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South Walls is an inhabited island adjacent to Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. The name is a corruption of "Sooth Was", which means the "southern voes" - as with Kirkwall, it was assumed that it was a mispronunciation of "walls". South Walls forms the southern side of the harbour of Longhope. It was a tidal island until a narrow causeway, was constructed over the sandbank, which was known as the Ayre, although this name has become transferred to the causeway itself.〔 Although sometimes considered to be a peninsula, it is an island in all but name. South Walls is a popular stopping off place for Barnacle Geese. ==Geography and geology== The island, like most of the Orkney archipelago, is made up of old red sandstone with the Rousay Flagstone Group predominating.〔Brown, John Flett "Geology and Landscape" in Omand (2003) p.4.〕 The island is more or less oval in shape, but there is a small promontory, called Cantick Head in the south east, which is created by Kirk Hope (Church Bay). It is separated from Hoy by an arm of the sea, also called Longhope. The area to the south of the causeway is known as Aith Hope. The fact that neither the 2001 or 2011 censuses mention South Walls in their lists of inhabited islands suggests that there is some dubiety about its status as an island. (In 2001 the General Register Office for Scotland defined an island as "a mass of land surrounded by water, separate from the Scottish mainland" and although the inclusion of islands linked man-made constructions is not clear from this definition in practice they list several separately that are joined to one another by bridges and causeways). The evidence for its island status includes: * mentioned in Livingstone's comprehensive Scottish island tables;〔 * the Vision of Britain map of 1856 clearly shows a drying gap between the islands of Hoy and South Walls prior to the construction of the causeway across the Ayre;〔("Scotland First Series" ) Vision of Britain. Retrieved 21 September 2013.〕 * In Jo Ben's 1529 "Descriptions of Orkney", ''Wais'' appears in a list of islands but the wording states: "the island is not large. There is no distinction between Hoy and Wais, but it is one island from the firth receding". This last phrase could be interpreted to mean "at low tide";〔("Wais" ). Orkneyar. Retrieved 21 September 2013.〕 * Irvine's reprint of ''Blaeu's Atlas Novus of 1654'' contains various descriptions of Orkney including:- * * "the island of Walls, (commonly ''Waes'');〔 Johan Blaeu's commentary in Irvine (2006) p. 17〕 * * "among them Hoy Walls, whether this is two islands, or one: because about the season of equal day, when the tides goes out, they are joined with waves and sand at a narrow neck as one island; when the tide comes in and the sea is again interposed, the appearance of two lands surrounded by water is produced."〔A. Melville from ''Scotia Topgraphia'' of 1603 in Irvine (2006) p. 63〕 Although it is clear that the island is inhabited as it was not listed as such by the census〔〔 no reliable estimate of the current total is available. Presumably the presence of the causeway linking South Walls to Hoy has resulted in the population of the former being included with the latter for statistical purposes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「South Walls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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