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The Island of North Ronaldsay

© Sharma Krauskopf

North Ronaldsay is the most northerly island in Orkney, and like its more southerly neighbor Sanday, is very low lying. In no area is the ground higher than 20m above sea level. The 79 inhabitants make up a closely-knit and competent community. One school with 5 students., a post office, pub and general store keep the community going. Because of its unique, primitive, seaweed-eating sheep the entire island is surrounded by the Sheep Dyke, a wall about 2m high. The dyke was built in mid-19th century to keep North Ronaldsay's seaweed-eating sheep on the narrow strip of beach and foreshore and off the agricultural land. During lambing season, the ewes are permitted to graze on grass inside the dyke for three to four months before being returned to the shore with their new offspring. In 1993 the worst storms in fifty years knocked down more than 3km of the wall allowing the scruffy little sheep to wander all over the farmland. The Royal Navy came to the rescue and rebuilt the walls to save the crops.

Muckle Gairsty and Matches Dyke are two earthworks that divide the island into three parts. Part of the Muckle Gairsty is roughly 2 metres high and 10 metres wide. There is little known about these dykes but they probably date from before 1000 BC. Although some sections have disappeared, some parts are still impressive.

Another outstanding 200 old building is the Old Kirk.

The island is justifiably famous among ornithologists as a resting place for migrant birds with several rare types being spotted annually. The Bird Observatory is used to observe and record the migrating birds, and is of an interesting energy-efficient design. The observatory produces a wonderful newsletter with all of most recent bird sightings.

The Broch of Burrian is part of an extensive Iron Age settlement on the shore of Strom Ness. The Broch of Burrian was excavated in the1880's. It has walls 4 1/2 m thick and four concentric ramparts on the side facing the land. The broch and settlement were in use until the 9th century - well into the Pictish period. When the site was excavated, a piece of flat stone inscribed with the Burrian Cross (a design popular with modern jewellers) was found along with an ogam stone and several fine bone implements. There are some interesting walks to the Broch.

Lighthouses play a prominent part in North Ronaldsay since the small island has two. The Old Beacon was lit in 1789 and was built due to the high number of shipwrecks, there were sixteen between 1773 and 1788. The North Ronaldsay lighthouse at 42.3 metres is Britain's tallest land based lighthouse.

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