Hoy

Hoy
Location
OS grid reference:	ND263961
Names
Gaelic name:	-
Norse name:	Háey
Meaning of name:	Old Norse for 'high island'
Area and Summit
Area:	14,308 hectares (55.2 sq mi)
Area rank:	12
Highest elevation:	Ward Hill 479 metres (1,572 ft)
Population
Population (2001):	272
Population rank:	28 out of 97
Main settlement:	Lyness
Groupings
Island Group:	Orkney
Local Authority:	Orkney Islands
References:	[1][2][3][4][5][6]
If shown, area and population ranks are for all Scottish islands and all inhabited Scottish islands respectively.

Hoy (from Old Norse Háey meaning high island) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. With an area of 55 square miles (142 km²), it is the second largest of the Orkney Islands after the Mainland. It is connected by a southern causeway called The Ayre to South Walls. Unusually, the two islands are treated as one entity by the UK census.^[7]

The dramatic coastline of Hoy greets visitors travelling to the Orkney Islands by ferry from the Scottish mainland. It has extremes of many kinds: some of the highest sea cliffs in the UK at St John's Head, which reach 350 metres (1,100 ft);^[2] the impressive and famous sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy; some of the most northerly surviving natural woodland in the British Isles; the remote possibility that Arctic Char survive in Heldale Water and the most northerly Martello Towers, which were built to defend the area during the Napoleonic War, but were never used in combat.

The highest point in Orkney, Ward Hill, is found on Hoy.

The main naval base for Scapa Flow in both the First and Second World Wars was situated at Lyness in the south-east of the island. Some rather incongruous art deco structures nearby date from this period.

An unusual rock-cut tomb, the Dwarfie Stane, lies in a valley at the west of the island. It is unique in northern Europe, bearing similarity to Neolithic or Bronze Age tombs around the Mediterranean.

The northern part of the island is an RSPB reserve due to its importance for birdlife, particularly Great skuas and red-throated divers.

In Norse mythology, Hoy is the location of the never-ending battle between Hedin and Högni.

Orkney Ferries serve the island with two routes. One links Lyness on Hoy and Longhope on Walls with the island of Flotta and Houton on the Orkney Mainland. The other links Moaness in Hoy to the island of Graemsay and Stromness on Orkney Mainland.

Trivia

• Featured prominently in the 1984 video for "Here Comes The Rain Again" by the Eurythmics.

Gallery

Cliffs on the Atlantic coast of Hoy, south of Rackwick	The Old Man of Hoy, seen from the south	Scapa Flow Visitor Centre	Hoy High Lighthouse viewed from Mainland
Central	Southside

References

External links

• Island of Hoy website launched December 2008
• Old Man of Hoy picture gallery

Coordinates: 58°51′N 3°18′W / 58.85°N 3.3°W / 58.85; -3.3