History
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Entrance to Vinquoy chambered cairn
Prehistory[edit]
The very limited archaeological record provides scant evidence of Mesolithic life in Orkney, but the later assemblage of houses and monumental Neolithic structures in the archipelago is without parallel in the United Kingdom.
Vinquoy chambered cairn, located in a commanding position overlooking the Calf Sound, is 17 metres (56 ft) in diameter and 2.5 m (8 ft) high. The narrow entrance passage of this Maeshowe-type tomb leads to a central chamber with four side-cells. Other sites of interest on Eday include the Stone of Setter standing stone that dominates the col north of Mill Loch, and which at 4.5 m (15 ft) high is one of the tallest monoliths in Orkney. There are two more chambered cairns at Braeside and Huntersquoy and another on the Calf of Eday. Rectangular in shape, it was excavated in 1936–37 and contains a small chamber with two compartments and a larger one with four stalls that has a separate entrance and was probably added at a later date.
The lichen-covered Stone of Setter, which is said to resemble a giant hand.
Although there are several Bronze Age sites on the island, they provide less dramatic remains. At Warness in the south west there is a burnt mound from this period and there are the ruins of two houses of a similar age on Holm of Faray near the Point of Dogs Bones. The Fold of Setter is an 85-metre-diameter (279 ft) Bronze Age enclosure located to the north of Mill Loch. There is the site of a large Iron Age roundhouse containing a saddle quern at Linkataing in north west Eday. Latterly, Orkney was settled by the Picts although the archaeological evidence is sparse.
Norse colonisation[edit]
It is not known "when and how the Vikings conquered and occupied the Isles", and although Norse contacts with Scotland certainly predate the first written records in the 8th century, their nature and frequency are unknown. The place name evidence of a Norse presence on Eday is conclusive and very little is known about the specifics of life on the island at this time. The Norse-era ruins of the Castle of Stackel Brae, which dates from the 12th or 13th century, lie under a green mound to the east of the Bay of Greentoft. The castle may have been the most important building on Eday at this time.
Scottish rule[edit]
In 1468 Orkney became part of the Kingdom of Scotland and an influx of Scottish entrepreneurs helped to create a diverse and independent community that included farmers, fishermen and merchants that called themselves comunitatis Orcadie and who proved themselves increasingly able to defend their rights against their feudal overlords. Nonetheless, the actions of the aristocracy continue to provide much of the information known about affairs on Eday at the time. In 1561, during the Reformation, Edward Sinclair was granted the feu of Eday by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney. These were turbulent times—Sinclair's duties included to defend the reforming Bishop "against whatsoever invaders"—and later that year he was one of the ringleaders of an anti-Catholic riot in Kirkwall.
Carrick House, Calfsound, with Carrick Loch beyond and Sanday in the distance
His son William took over the running of the Eday estate in due course, but it became burdened with debt. In 1601 when Edward was "an auld decrepit man ... aged 100 or thereby" William attempted to sell the family interest to George Sinclair the Earl of Caithness. The new proprietor sent half a dozen boatloads of "vagabondis, broken Highland men of Caithness" to Eday, much to the alarm of the notorious Earl Patrick of Orkney. Earl Patrick was able to use the poor relationship between the elderly father Edward and his son, (the former claiming William fired muskets at him and grabbed him by the neck like a dog) to take action. Acting, so he alleged, on behalf of Edward, Earl Patrick evicted William, took the Eday the rents for himself and profited from the extraction of building stone from Towback quarry.
John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, the brother of Earl Patrick, was granted Eday in 1632 and he constructed Carrick House at Calfsound shortly thereafter. He used peat to manufacture salt from salt pans at both Carrick and on the Calf of Eday. The product was described as "quite fine" in the 17th century when it was undertaken on a substantial scale although of "indifferent quality" in the early 19th century when it was being conducted as a cottage industry. Peat extraction was also an important industry in the past as Sanday and North Ronaldsay obtained most of their fuel from Eday and this material was also exported to whisky distilleries on mainland Scotland.
Stewart's ambitions for Calfsound were considerable. Described as the "town and port" of Carrick it became a burgh (the only other one in Orkney being Kirkwall) with the right to appoint baillies and hold markets but it was never likely to flourish in such a location.
British era[edit]
Abandoned stone-breaking equipment at Southside
From the first decade of the 18th century Orkney became part of the new Kingdom of Great Britain. This was a time of great interest in agricultural improvement although the changes this brought about were not of significance in Orkney until the mid-nineteenth century. For example, no potatoes were grown on Eday until around 1780. By comparison to these gradual changes, Carrick House saw drama in 1725. The property was now owned by James Fea who had been a school friend of a "Mr Smith", a trader of Stromness. When Smith was unmasked as the notorious pirate John Gow he sought to escape the attentions of the authorities by making for Eday via a raid on Hall of Clestrain, in Orphir. When Gow's ship Revenge ran aground on the Calf of Eday, Fea's men took him prisoner and held him at Carrick House, for which Fea was given a £1,700 reward. The bell from the Revenge is still in Carrick House.
In the early nineteenth century the kelp industry provided significant employment on some of the Orkney islands, but when the market collapsed between 1830 and 1832 it caused considerable hardship. North Ronaldsay was especially hard-hit and several families were allowed to resettle from there to develop land at Westside on Eday. Rising populations meant increasing land values, especially for small tenancies. In 1843 crofts were valued at £1 per acre (£2+1⁄2 per hectare) on Eday, nearly three times the price for larger farms. However, the 20th century saw decline. Immigration even from mainland Scotland was essentially unknown even in the late 1950s and the population in 2001 was about an eighth of the total 160 years earlier. In the census of 2011, it was found that 50% of the residents of the island were born in England, the most of all Scotland's islands.
‹ The template below (Demography) is being considered for merging with Infobox demographics. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›
Historical population of EdayYear1841188118911931196119811991200120112022Population944730647430198147166121160102
