The Mainland, also known as Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.

Seventy-five per cent of Orkney's population live on the island, which is more densely populated than the other islands of the archipelago. The lengthy history of the island's occupation has provided numerous important archaeological sites and the sandstone bedrock provides a platform for fertile farmland. There is an abundance of wildlife, especially seabirds.

Etymology

The name Mainland is a corruption of the Old Norse . Formerly the island was also known as meaning 'horse island'. The island is sometimes referred to as Pomona (or Pomonia), a name that stems from a 16th-century mis-translation by George Buchanan. The term eventually fell out of widespread use by the early 1800s, yet has aided in differentiating the "Isle of Pomona" from "Mainland Scotland" by emigrants to Canada, England, and other regions, so clings on tenaciously and can still be rarely found locally, retained in the name of the Pomona Inn at Finstown in the parish of Firth, as well as a local café in the capital of Kirkwall also known as the Pomona.

Geography

The island is relatively densely populated and has much fertile farmland. The bulk of the Mainland is west of Kirkwall and is low-lying, with coastal cliffs to the north and west and two sizeable bodies of freshwater, the lochs of Stenness and Harray.

The eastern part of the Mainland is shaped like the letter "W", the easternmost peninsula being known as Deerness. To the south, causeways called Churchill Barriers connect the island to Burray and South Ronaldsay via Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.

Mainland effectively provides the core of the Orkney Islands, linking the northern members of the archipelago with the southern ones. At the east, and west ends, islands proceed to the north and south, somewhat in the shape of an "X". The western part of the island is part of the Hoy and West Mainland National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.

The population in 2011 was recorded as 17,162, an increase of just over 12% on the 2001 population of 15,315. By 2022 the population had grown to 17,779. Sandwick, Birsay and Stromness lie on the west coast, Rendall and Evie to the north west. Holm, Deerness and St Andrews are located to the east of central St Ola, which contains Kirkwall city. Firth, Orphir, Stenness and Harray lie west of Kirkwall and east of the westernmost parishes. Harray has the unique distinction of being the only landlocked parish in Orkney, although it too has a significant coast along the Loch of Harray, albeit a freshwater one.

Economy

The economic sectors include agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as oil and gas. A 2020 report states that "over the last 20 years there has been a growth in ... manufacturing, tourism, food and drink processing and, more recently, renewable energy". Tourism is certainly significant with over 190,000 visits to the islands, many on cruise ships, in 2019.

Tourism was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and into 2021. A September 2020 report stated that "The Highlands and Islands region has been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to date, when compared to Scotland and the UK as a whole". The industry required short-term support for "business survival and recovery" and that was expected to continue as the sector was "severely impacted for as long as physical distancing and travel restrictions". A scheme called A Support for businesses - Island Equivalent was introduced by the Scottish government in early 2021 to financially assist hospitality and retail businesses "affected by Level 3 coronavirus restrictions". Previous schemes in 2020 included the Strategic Framework Business Fund and the Coronavirus Business Support Fund.

Main settlements

thumb|[[Stromness is the second largest settlement on Mainland, and Orkney in general.]]

The three main settlements on Mainland, in order of magnitude are Kirkwall and Stromness, both of which are burghs, and Finstown.

;Kirkwall

Kirkwall, the capital of the islands, is on the isthmus between west Mainland and east Mainland, which historically enabled it to have highly active harbours facing in two directions for the southern and northern Orkney Islands; the southern one, Scapa Flow, is a large, calm and immediately ocean-accessible natural harbour. Kirkwall has the seat of the Bishop of Orkney, and St. Magnus Cathedral is to be found there. It is also one of the island's ferry ports.

;Stromness

A long-established seaport that grew with the expansion of whaling, Stromness has a population of approximately 2,200 residents. The old town is clustered along the main street, flanked with houses and shops built from local stone, with narrow lanes and alleys branching off it. There is a ferry link to Scrabster in Caithness on the Scottish mainland as well as the Isle of Hoy.

