Stroma is an island off the north coast of mainland Scotland. It is the southernmost of the islands in the Pentland Firth between the islands of Orkney and Caithness, the most northeastern part of the mainland. Its name is from Old Norse Straumr-ÃÆ'¸y which means "island in tidal stream".
The ancient stone structure testifies to the early presence of the Stroma, while the Norse presence of 900-1000 years ago was recorded at Orkneyinga Saga . It has been politically united with Caithness since at least the 15th century. Although Stroma lies just a few miles off the coast of Scotland, the ferocious weather and the intense waves of Pentland Firth mean that the inhabitants of the island are so isolated, causing them to be highly self-sufficient, trading in agricultural produce and fish with the land.
Most of the island's inhabitants are fishermen and crofters; some also work as maritime pilots to guide ships through the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth. Waves and currents mean that shipwrecks are common - most recently in 1993 - and rescue provides additional though often an illegal addition to islanders' incomes. A lighthouse was built on the Stroma in 1890 and still operates under automation.
Stroma is now abandoned, with the homes of previously unoccupied residents and falling into ruins. The population declined gradually until the first half of the twentieth century as people moved away to look for opportunities elsewhere, because economic and isolation issues Stroma made life on the island less supportable. From the peak of the all-time 375 people in 1901, the population fell to only 12 in 1961 and the last islanders left at the end of the following year. The final abandonment Stroma occurred in 1997 when the lighthouse keeper and their family went. The island is now owned by one of its inhabitants, who use it to shepherd cattle and sheep.
Video Stroma, Scotland
Geografi, geologi, flora dan fauna
Stroma is located in the Pentland Firth about 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of John o 'Groats on the mainland. The island divides the firth into two channels, the Inner Sound to the south and the Outer Sound to the north. Most of the low and flat plains cover an area of ​​approximately 375 hectares (930 hectares) and rise to a height of 53 m (174 feet) at Cairn Hill in the southeast. It is oriented towards the north-south direction, measuring about 2 miles (3.2 km) long by 1 mile (1.6 km) wide.
The island is surrounded by cliffs whose height varies from about 33 m (108 ft) on the west coast to low cliffs with narrow rocky beaches elsewhere. The eastern side of the island is tilted to the east or southeast, with the angle of inclination rising from about 3 degrees in the center of the island to about 30 degrees on the east coast. The island's bedrock consists of a flat layer of ugly old Red Rock, known as the Rousay flag. A six-foot ribbon of finely grained stone is used to be excavated on a small scale for use on land as roofing material. The composition is similar to Mey's bed on land, although in some places in Stroma, this place is replaced by a sandstone and round-bed mass in a nodular matrix, similar to Ackergill Beds in Caithness. Only fragmentary fossil remains are found; this includes specimens of extinct Devonian fish Dipterus and Coccosteus .
The stroma is split by a fault that runs in the north-south direction through its center, intersecting with another fault that runs northeastward in the northern part of the island. Land on both sides of the fault line is very different; the eastern and southern portions of the Stroma are covered by the fertile clay fed by the mineral bedrock, while the less fertile boggy soils dominate on the western side.
The heavy-bound coastline has a circumference of about 7 miles (11 km), interspersed by many geos or inlets created by waves eroding sea cliffs along fault lines. The partially collapsed sea cave called The Gloup is located on the northwest of the island. This feature is a deep rocky hole, filled with sea water. It lies at the intersection of two fault lines and is connected to the sea with the underground section 165Ã, yd (151 m) long, created by erosion along the east-northeast fault. This section is said to have been used for smuggling; Island residents reportedly hid the illegal distribution of HM Customs and Excise by hiding stills and alcohol in a cave in The Gloup, called "Malt Barn", which is accessible only during low tide.
Flora and fauna Stroma is similar to that in the mainland. The island is without trees; Its vegetation consists mainly of grass, heather and small flowers. Seals are numerous along the shore and are sometimes found in the interior during the breeding season. Both the gray seal and the seal port are present, with approximately 650 gray seals being born each year. Beavers can also be present, as in other parts of the land Caithness. The western cliffs are the site of colony terns, guillemot, fulmars and eider ducks. Cliffs are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Northern Caithness Cliffs Special Protection Area. The waters of the Stroma support a number of cetacean species including minke whales, white-dolphin dolphins and dolphin harbors.
