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Deerness

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Deerness

Deerness (Old Norse: Dyrnes) is a quoad sacra parish (i.e. one created and functioning for ecclesiastical purposes only) and peninsula in Mainland, Orkney. It is about 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi) south east of Kirkwall. Deerness forms a part of the civil parish of St. Andrews and Deerness.

It consists chiefly of the peninsula, but also takes in its surrounding islets of Copinsay, the Horse of Copinsay and Corn Holm. The Brough of Deerness is the site of an early Christian monastery near the north eastern tip of the peninsula. The Gloup is a sea-cave approximately 40 metres (44 yd) long and 25 metres (82 ft) deep just south of the Brough.

Edwin Muir was born in Deerness in 1887.

The Covenanter's Memorial at Deerness, commemorating the loss in a shipwreck of 200 Covenanters en-route to the New World of America (as a punishment), was largely paid for by Robert Halliday Gunning.

References

Deerness Wikipedia