IT is Britain’s remotest permanently inhabited island with a population of just over 30 people and has been labelled the land at the end of the world.
But now Foula has joined the rest of the UK by becoming the last part of the country to get an individual map by the Ordnance Survey.
Since the service was launched five years ago, around 111.5 million sq km of “Custom Made” maps have been ordered and printed through OS’s online service. But after detailed analysis it was discovered that while almost every inch of Great Britain has featured on a custom-made map at some stage, Foula, has not, until now.
Now Ordnance Survey has presented every resident with the first Custom Made map of the island. Sheila Gear, Foula’s Post Office manager who is distributing the maps to residents, says: “It was a pleasant surprise to receive the maps from OS, and to now be part of OS’s story. I’m a big fan of OS and its maps, and 20 years ago I actually even helped the OS surveyors map the island when they visited. Foula has a strong community, and it has many beautiful areas and an abundance of wildlife. I recommend a visit!”
According to the new map, Foula has 33 caves, five natural arches, six named lochs, 27km of waterways, 5.8 sq km of open water , 86 buildings and no woods.
Foula was the location for the film 1937 The Edge of the World, about the evcauation of St Kilda. It still adheres to an ancient calendar for the festivity and marks Christmas and New Year according to the feast days of the old Julian calendar, with Yule on January 6 and Ne’erday on 13.
The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. It was was made because the Gregorian had a 0.002 per cent correction on the length of the year.
But while the rest of Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Foula stuck with the old Julian one Its inhabitants were the last to speak Norn, a form of old Norse which died out around 1800.
The island is three and a half miles long by two and a half miles wide. At one point, Foula sustained 287 people.
It lies 15 miles west of mainland Shetland and 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, on the same latitude as southern Greenland.
The island got running water in 1982 and full electricity by 1984, supplied by a diesel generator. Ordnance Survey consumer product manager, Paul McGonigal, says: “To think our customers have collectively covered almost every bit of Great Britain is fantastic. “There are other equally remote areas of Great Britain that have been covered, so we’re at a bit of a loss to explain why Foula is the exception. I don’t know much about the area, only that I’ve read it has been designated as a special protection area for birds.”
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