Maps Stroma, Scotland
Demographics
Two settlements are in Stroma: Nethertown, north of the island, and Uppertown or Overtown, to the south. They originally belonged to the Freswick estate, owned by Nethertown, and the Mey plantation, which owns Uppertown. Among them is Stroma Mother, the island's main farm. A track crosses the entire island, connecting the lighthouse at the north end with two settlements and a harbor on the south coast.
The island is now uninhabited; the last remaining islanders in 1962 and the last inhabitants, lighthouse island keepers and their families, left in 1997 when the lighthouse was automatic. The population peaked at 375 in 1901 but the census between 1841 and 1961 tells the story of the collapse of the Stroma population during the 20th century:
History
Prehistoric and fixed settlements
Stroma is inhabited in prehistoric times, as shown by the presence of a number of ancient stone structures around the island. A damaged drastic pyramid is located at the northern end of the island near the lighthouse. It has been partially excavated and measures about 16 m (52 ​​ft) with a diameter of 1.8 m (5.9 ft). The islanders of the island's 18th century collected the prehistoric stone arrows they had found on the western side of the island, believed them to be "elf-shots", and assumed they had been made by fairies. They believe that if they have an "elf-shot" they will be given protection for themselves and their cattle from the dangers caused by the fairies.
Structures similar to cists, called residents of the island "Picts' Beds", are also found on the island. Important examples can be seen in the north near Nethertown. They are usually near the middens, where bones and animal shells are eroding. Little seems known about the purpose and origin of this structure. Although the Royal Commission on the Ancient Monument and the History of Scotland linked it to prehistory, they may also have originated from the Norse. A kidney-shaped burning mound located near Geo Castle in the south-east of Stroma can be more confidently thought to be derived from prehistory. It consists of the accumulation of broken and charred stones used to heat water in a communal cooking trough. Although the example on Stroma has not yet been dated, the burning mounds found elsewhere on Orkney and Shetland have been dated to the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.
The remains of earth-and-stone fortress are located on the Bught o 'Camm cape on the west coast of Stroma, near the northern tip of the island, although its origins are unknown. A castle stands 1 m (3 ft 3 in) with an average spread of 6 m (20 ft) enclosing an area of ​​approximately 70 m (230 ft) by 30 m (98 ft) and blocking access to the cape. There is no evidence of structures within the perimeter of the castle. This may have been incorporated from the eastern end of the castle, where a 3 m (9.8 ft) gap exists, but this may have been produced by natural processes.
Medieval
The first recorded history of the island was discovered in the 12th century Orkneyinga Saga . It notes that a man named Valthiof, son of Olaf Rolfson, lives and farms in Stroma. One night at Yule Eve, he set out on a ten-boat boat to Orphir on the Mainland, Orkney at the invitation of Earl of Orkney, Paul Haakonsson. However, the boat was lost with all hands - as Saga said, "sad news because Valthiof is the most capable person". Earl then gave Valthiof farm to Thorkel Flettir. Later, a rowdy Viking named Sweyn Asleifsson fled to Stroma, chased by Earl Harald Haakonsson. The two men were trapped on the island because of bad weather but were persuaded to make peace with a mutual friend named Asmundi, who insisted that Sweyn and Harald should share the same bed.
The Norse is also believed to have built the castle, now called Castle Mestag, at Mell Head in the far west of Stroma. The structure (also known as "The Robber's Castle") is situated on an isolated stone pile about 4.5 meters (15 feet) off the main island cliff. Islanders believe that it was once connected by a suspension bridge or some other type of artificial span, or alternatively it may have been accessible through the crumbling stone arch.
Due to its proximity to the Scottish mainland, Stroma has long been politically united with Caithness. An old story says that island ownership was once disputed between the Earls of Orkney and Caithness. To resolve the dispute, they rely on the legend that venomous animals will thrive in Caithness but die in Orkney. Some venomous snakes are actually imported into Stroma and survive there, "proving" that the island actually belongs to Caithness and not Orkney.
It is better to note clearly that in 1455, Bishop Caithness, William Mudy, gave Stroma and other lands and palaces to his brother Gilbert. Finally fell into the hands of the Sinclair family, which has held the Earl of Caithness title since 1455. In 1659 George Sinclair, Earl of Caithness's 6th, granted Stroma's clod to John Kennedy from Kermuck, who had fled to far north after being banned following a wound fatal John Forbes of Watertown.
115 years later, Reverend George Low noted in his notes on the island's tour that he had seen "the remnants of a large mansion and garden, once owned by a man, the island owner, who was forced to fly into his home for duel, this is for his retreat ". The gardens are said to be equipped with "plants that cure every disease". Now there is nothing left at home, but the garden may be located inside a walled enclosure near the dock of Nethertown.
Life in the Stroma: the 17th and 18th centuries
Life on the island is very remote because it can not be accessed. Until the end of 1894 there was no landing site, which meant that the ship had to land directly on the beach and stop above the water level. Particularly in winter, when a storm rages through Pentland Firth, Stroma can be cut off for weeks at a time. Such episodes pose a serious risk to the islanders, as they have no doctors. The winter of 1937 illustrates weather-induced problems; during January and February of that year, the island was cut off for three weeks by high winds that destroyed houses on the seafront and washed a boat 100 meters (90 m) inland. Isolation Stroma came at a very bad time, as most of the population had contracted influenza and food supplies shrank to the point that some items had to be rationed. Eventually two boats were able to reach the island, carrying supplies and a doctor from Caithness, along with a letter worth three weeks.
Two chapels were erected in Stroma at some point before the seventeenth century; they are known as Kirk of Stara (from the Norse name to the "big church") and Kirk of Old Skoil (from Skali , probably the name given to a farm). Their location is now unknown, but Kirk of Old Skoil may lie at the southeastern end of Stroma where the island's grave is now. They were both unused in the mid-17th century and, having no church of their own, it may not be surprising that the islanders felt by the mainland people somewhat lacking in religious commitment. Investigations by Canisbay Kirk in the seventeenth century scolded them for visiting the "Pope" chapel on the land, desecrating the Day of the Lord, becoming "sellers and drinkers" and playing football and dancing on the Sabbath. The presbytery decided that the inhabitants were spiritually ignored "because of the dangerous road to the place, especially in winter." Canisbay's minister should preach four times a year at Stroma but be rebuked for doing so only twice a year. The islanders were instructed to attend a church in Canisbay and an ordained kirk session in 1654 that they should be given a free path and that every Stroma person in a distant boat should be fined.
The island population numbered several dozen families throughout the 18th century, according to a population of not more than a few hundred men; it was listed as the numbering of 30 families in 1710, 47 years 1724, 40 years 1735 and 30 years 1760. They rented their land from two branches of the Sinclair family, Sinclair of Mey who owned Uppertown and Sinclair of Freswick who owned Nethertown. The latter acquired Nethertown in 1721 and ultimately controlled Uppertown also by acquiring wadsets from Kennedys, reported through fraud. According to one eyewitness account of the transaction, laird, Sinclair of Freswick, obtained "approval" from the Kennedy holder who died from a clot by placing a quill in the hands of the dead and transferring it to make his body write his name in the document. Other witnesses committed suicide, probably out of guilt. The island was quite profitable for Sinclair; in 1724 the islanders paid an annual rent of 1,300 mark (equivalent to about Ã, Â £ 125 at 2011 prices), partially paid by the wheat transported by Stroma ships to Sinclair's barn in Staxigoe near Wick. They are self-sufficient in dairy products and are known for their cheese-making qualities; Daniel Defoe thinks Stroma cheese is very good.
