Gairsay

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2011.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry

G

airsay, an island of Evie and Rendall parish, Orkney, 1¼ mile E of the nearest part of Orkney mainland, and 1½ NW of Shapinshay. It measures 2 miles in greatest length, and 1½ mile in greatest breadth; consists chiefly of a conical hill of considerable altitude; rises steeply on the W side; includes, on the E and on the S, some low, fertile, well-cultivated land; contains, close to the S shore, remains of a fine old mansion, once the seat of Sir William Craigie; and has a small harbour, called Millburn, perfectly sheltered on all sides, mainly by Gairsay itself, and partly by a small island in the harbour's mouth. Pop. (1851) 41, (1871) 34, (1881) 37.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer.