Burra Voe

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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Burravoe, a bay and a hamlet in Mid and South Yell parish, Shetland. The bay is in the SE of Yell island; opens 4½ miles N by W of Lunaness on the mainland, and 26¼ miles N by E of Lerwick; penetrates the land 21/3 miles north-north-eastward; is flanked on all the E side by a narrow peninsula, terminating in Burra Head; and forms a good harbour. The hamlet lies at the head of the bay; has a post office under Lerwick, and a girls' school; it gives name to a presbytery in the synod of Shetland. The presbytery comprehends the old parishes of Mid and South Yell, Fetlar and North Yell, and Unst, with the quoad sacra parishes of North Yell and South Yell. Pop. (1871) 6033, (1881) 5141, of whom 1414 were communicants of the Church of Scotland in 1878, the sums raised by them that year in Christian liberality amounting to £89.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

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

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