Yell is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland. In the 2011 census it had a usually resident population of 966. It is the second largest island in Shetland after the Mainland with an area of , and is the third most populous in the archipelago (fifteenth out of the islands in Scotland), after the Mainland and Whalsay. At times, whales and dolphins also appear off the coast.
Notable buildings on the island include the 17th-century Old Haa of Brough in Burravoe, a merchant's house now converted to a museum and visitor centre.
On the eastern side the coast is generally low and sandy but there is an extensive rocky and partly precipitous coast on the west that rises slowly to elevations of . which is the result of 3,000 years of deposits.
As with the Shetland archipelago as a whole, the island can be seen as creating a barrier between the northern end of the North Sea (to the east) and the North Atlantic (to the west). To the north east is the Norwegian Sea, and the Arctic Ocean is several hundred km to the north.
Attractions on the island include the Sands of Breckon composed of crushed shells, and the Daal of Lumbister gorge.
Settlements
Settlements on Yell tend to be coastal with a north–south grain, a metamorphosed sedimentary rock originally laid down in shallow water 1,000-800 million years ago and then uplifted and deformed during the Caledonian orogeny 600–400 million years ago. The principal minerals are coarse quartzite, quartz-feldspar gneiss The inundation would have reached above normal high tides. There is also some evidence at Basta Voe in the north west of a more recent event of a similar nature. In modern times, the non-porous nature of the bedrock, the presence of boulder clay and the cool and damp climate have conspired to create large expanses of peat. This covers two-thirds of the island with an average depth of . Its main constituent materials are sphagnum moss, cotton grass, deer grass, heather and sedge. This peat is highly important to the islanders as a fuel source, and in some areas is even worked commercially. It is cut with a tushker (a type of peat spade, akin to the Highland cascrom), and according to Blackadder (2003) "Yell boasts some of the best peat stacking skills in Shetland." The Proto-Norse was Jala or Jela which may have meant 'white island' referring to the beaches. The Old Norse was Gjall signifying 'barren'.
This makes another possible explanation plausible, connected to the Norse words "hjalli" or "hjallr", terrace in a mountainside or a ledge, scaffolding, even the ones used for drying fish. "Hjell" is the current spelling and pronunciation in Norwegian, and "hjallar" is the possessive singular or nominative plural form in Old Norse.
Early history
right|thumb|200px|The ruins of the [[broch on the Holm of Copister can clearly be seen in this view from Copister]]
Yell has been inhabited since the Neolithic times. The evidence suggests a substantial population in the Pre-Norse period. One of the brochs is Burra Ness Broch. Only part of the wall remains, on the seaward side. This reaches around high in places. There are traces of earthen ramparts on the landward side, and remains of a structure which may have been a guard's cell. There are also remains of an Iron Age blockhouse fort at Burgi Geos.
The primary Norse legacy is an array of placenames of potentially fully or sometimes partial Old Norse origin. For example, "Dalsetter" is a combination of dalr meaning a "dale" or "valley", either from Old Norse or Old English, possibly influenced by both; and setr meaning a "hill pasture" or shieling, or as a (potentially Norse) interpretation of Old English ("sǣte"). "Gossawater" is a combination of either Old English "gōs" and/or Old Norse "gás" (goose), á (river) and vatn (a lake/loch) anglicised as "water".
Other potentially Norse elements on Yell include "firth" which is from either or possibly both the Old English ""Ford"" and Old Norse "fjörðr" as in Whale Firth, "voe" which is an Old Norse cognate with English 'way' (Old English 'weġ')(Old Norse vagr) as in "Gloup Voe", "sound" (Both Old English and Old Norse use sund) as in "Bluemull Sound" and "-a(y)" (ey) as in nearby Hascosay and Linga.
Hanseatic trade and early modern period
left|thumb|200px|[[Old Haa Museum, Burravoe]]
Although most of Shetland's Hanseatic trade was conducted from Scalloway, Burravoe was one of the most important of the other Hanseatic centres in the archipelago.
The Rev. Crutwell in the 18th century said of Yell that "the inhabitants have plenty of fuel, catch immense quantities of small fish, and live comfortably."
Modern history
thumb|right|200px|Wreckage from the Catalina crash
Johnnie Notions successfully carried out early smallpox inoculations on Yell in the 18th century, at a time when many other places remained sceptical.
