Mousa Totally Explained

Everything about Mousa totally explained

Mousa (Old Norse: "Mosey") is a small island in Shetland, uninhabited since the nineteenth century. The island is known for Mousa Broch, an Iron Age round tower and is designated as a Special Protection Area for storm petrel breeding colonies.

Geography

Mousa lies a mile off the east coast of Mainland Shetland about south of Lerwick. Almost divided in two by inlets, East and West Hams, the island is long and almost in maximum width. Geologically beds of hard sandstone alternate with muddy limestones that weather to produce fertile soil. A quarry provided flagstones for Lerwick.
The Norse tended to consider an island to be something that they could circumnavigate, and this included being able to drag a boat over land. Thus Mousa was considered two islands, namely North Isle and South Isle.

History

Mousa Broch is the best preserved Iron Age fortification in the British Isles. The 2000 year old round tower stands above a rocky shoreline, one of a pair of brochs guarding Mousa Sound. The other, at Burraland on the Mainland is far less well preserved. Many brochs were the focus of a settlement, but there has never been a full archaeological investigation to confirm this at Mousa. It was cleared out in 1860 and 1919. Mousa has survived intact to such a height and is thought to never have been much higher than it's today. It escaped stone gathering for nearby stone walls and croft houses (now ruined).
   The entrance passage into Mousa is long, reflecting the enormous thickness of its walls. At its base the broch is 15m in diameter, but the interior is only 6m in diameter. Within the huge thickness of the base of the walls are a range of chambers probably used for storage, while at higher levels passages run between the inner and outer skins of the wall. On the inside a steep flight of steps leads to the top of the wall. Half way up is a landing which probably gave access to an upper level of the interior of the broch, built on a ledge running around the circumference of the interior.
   Mousa holds c.6,800 breeding pairs of European Storm-petrels in total. This represents about 8% of the British population and 2.6% of the world population. The island has been designated a Special Protection Area and is run as a reserve by the RSPB.
   Storm petrels may also be found at the reserve of Haaf Gruney.

Transport

The island is readily accessed using the passenger-only ferry which operates from the Shetland Mainland at Leebitton, Sandwick in summer time.

Footnotes

Further Information

Get more info on 'Mousa'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://mousa.totallyexplained.com">Mousa Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.