Mousa

   MOUSA, an island, forming part of the late quoad sacra parish of Sandwick and Cunningsburgh, in the parish of Dunrossness, county of Shetland; containing 12 inhabitants. This island lies close to the east coast of the mainland, and at the entrance of Aith's Voe; it is also called Queen's Isle, and is about a mile in length and three-quarters of a mile in breadth. The village of Cunningsburgh is distant from it, north-westward, about two miles. In this island is a most perfect specimen of an ancient Scandinavian fortress, or, as some call it, Pictish castle: it is nearly entire, and in shape resembles a dice-box; its height is about forty-two feet, and over the walls, its diameter fifty feet; the walls are about ten feet in thickness, and hollow in the middle. It stands on the shore, and seems to have been a place of defence. Opposite to it are the ruins of another castle of the same description, round which are still visible the sites of a number of small houses.