In the 1841 New Statistical Account the minister of Fetlar and North Yell noted that although smuggling had almost entirely disappeared the local population had "fallen into an abominable habit of smoking tobacco". In the same year the minister of Mid and South Yell observed a rise of 50% in the local price of black cattle due to the introduction of a fortnightly steamer service from Lerwick to Leith that had enabled exports of livestock to mainland Scotland. Fishing on Yell received a particularly vicious blow when 53 fishermen were killed in a storm off Gloup in 1881. There is a memorial to them there now. establishing that shingles is the reactivation of previously acquired chickenpox (varicella) virus.
In 1961 a Soviet spy ship sank off Yell; the wreck was found by Lieutenant George Wookey, who had also investigated the wreck that inspired Whisky Galore in the Outer Hebrides. It was an undercover plain clothes mission; Lt. Wookey found the wreck down in clear water.
During the 1960s Yell reached an impasse. It was in 1965 that the Orcadian novelist Eric Linklater said that Yell was "the problem child of the archipelago" due to its economic woes and burgeoning depopulation. Some blamed this on the islanders' "social egalitarianism", which supposedly prevented anyone from becoming a "leader or entrepreneur"; Haswell-Smith disagrees but believes that "airing the matter seems to have helped"
Yell occasionally receives the odd Arctic visitor besides the tern; in 1977, a stray bearded seal was recorded. Normally these creatures only live on the pack ice.
Flora
Yell has many of the usual plants found in northern European moorland, especially heather in abundance,
The gorges in the island, such as the Daal of Lumbister provide an important environment for some of the few trees on the island, since they are untouched by sheep grazing. The crossing takes approximately 20 minutes, and ferries leave around every half-hour at peak times. The Bluemull Sound Ferry sails from Gutcher on Yell to Belmont on Unst and Oddsta on Fetlar. The ferries travel to Unst approximately every half-hour during the day, and to Fetlar a few times every day. The journey to Unst takes ten minutes, while travelling to Fetlar takes 25 minutes.
There are two main roads, the A968 and the B9081. The A968 runs from Ulsta in the southwest of the island to Gutcher in the northeast, linking the ferry to and from Mainland, Shetland, with those going to Unst and Fetlar. Despite being a listed A road, it is single track in some stretches with passing places.
The "world's first community-owned tidal power generator" became operational during April 2014 in Bluemull Sound. The turbine is a 30 kW device by Nova Innovation. North Yell Development Council believed that the project could make a significant contribution to the local economy.
Notable buildings and structures
Built in 1707, the now ruined stone building of Windhouse is claimed as the most haunted house in Shetland. In 1880, when Windhouse was renovated, skeletons were found under the floor of the building. As of February 2015, no restoration has taken place and the property is back on the market.
Windhouse Lodge is the solidly built gatehouse to Windhouse and is run by Shetland Amenity Trust as a camping Böd. This is a well-equipped böd providing accommodation for up to eight people in three bedrooms. Facilities include a hot water heater, shower, crockery, basic cooking utensils, fridge, microwave, kettle, compact cooker with grill, oven and 2 hotplates.
The Old Haa of Brough in Burravoe is a substantial merchant's house built in 1672 now converted to a museum and visitor centre.
At Kirkabister, the remains of a former pony stud can be seen. The enclosure is unusual in appearance, having each of its four corners slightly elevated. There are only a handful of such enclosures in the archipelago. This was not the only trow by any means, and there is another story of a Yell woman coming upon a family of trowes, who later woke up to find one in the house, asking who he was, he said "I am Trippa's son". The woman said a prayer, and the trowe disappeared.
Literature
George MacKay Brown
George Mackay Brown, an Orcadian poet, wrote a poem which has a Yell-man of 1263 as a narrator.
:I am a farmer from Yell in Shetland.
:Bjorn my mother called me.
Bjorn grows up amongst "seals and clouds and birds and women" on the island, but this idyll is contrasted with his father's disappearance, and profession as a Viking pirate covered in scars and "harvesting" silver.
Jim Crumley and Among Islands
Jim Crumley is a Dundonian who bought a semi-ruined cottage on Yell. He has written extensively on Yell in the book Among Islands (1994), which contains subject matter ranging from St Kilda and the Hebrides to Shetland. He says his original interest in islands sprung from seeing Inchcape out in the distance, as a teenager. He worked for over twenty years in various newspapers, usually writing about Scottish wildlife and landscapes; his later work has included a number of books on the Scottish islands, and mountains, often including his own photographs.
Crumley has said, "You could never argue with conviction that Yell is a beautiful place",