the 19th and 20th centuries
At the beginning of the 19th century, about 30 families of 170 people lived in Stroma, agricultural land allocated to traditional rig run systems. The island is said to be "highly productive in corn", although its inhabitants do not use plows; on the contrary, they dug a high bed or ridge, resulting in greater yield than hijacked. George Low wrote in his 1774 report of the island that "the ground is nice, black and deep, thrown into a high ridge by a shovel, in a word all the parts cultivated on the island dress like gardens and produce much larger plants. on the hijacked land. "The agricultural life on this island follows a fairly typical crofting pattern, with an average Stroma croft of about 10 hectares (4.0 ha). Families usually keep some cows, sheep and chickens, along with a horse and a pig. They grow crops such as wheat, potatoes, straw and radish, take water from wells and use horses to meet their transportation needs. As well as agricultural exports, they also export tile stones from the island and imported peat to burn as fuel; they underestimated the practice in some Orkney Islands using cow dung as fuel, referring to the Sanday island in the north as the "small island where koos feces fire". Low observed the island's climatic influence on the population: "The people who were valiantly shovel the hard shovels as said before, the young women look pretty good, but as they progress at a very hard growing age favored, obtaining a strange abomination in their countenances contrary to what observed from women in Orkney. "
Islanders also support themselves through fishing, exploiting high-quality catches to be made around the island's coasts. James Traill Calder wrote in his 1861 Sketch of the Historical Civil and Traditional History of Caithness that "The best cod cod in the north will be found at Pentland Firth... Lobsters are great and very well caught around the island [Stroma]. "As well as trapping lobsters, islanders practiced cod fishing in the waters of Firth. It involves a long line drawer with heavy loads and a metal rod or sprool at one end, from which depending on the short length of hemp and hook baited with limpet. To encourage fish to bite, boats must be held by their rowers, who require great skill in the unexpected flows of Firth. The island is famous for its original boat type, Stroma yole, which is a direct descendant of the old Norse carrier.
Many male islanders exploit their knowledge of Firth currents to hire themselves to send ships as maritime pilots. Their expertise is the result of a lifetime experience in the waters of Firth; as they say, they have been "drowned in salt water from their childhood upward". Indeed, the whole island was soaking wet by salt water thrown by the waves and strong storms it was targeting, especially in winter. The Statistics Account of Scotland notes that during a sea-level storm on the western part of the island more than two fathoms [12 feet (3.7 m)] higher than on the east side, and that the spray was cast so high so that it drifts over the cliff tops "and falls in the abundance as it runs on the ril to the opposite bank". The islanders take advantage of this phenomenon by catching water in the reservoir to light a water mill that grinds their grain in the winter. It is now not known exactly where the factory was or what happened to it. Although described in the Account Statistics , written in the 1790s, and Robert Miller enrolled in the 1851 census as his craze, in 1861 he had moved to a five hectare croft farm and no further mention was made of a factory in contemporary accounts.
Storms of violent storm occasionally destructed the island. In December 1862, a massive storm broke through the island with such force that it swept right at the northern end of the Stroma, leaving behind the ruins, rocks and seaweed on the cliff tops of 100 feet and destroying the channel leading to the waterwheel.. However, the destructive power of the sea has one positive benefit for the islanders, if not for those caught by the flows and shoals of the Pentland Firth. Over the past two hundred years, more than sixty ships ranging from fishing vessels to large cargo ships have been damaged on Stroma beach, with more ships coming to grief on coral reefs and shoals on the mainland and Orkney coast. Many ships - at least 560 between 1830 and 1990 - had to be reprocessed at Pentland Firth after difficulty. Shipwrecks are a source of income, timber and valuables for the islanders, who will save freely - and often with little attention to legality - whenever the abandoned ship is abandoned. The construction of Stroma's first lighthouse in the late 19th century was initially opposed by some islanders who were more concerned with the benefits of shipwrecks than preventing them.
The wreck continued, though, with one of the most beneficial of all was the 1931 crash of a 6,000-ton Danish warship in Pennsylvania, the neighboring island of Swona. The ship was looted by residents of Stroma, Swona, and South Ronaldsay. Most of the loads of slot machines, spark plugs, clothing, tobacco, watches and car components are looted and hidden in haystacks, oatfields, lakes, and caves. David Stogdon, a lifeboat, remembers seeing what the islanders do with their illegal rescue: "Every house is full of junk... clocks, telescopes, binnacles... Looks like I remember a very large dining table in small And then of course from time to time they will have cargo parts from the lorry or something like that that can be put together to build a truck and taken ashore on two or three fishing boats in quiet weather They will land quietly somewhere, drive it and sell it. "Customs, police, coast guard and ship dwellers are generally not welcome - the island has no police force - and the islanders let him understand that unfavorable things can happen to boats that visitors do not want: "Police ships may disappear, develop unexpected leaks or spontaneously burn." The area is still present danger to passing ships; in January 1993, the Danish coaster Bettina Danica ran aground from the southern end of the Stroma. The wreck was destroyed by the action of the sea in 1997 and only the stern is still visible.
Another way the islanders do to support themselves is through illegal brewing as a way to increase their income - a common practice among older people. An inspector who visited the island school in 1824 described the residents of Stroma as "all confessed smugglers". The suppression of smuggling by the authorities led to a significant decline in the island population of the first half of the 19th century. The 1841 Census noted: "Now the smuggling is completely suppressed, some families have left the island and moved to Orkney to follow more legitimate activities." Although smuggling may have been overcome, illegal distribution has continued for many years. A former resident, Ny. David Gunn, recalled in 1971 how his great-grandmother managed to avoid "excisemen" (customs officials) confiscated illegally sucked alcohol:
My great-grandmother, a woman Kirsty Banks, Stroma - she should be very smart, but faith! He swung all his intelligence to kill him. They used to be a little bit? Distillin at the time, on their own accord, and by the time they were ready, the fan they were wearing 'in' the excisemen was over. No, he has slammed a dead baby prematurely, not long before, on a 'kent excentment'. And they have no time to hide 'e malts. So, she strips her bed in the kitchen, and puts it on the bed, and he daydreams 'on the fan' e excisemen coming in. And he telt them 'in he'll hide a dead baby before his time is not long, and he feels very weak, but he wants him in the kitchen, guides them and says they're fat. And 'those callers are right, they will not open it. So they are looking for 'rest? the hoose, but they do not touch the bed, and they come out with it.
Despite their physical isolation, islanders maintain a lively community. A school was founded in 1723 by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SPCK), with sixty children in its early presence. The demands of island life conflicted to some extent with school people. The SPCK inspector found only eighteen of the seventy students were present when he visited in 1824. He found that many of the children were fully busy helping their families in the summer and only attending school in the winter. Two places of worship were built within a few years of each other, a Baptist chapel in 1877 and a Church of Scotland church in 1878 (at a cost of Ã, £ 900). Although they soon became a major element of public life, there appeared to be some dispute between the two congregations, probably because of a clash between the local Baptist missionary spirit and Presbyterian Kirk's Calvinism.
The residents of Stroma are very independent, and many trade in additions such as carpentry or roofing beside their "daily work" in fishing or crofting. They built their own homes and boats, produced most of their own food, kept farm equipment, pinned their own horses, and made their own clothes, shoes, and shoes. In the 1920s they built their own wind turbines to recharge their radio batteries. At the end of the 19th century the island has three shops including a grocery store. Each additional requirement is met by purchasing supplies from stores on Wick and Thurso on land or via mail-order from catalogs. For the time being, they can also use the services of the floating stores that come regularly from Orkney to Stroma. Customers row to buy groceries, flour, animal feed, paraffin and clothing in lobster, wet salted fish, and eggs.
Most of the houses in Stroma are one-story buildings with two main rooms ("butt" and "ben") plus cabinets (small bedroom) and porch. The rooms are small and simply furnished, fitted with hidden box beds. It consists of a series of wooden planks with a layer of straw on top, where placed mattresses containing chaff. The butt is used as a living room and includes an iron stove with oven, and sometimes a water tank to allow hot water to be generated, while ben is used for visitors and as a sitting room.
A former islander, James Simpson, recalled that "we had about two hundred and fifty people here when I was a child, it never looked like a lonely place.. There were always people coming in and out of their homes, there were forty children in school and there are two teachers.We hold concerts: three concerts in winter when you have to sing loudly to overcome the sound of the wind.The young people will meet in the shop on a long and long night in summer. "The island has several Typical eccentric character: Donald Banks, the island's coffin maker, is known for quarreling with his neighbors (telling one family, "I will not bury anymore 'ye!") And combine the poem with the making of the coffin, as in the order he places it with mainland suppliers:
Dear Tuan Sutherland,
Are you going very well,
To send eight wooden board coffins Half an inch, (Mr Sutherland,)
For those who are missing...
Describing life on the Stroma, Simpson comments:
There will be about fifty houses or crofts, small croft, but they are reckoned better than fishermen in, say, Wick or Keiss. They set the croft down before they go herring fishing - herring is a big industry in the day. When people go to herring fishing, they have a hijacked croft; the ladies feed the sheep and cattle and milk the cows, and when they come home from fishing, they babble for winter food and then they cut their crops. When the herring was over, it was harvest time - it was seasonal catching, and it was perfect for Stroma men perfectly because their wives attended the restroom. You could say the women at Stroma were released long before the lib lady. They have men's jobs to do - cow's milk, butter; they are very diligent women. And then when the husband comes home, they'll have a fat pig to kill - it's your winter flesh, it's all salty.
Reject and leave
The Stroma population dropped dramatically during the first half of the 20th century, leading eventually to the island's final abandonment in the late 1950s. There is no cause for the collapse of the Stroma population. Living conditions on the island are always basic; no flow of water or electricity, and new gas arrived in the 1950s, which contrasted sharply with improvements made on land. Fishing deteriorated after the First World War, and crofting became an increasingly difficult way to earn a living. The island is relatively overpopulated; in 1901 the population almost doubled from the previous sixty years, and there was little reserve left for agriculture. Families with six to eight children are common, but there is not enough work for all, so the oldest often go to the mainland or emigrate to Canada or the United States to find work. The lack of a viable port means that islanders can not use larger boats or develop modern fisheries. Young people start moving to find opportunities to pay better elsewhere, eventually followed by their parents.
Both World Wars had a huge impact on Stroma, which is only a dozen miles from the Royal Navy's major base on the Scapa Flow in Orkney. Six islanders killed in each World War; the names of all the twelve written on the island's war memorials, and during the Second World War a quarter of the population was in war services. Adding to the island's economic problems, the introduction of the 11-plus exam in 1944 meant that all children over the age of 12 had to leave Stroma to finish their education at Wick high school. Since they can not travel back and forth between the island and Wick, they have to go to school as dormitories, which incur additional expenses for their parents.
Two other factors have been frequently cited in the Stroma depopulation: the construction of the nearby Dounreay nuclear power plant in the 1950s, which created many new jobs on the mainland, and in the same decade the construction of the port at Stroma where many islanders were employed. Although it has been claimed that this gave the islanders an incentive (and means) to go, local historian Donald A. Young pointed out that the islanders who went after 1945, only one directly from the Stroma to Dounreay. Most of the rest continue fishing or crofting on land, while others find alternative jobs. Some of the island's former residents have finally found work in Dounreay, but they have moved to the mainland for work or education.
The Sinclair of Mey sold their portion of the island to Colonel F.Ã, B. Imbert-Terry in 1929, who sold it to John Hoyland, an umbrella manufacturer from Yorkshire, in 1947. Hoyland also acquired the remaining island of Sinclairs of Freswick , unites Stroma with reported costs Ã, Â £ 4,000. His tenure coincided with the final collapse of the island's population. When the tenants leave, Hoyland puts Stroma in the market but does not find a buyer. A Caithness board member suggested various schemes for Stroma, including establishing a nudist colony and using it as a site for crematoriums, but the council rejected suggestions that they should be held accountable for the island. When the population left, the local economy was destroyed; no more able-bodied men were able to tread fishing vessels, and the remaining facilities on the island were closed due to lack of customs. The island's last store, the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society store, closed in 1956. Only three families, of which 16 were left, in 1957; That year, the island school was closed, at that time there were only two students. The Post Office was closed in 1958 when the family that operated it went to the mainland.
In the summer of 1958, Hoyland encouraged controversy by offering the island to an American TV quiz show Bid 'n' Buy as a gift. After protests on both sides of the Atlantic, the show's producers decided to offer the car instead. In December 1960, he sold Stroma to James Simpson, an islander whose family moved to a farm on land near Mey Castle in 1943. Simpson initially did not intend to buy the island but happened to discuss it with a lawyer: "I said, 'I know Stroma was sold last week, and it is not for sale this week.Is it on the market? ' "Yes," he said, "Stroma will be sold." I said, "What kind of money?" So he told me what kind of money, and there and then, the lawyer wrote that I, James Simpson, offered to buy Stroma Island on the numbers and I signed my name in the end. "His wife was not interested in the purchase:" Lena nearly blew me away for being so stupid, she said, 'Stroma? What are you going to do with an island?' " He succeeds in his efforts and uses the island to graze his animals, recharging with about 200 sheep and 30 cattle.
By this time, the five-member Manson family had been the last original inhabitant of Stroma, "Now living in a silent community of empty houses, an empty church and empty school." Although the head of the family, Andrew Manson, called the island a "summer paradise" and the place where he was "free from outside disturbances and watched my sons grow from childhood to maturity-teaching them to live like men, "It's a grim life for women, who have applied for a council house in Scrabster, near Thurso. The Mansons finally left Stroma on December 6, 1962, ending thousands of years of permanent residence on the island.
Island ruins
Stroma is now completely abandoned by humans; the only permanent residents are seals, birds and sheep that live on the island. Church houses, schools, and old houses were built in slums, with many falling into ruin. Author Bella Bathurst, visiting the island in early 2010, described the scene:
The houses along the main road down the backs of the island seem to have decayed at different levels. Those who somehow, who somehow managed to keep their glazes and roof boards, were in much better shape than others. In some, the furniture is still styled as if it had just been abandoned: iron beds with mattresses, tables, chairs, cabinets full of shoes and bottles, all arranged with the same care and compaction as on a boat. But most crofts have lost the war with the weather. As soon as the tiles are gone, the moist begins to shift to the mortar; within a few years all that was left was a few ribs and a hard saddle tip.
In some houses, Bathurst wrote, everyday objects still remain where they were abandoned decades ago; "The squared bed and ceiling are still intact, untouched even by the damp.The kitchen table still stands in the living room and a framed photograph and fades out from the fireplace." In another house seen 20 years earlier by Leslie Thomas, "is the rank of family photographs, the colors in Victorian dresses that are staring forever into a now silent and hollow space, but who once had a warm family life."
Elsewhere, the books remain "dusty but tidy" in abandoned schools, and the church still contains a pulpit, "stupid and hung with ragged red tassles" with prayer books "left to be trampled by pagan sheep and bitten by rabbits and rats. "In the former post office, license forms and apps and a bottle of dried ink still stood on the table, while in the back room stood" a nice closet, above it [standing] teapots and jugs and some sheet music: 'Red Screen on Sunset ',' The General's Fast Asleep 'and' You Can not Do That There 'Ere.' No one at Stroma will sing the songs now. "
Bathurst and Thomas express a contrasting view of the significance of Stroma's neglect. Thomas thought of it as a tragedy: "Of all the off-road places I've known, this is the saddest thing, it seems that his life has ended in piety." However, for Bathurst, "it is tempting to see Stroma abandonment as a result of terrible trauma.. Neglect is always regarded as a sign of failure, collective death... But Stroma does not feel sad, it is true that there is sadness in seeing the painstaking vegetable patch that changes weeds, or wonder how many winter box beds will stand before they start to rot.But that's not the whole story.What's interesting about Stroma is not the fact of its neglect, but the story of his past. "
Communications
Stroma did not have a regular connection to the mainland until 1879, when the Post Office subsidized the weekly boat service of Huna on land and established a post office on the island. However, the volume of letters from the Stroma proved so small that the service was so uneconomical. In the 1950s, the Post Office spent 1 second. 2d. for each letter worth 2 ½d. in postage.
For years, the inhabitants of the island had no means of contacting the land in an emergency other than beckoning with hand lights and hoping someone would see it. The radio phone was installed in 1935, and in 1953 a telephone cord was laid. A red phone box is installed in the center of the island, a symbol of the installation of six million telephone boxes in the UK. Still there today, though no longer used.
New in 1894 Stroma earned its first artificial landing point, a pier constructed from Portland cement near Nethertown at a cost of £ 800. In 1955, the Caithness County Council built a new port on the island's south coast at a cost of £ 28,500. Although it was meant to help stop the exodus of the people of the island, Stroma was abandoned only a few years after the completion of the platoon.
In the late 1930s, Highland Airways saw the possibility of including Stroma in the service of a hospital ambulance plane that was then in operation. On August 19, 1937, Captain Fresson of Highland Airways landed a small plane on a farm side by side with Stroma Mother, and the following spring the islanders cleared the moorlands on the western side of the island to create an airstrip. The first official flight landed in June 1938. However, the Second World War prevented further developments and regular services were not established. After the war, Highland Airways was taken over by British European Airways, which left no interest in serving the island.
Today, Stroma does not have regular communications with the mainland. The island's owners sometimes take a boat trip there on weekends.
Important building
Lighthouse
In 1890, a lighthouse was built at the northern end of Stroma, Langaton Point. It was only operational for six years before being replaced, and very little is now known about the structure. The unmanned lighthouse initially puts the Trotter-Lindberg lamp that burns the spirit of petroleum or lythene. The fuel supply is stored in a tank near the lantern, which is regularly replenished at least two weeks by local fishermen or crofters. It was one of the first lighthouses in Scotland to use this "brilliant" type of light.
It was replaced in 1896, probably on the same site, by a new lighthouse built for design by David Stevenson as part of a major construction work program around northern Scotland. The fog warning system was installed the following year. Stevenson Lighthouse consists of a circular white stone tower that stands 23 meters (75 feet) tall at 32 meters (105 feet) above High Water Means with nearby buildings for home generators and lighthouse keepers. Light is converted into paraffin lamps when the previous lythene lamps are found to be unsuitable. An oil store was installed in the lighthouse tower, ending the need for separate buildings to accommodate fuel. The lighthouse was subjected to a machine-gun attack by a German airliner on February 22, 1941. It caused little damage and no injuries, and the guards were soon able to make improvements.
Until 1961 the lighthouse was managed as a beach station, and then (after the residents of the Stroma residents had gone) as a stone station. An electric lamp with a maximum power of 1.1 million cp was installed in 1972, utilizing a sealed optical block mounted on a toothless toy pedestal. At this time the guards and their families are the only people living in Stroma. A helicopter landing was installed to allow supplies and personnel to be flown. In 1997 the station was converted into automatic operation, utilizing a 250 watt metal halide lamp that spun on the pedestal of the gear. The lens system of the Sule Skerry lighthouse was reassembled at the Stroma lighthouse. Old air-driven fog horns have been removed and replaced with an electric fog signal mounted on the lighthouse's balcony. The power of the lighthouse station, previously obtained from the generator, is now supplied by a battery that is charged periodically. The current lamp blinks white every 20 seconds and can be seen from a nominal distance of 26 nautical miles (48 km, 30 mi).
Kennedy Mausoleum and Stroma mummy
One of the interesting side effects of continuous seawater spray on the Stroma - apart from making brackish water and giving a constant salt air - is that it makes the bodies of the people on the island mummified. They were placed in a mausoleum in the southeast corner of the Stroma, built by the Kennedy family in 1677. The building still stands, though it is now not grassy; It consists of a two-story structure that combines funeral space and doocot. The building is constructed of gray tile stones and quartz pink sandstone, measuring 25Ã, ft (7.6 m) with 18Ã, 5 ft in (5.61 m) externally and stands 22 × 6 ft (6, 7 m) high. The threshold has the inscription "I.K." (John Kennedy) and dated 1677 carved into it.
The Stroma mummies were something of a tourist attraction in the 18th century; naturalist and Welsh traveler Thomas Pennant described the mummy as "a whole and undamaged body that has died sixty years, I was told that they are very light, have a flex in the legs and are blackish." However, their popularity proves its destruction. In 1762, Bishop Ross and Caithness, Robert Forbes, noted in his journal that Murdoch Kennedy
... playing such miserable tricks on the Body of His Father, for the Foreign Diver, as the time was broken into pieces, and the Head was the fallen part first. He used to place a Foreigner in his Father's Foot, and by setting foot on one of his Father, he made the Body appear quickly and respected them, which greatly surprised them. Then, after laying his body again, he hit the march towards Belly, who sounded as loud as a Drum.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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