Papa Little ( sco, Papa Little;

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ''Papey Litla'', meaning "the little island of the priests") is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in St Magnus Bay, Shetland, Scotland. The island lies at the head of Aith Voe in north west Mainland, Shetland, south of

Muckle Roe Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in St. Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland. It has a population of around 130 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 440 'Muckle' is Scots for 'bi ...

. It is largely peat-covered and has been uninhabited since the 1840s. Its name means "little island of the

papar The Papar (; from Latin ''papa'', via Old Irish, meaning "father" or "pope") were, according to early Icelandic sagas, Irish monks who took eremitic residence in parts of what is now Iceland before that island's habitation by the Norsemen of S ...

" (as distinct from

Papa Stour Papa Stour ( sco, Papa Stour) is one of the Shetland Islands in Scotland, with a population of under fifteen people, some of whom immigrated after an appeal for residents in the 1970s. Located to the west of mainland Shetland and with an area ...

), who were Gaelic hermits or

Culdee The Culdees ( ga, Céilí Dé, "Spouses of God") were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and subsequently in Scotland, attac ...

s found as far north as

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Notable people

* Elizabeth Balfour (midwife) (1832-1918)

Footnotes

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