, solely by wave power.

Use

The tiny islet was used for grazing, and appears never to have been inhabited (although a number of the smaller islands were often used by culdee

anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...

s). Pigs and sheep were grazed here, but ''not'' horses as the name might suggest. As Haswell-Smith says: :''"As with many small islands, the demand for grazing was so great that the islanders f Copinsaywould carry sheep to the top of the Horse, but it was said that it could fatten one sheep, and feed two, but three would starve. In the Spring, pigs were also hoisted up to fatten on the huge 'crop' of sea-birds' eggs. The pigs' coarse hair was used to make the strong rope needed for fowling. 'Lee-running' was the local name for the organised collection of sea-birds' eggs, which was still practised on Copinsay in the 1940s.''"

References

Uninhabited islands of Orkney Blowholes {{Orkney-geo-stub