Harray
Parish on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland
Harray (pronounced /ˈhæri/) (Old Norse: Herað; Norn: Herrað) is an Orcadian parish and village on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland, United Kingdom. The village is near the Loch of Harray and was used by the Vikings for waterway transportation and Old Norse was spoken in the area up until the 1700s. The flat and swampy area is near multiple Neolithic sites and a burial mound, Knowes of Trotty, is in the area.
01Geography
Harray is mostly flat and swampy, and has many mounds or 'howes' (from the Old Norse word Haugr meaning mound or hill). Harray is located three miles to the north of the village of Finstown and is to the east of the Loch of Harray.
02History
Knowes of Trotty, a burial mound from the Bronze Age, was discovered in the area in 1858. The Neolithic sites of the Ring of Brodgar and Standing Stones of Stenness are located nearby.
Harray was used by the Vikings for waterway transportation. Old Norse was reportedly still being spoken in Harray by the early 1700s.
03Economy
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was a significant employer in Harray and the rest of the Orkney Islands in the 18th and 19th centuries. 16 people worked for the HBC in 1788, 34 in 1800, 35 in 1812, and 25 in 1818. As a result of their employment with the HBC, some men from Harray married and had children with women from the First Nations in Canada. John Spence returned to Harray with his three mixed-race children in the mid-19th century after being widowed.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Harray”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Harraystores.jpg by See above., CC BY-SA 2.0
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