Orkney
Orkney (/ˈɔːrkni/; Scots: Orkney; Old Norse: Orkneyjar; Norn: Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands (archaically "The Orkneys"[2]), 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 of the coast of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.[3][4][5] The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles.[6] Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall.[7]
This article is about the Scottish islands. For other uses, see Orkney (disambiguation).Scottish Gaelic name
Arcaibh
Orkney
Orkneyjar
990 km2 (380 sq mi)
Ward Hill 481 m (1,578 ft)
22,540 (2021)
23/km2 (59/sq mi)
Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and an historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council, one of only three councils in Scotland with a majority of elected members who are independents.[Notes 1]
The islands have been inhabited for at least 8,500 years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts. Orkney was colonised and later annexed by the Kingdom of Norway in 875 and settled by the Norsemen. In 1472, the Parliament of Scotland absorbed the Earldom of Orkney into the Kingdom of Scotland, following failure to pay a dowry promised to James III of Scotland by the family of his bride, Margaret of Denmark.[10]
In addition to the Mainland, most of the remaining islands are divided into two groups: the North Isles and the South Isles. The local climate is relatively mild and the soils are extremely fertile; most of the land is farmed, and agriculture is the most important sector of the economy. The significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance; the amount of electricity that Orkney generates annually from renewable energy sources exceeds its demand. Daytime temperatures generally range between 7 °C (45 °F) in winter and 16 °C (61 °F) in summer.
The local people are known as Orcadians; they speak a distinctive dialect of the Scots language and have a rich body of folklore. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe; the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Orkney also has an abundance of marine and avian wildlife.
Etymology[edit]
Pytheas of Massalia visited Britain – probably sometime between 322 and 285 BC – and described it as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas.[11]
This may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible.[12] Writing in the 1st century AD, the Roman geographers Ptolemy[13] and Pomponius Mela called the islands Orcades (Ancient Greek: Όρκάδες), as did Tacitus in AD 98, claiming that his father-in-law Agricola had "discovered and subjugated the Orcades hitherto unknown"[12][14] (although both Mela and Pliny had previously referred to the islands[11]). The Byzantine John Tzetzes in his work Chiliades called the islands Orcades.[15]
Etymologists usually interpret the element orc- as a Pictish tribal name meaning "young pig" or "young boar".[Notes 2][1] Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as Insi Orc "islands of the young pigs".[17][18] The archipelago is known as Ynysoedd Erch in modern Welsh and Arcaibh in modern Scottish Gaelic, the -aibh representing a fossilized prepositional case ending. Some earlier sources alternatively hypothesise that Orkney comes from the Latin orca, whale.[19][20] The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede refers to the islands as Orcades insulae in Ecclesiastical History of the English People.[21]
Norwegian settlers arriving from the late ninth century reinterpreted orc as the Old Norse orkn "seal" and added eyjar "islands" to the end,[22] so the name became Orkneyjar "Seal Islands". The plural suffix -jar was later removed in English leaving the modern name Orkney. According to the Historia Norwegiæ, Orkney was named after an earl called Orkan.[23]
The Norse knew Mainland, Orkney as Megenland "Mainland" or as Hrossey "Horse Island".[24] The island is sometimes referred to as Pomona (or Pomonia), a name that stems from a 16th-century mistranslation by George Buchanan, which has rarely been used locally.[25][26]
Usage of the plural “Orkneys” dates from the 18th century or earlier and was used by for example Sir Walter Scott. From the mid-19th century onwards this plural form has fallen out of use in the local area although it is still commonly found in publications located furth of Scotland.[27][Notes 3]
Politics[edit]
Orkney is represented in the House of Commons as part of the Orkney and Shetland constituency, which elects one Member of Parliament (MP), the current incumbent being Alistair Carmichael. This seat has been held by the Liberal Democrats or the former Liberal Party since 1950, longer than any other they represent in Great Britain.[147][148][149]
In the Scottish Parliament the Orkney constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post system. The current MSP is Liam McArthur of the Liberal Democrats.[150] Before McArthur the MSP was Jim Wallace, who was previously Deputy First Minister.[151] Orkney is within the Highlands and Islands electoral region.
Orkney Islands Council consists of 21 members, 18 of whom are independent, that is they do not stand as representatives of a political party. Two councillors are members of the indigenous Orkney Manifesto Group, and the remaining councillor represents the Scottish Greens.[152][153]
The Orkney Movement, a political party that supported devolution for Orkney from the rest of Scotland, contested the 1987 general election as the Orkney and Shetland Movement (a coalition of the Orkney movement and its equivalent for Shetland). The Scottish National Party chose not to contest the seat to give the movement a "free run". Their candidate, John Goodlad, came 4th with 3,095 votes, 14.5% of those cast, but the experiment has not been repeated.[154]
In the 2014 Scottish independence referendum 67.2% of voters in Orkney voted no to the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?" This was the highest no vote by percentage in any council area in Scotland.[155] Turnout for the referendum was at 83.7% in Orkney with 10,004 votes cast in the area against independence by comparison to 4,883 votes for independence.[156]
In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum 63.2% of voters in Orkney voted Remain.
In 2022, as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, an "Island Forum" was proposed, which would allow local policymakers and residents in Orkney to work alongside their counterparts in Shetland, the Western Isles, Anglesey and the Isle of Wight on common issues, such as broadband connectivity, and provide a platform for them to communicate directly with the government on the challenges island communities face in terms of levelling up.[157][158]
In July 2023, Orkney Council were investigating proposals to change its status, looking at options that included becoming a British Crown Dependency, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Norway or just staying in the United Kingdom.[159]
Orkney as a whole, since 1887, has been associated specifically with and as a recruiting area of the following military units that have received the Freedom of the Island of Orkney: