Hoy shown within Orkney Islands

Hoy (from Old Norse há-øy meaning high island) is one of the Orkney Islands. Adaption of Orkney. ... Adaption of Orkney. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... The Orkney Islands are one of 32 unitary council regions in Scotland, and form a traditional county and Lieutenancy area. ...

The dramatic coastline of Hoy is what usually greets visitors to the Orkney Islands. It has extremes of many kinds: some of the highest cliffs in Britain at St John's Head; the impressive and famous sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy; some of the most northerly natural woodland in Britain; the remote possiblity that Arctic Char survive in Heldale Water and the most northerly Martello Towers, which were built to defend the area during the Napoleonic War, but were never used in combat. The Old Man of Hoy is a 460 foot stack of red sandstone perched on a plinth of igneous basalt, close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. ... Binomial name Salvelinus alpinus Linnaeus, 1758 Arctic char or Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) is a freshwater fish in the salmon family, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic and alpine lakes and coastal waters. ... Martello towers are small defensive forts built by the British Empire at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. ... The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1804 until 1815. ...

The main naval base for Scapa Flow in both the First and Second World Wars was situated at Lyness in the south-east of the island. Some rather incongruous art deco structures nearby date from this period. Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that...

An unusual rock-cut tomb, The Dwarfie Stane, lies in a valley at the west of the island. It is unique in northern Europe, bearing similarity to Neolithic or Bronze Age tombs around the Mediterranean. World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ...

In Norse mythology, Hoy is the location of the never-ending battle between Hedin and Högni. Norse or Scandinavian mythology refers to the pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian people, including those who settled on Iceland, where the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled. ... Hedin and Högni is a Scandinavian legend from Norse mythology about a never-ending battle which is documented in Sörla þáttr, Ragnarsdrápa, Gesta Danorum and in Skáldskaparmál. ...

External links

• Old Man of Hoy picture gallery