Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

924
SHETLAND.
the green islet, Ellerholm, from the east wind.
The Rev. Dr. Barry, historian of Orkney, was
clergyman of this parish. The shores of
Shapinshay abound with Picts' houses, which
appear to have been exploratory edifices.
There is one upright monumental stone in the
island, numerous tumuli, and a mass of stone,
lying on shore opposite to Stronsay, which still
is named the black stone of Odin, and is said
to mark the place of his descent on Shapinshay.
A bed of limestone occurs near How, which
has long been worked with advantage. — The
population of Shapinshay, in 1821, was 779.
SHECHALLION, a conical mountain in
Rannoch, Perthshire, rising to a height of 3564
feet.
SHEE, or BLACK WATER, a river in
the parish of Kirkmichael, in the north-east
quarter of Perthshire, which rises from the
union of three small streams, at Spittal of
Glenshee, the Lochty, Patnuk, and Beg, from
the mountains on the borders of Aberdeenshire,
and, after a southerly course of several miles,
unites with the Ardle at Rochalzie, in form-
ing the Ericht.
SHERIFF-MUIR. In several of the
counties in Scotland, there are localities with
this title, which seems generally to have been
bestowed on moors or plains, on which the
weapon-shaws (exhibition of arms) of the dis-
tricts usually took place, under the inspection
and by the orders of the sheriffs. The place
most commonly known by the name Sheriff-
muir, is in the parish of Dumblane, Perth-
shire, lying at the north base of the Ochil hills-
Here a bloody but undecisive battle was fought
in 1715, between the government forces under
the Duke of Argyle, and the insurgent Jaco-
bite army under the Earl of Mar. The con-
flict has indifferently been called the battle of
Sheriff-muir and the battle of Dumblane.
SHETLAND, or ZETLAND ISLES,
a group of islands, islets, and rocks, situated in
the Northern Ocean, at the distance of about
15 leagues north-east of the Orkneys, and 44
leagues west of Bergen in Norway, which is
the nearest point of continental Europe. They
form the northern barrier of the British islands,
and belong to the sheriffdom of Orkney. With
the exception of two, the Shetland islands are
contiguous to each other, and lie between 59°
48' 30", and 60° 52' north latitude, and be-
tween 52 and 1° 57' of west longitude from
London. The two remote islands are named
Fair Isle and Foula, or Fowla ; the former
lying about twenty-four miles south from the
mainland of Shetland, and the latter about twenty
miles west. There are three principal islands
in the group, namely Mainland, next, on the
north, Yell, and still farther north-east, Unst.
On the east of Yell lies Fetlar, which is the
largest of the inferior islands. The next in
point of size is Bressay, which is situated on
the east coast of the Mainland. The smaller
islands are Whalsay, Out Skerries, Samphray,
Big Island, Mickle Roe, Papa-stour, House,
Barray, Trondray, besides a great number of
islets, holms, and skerries. In this remote and
singular group of islands, nature appears in her
wildest dress. Everywhere are seen barren
and leafless mountains, rocks piled upon rocks,
affording in their hollow deeps lodgments for
water ; woodless tracts, the haunt of wild
mountain sheep, and the prospect being closed
around by a tempestuous ocean. By the ac-
tion of the sea upon the coast, scenery is form-
ed of the most sublime description. In the
island of Papa-stour, there are numerous ro-
mantic caverns produced by this cause. On
the east of this island a high insulated rock is
perforated through and through, and as we en-
deavour with a boat to trace through a fright-
ful gloom its various sinuosities, a break of day-
light suddenly rushes through an . irregular
opening made from the summit of the crag,
which serves to light up the entrance to a dark
and vaulted den, through which the ripples of
the swelling tide, in their passage through it,
are converted, by an echo, into low and distant
murmurs. On the north-west of the. island,
Lyra Skerry, Fulgse Skerry, and other insulat-
ed rocks and stacks, rise boldly out of the sea,
richly clothed on their summits with stripes of
green turf, but presenting perpendicular sides,
and entrances into dark caverns that resemble
the vaulted arches of some Gothic crypt. In
Lyra Skerry, so named from the number of
lyres or puffins by which it is frequented, there
is a perforation throughout its whole breadth ;
yet so violent are the currents that force their
way through it, that a passage is forbidden to
the explorer except when the ocean shows no
sterner wrinkles than are to be found on the
surface of some sheltered lake. On the west
of Northmaven a large cavernous aperture,
ninety feet wide, is the avenue to two immense
perforations, named the Holes of Scraada,
where, in one of them running 250 feet into