Swona

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.

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Swona, an island of South Ronaldshay parish, Orkney, at the entrance of Scapa-Flow from the Pentland Firth, 2¼ miles W by S of Barth Head in South Ronaldshay island, and 3¾ miles SE of Cantick Head in Walls. It measures 1½ mile in length, and 3½ furlongs in extreme breadth; is strongly swept by the tidal currents of the Pentland Firth; and gives the name of Wells of Swona to whirlpools in its vicinity. Pop. (1861) 46, (1871) 47, (1881) 47.

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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