;Finstown

Finstown is the third largest settlement, and used to be known as the "Toon o' Firth". The origin of its name is thought to be from an Irishman named David Phin who came to the area in 1811. It is on the direct Stromness to Kirkwall road. As in nearby Caithness, these rocks rest upon the metamorphic rocks of the eastern schists, and in Mainland where a narrow strip is exposed between Stromness and Inganess, they are represented by grey gneiss and granite.

The Lower Old Red Sandstone is represented by well-bedded flagstones over most of the islands; in the south of Mainland these are faulted against an overlying series of massive red sandstones.

Transportation and infrastructure

Road

Mainland contains the vast majority of the island's roads, and is also connected to those on the main south east islands, such as South Ronaldsay and Burray thanks to the Churchill Barriers.

There are ideas being discussed to build the Orkney Tunnel, an undersea tunnel between Orkney and the Scottish Mainland, at a length of about or (more likely) one connecting Orkney Mainland to Shapinsay. The Orkney-Caithness route would be connected to Mainland, via the Churchill Barriers, but would make landfall on South Ronaldsay, if constructed.

Air

The main airport in Orkney is Kirkwall Airport, operated by Highland and Islands Airports. Loganair provides services to the Scottish Mainland (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness), as well as to Sumburgh Airport in Shetland. Most of the scheduled flights within Orkney depart/arrive at Kirkwall from one of the other islands.

Ferry

thumb|right|NorthLink Ferries - MV Hrossey

Ferries serve both to link Orkney to the rest of Scotland, and also to link together the various islands of the Orkney archipelago. Ferry services operate between Orkney and the Scottish Mainland and Shetland on the following routes:

  • Lerwick to Kirkwall (operated by NorthLink Ferries)
  • Aberdeen to Kirkwall (operated by NorthLink Ferries)
  • Scrabster to Stromness (operated by NorthLink Ferries)
  • Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope (operated by Pentland Ferries)

Two services also connect Caithness, with South Ronaldsay, which is in turn connected to Mainland by road.

Inter-island ferry services connect all the inhabited islands to Orkney Mainland, and are operated by Orkney Ferries, a company owned by Orkney Islands Council.

Flora and fauna

right|thumb|Most of Mainland is treeless, but there are woods at Kirkwall and elsewhere, including Binscarth Woods in [[Finstown.]]

Mainland has a great deal of marine life surrounding it, especially seabirds. Corncrakes can also be found in some parts.

There are few wild land mammals although there is an endemic sub-species of the common vole, the Orkney vole or cuttick, (Microtus arvalis orcadensis) found only in the Orkney archipelago. It may have been introduced by early settlers about 4,000 years ago. Brown hares and rabbits can be found and there are frogs, but no toads.

Notable people from Mainland

  • William Balfour Baikie, explorer, naturalist and philologist (Kirkwall)
  • Thomas Clouston, psychiatrist (Birsay)
  • Stanley Cursiter, painter (Kirkwall)
  • Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney
  • John Firth, author of Reminiscences of an Orkney Parish
  • Rögnvald Kali Kolsson, who initiated the building of St. Magnus Cathedral
  • George Mackay Brown, writer, (Stromness)
  • Eric Linklater, writer, (Kirkwall)
  • Ernest Marwick, antiquarian, (Evie)
  • Edwin Muir, writer and translator, (Deerness)
  • John Rae, Arctic explorer (Orphir)
  • Cameron Stout, TV personality (Stromness)
  • Thomas Stewart Traill, professor of medical jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh (Kirkwall)
  • William Walls, lawyer, industrialist and Dean of Guild of Glasgow (Kirkwall)

<gallery>

File:Mainland, Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK.gif| Mainland

File:SNV30974.JPG| Sea Arch at Yesnaby

File:PicDeerness.jpg|Brough of Deerness

</gallery>

See also

  • Geology of Orkney
  • List of islands of Scotland
  • List of places in Orkney
  • Mainland, Shetland

Footnotes

  • Virtual Orkney: The directory of Orkney Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved on 2018-06-20.