Great Awk Monument

A flag-stone monument near Fowl Craig on the northeast coast of Papa Westray in Orkney, the Great Awk Monument commemorates the killing of one of the last Great Awks in the British Isles here in 1813. Shot by a local hunter, the Great Awk (Pinguinus impennis) was a large flightless bird, growing up to 85cm (33 inches) in height. It was an excellent swimmer that lived on fish and crustaceans but was globally extinct by the 1840s. The remains of the Papa Westray specimen are preserved in the Natural History Museum in London. Erected in 1988 by junior members of the Orkney Field Club, the monument includes a life-size statue of the bird and a plaque.


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