Damsay is an island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is approximately 18 hectares (0.07 square miles) in extent and rises to only 11 metres (36 feet) above sea level. It is situated in the Bay of Firth north of the Orkney Mainland near Finstown. Nearby is the smaller islet of Holm of Grimbister.
It is now uninhabited, but at one time a Norse hall stood there, and it was the scene of the killing of Earl Erlend by Earls Rognvald and Harald...
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Damsay is an island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is approximately 18 hectares (0.07 square miles) in extent and rises to only 11 metres (36 feet) above sea level. It is situated in the Bay of Firth north of the Orkney Mainland near Finstown. Nearby is the smaller islet of Holm of Grimbister.
It is now uninhabited, but at one time a Norse hall stood there, and it was the scene of the killing of Earl Erlend by Earls Rognvald and Harald in 1154. Erlend celebrated Christmas on the island and retired to his ship the worse for drink. He and his men were taken by surprise and killed, a full moon notwithstanding.
Later a small nunnery was built on the island leading to a legend that no frogs or toads (or possibly rats and mice) could live there. It is said that unmarried woman who became pregnant would go there to pray at an abandoned shrine to St Mary.
Jo Ben's 1529 Descriptions of Orkney says of Damsay:
Here there are no hills, and it is the most pleasant of all, and is called...
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