Ness

   1) NESS, county of Ross and Cromarty.

   See Cross.

   2) NESS, an island, forming part of the parish of Bressay, Burra, and Quarff, in the Shetland Isles; and containing 24 inhabitants. This island lies a short distance east of Bressay, is two miles long and a mile in breadth, and consists chiefly of natural pasture, the surface gradually rising from west to east; but in the western portion there is a considerable tract under cultivation. The coast is rocky, and in most parts precipitous; the few intermediate spaces of sloping beach are occasionally sandy, but in general formed of calcareous earth. The most prominent feature on the coast is the Noop, or, as it is called by mariners, Hangeliff, a headland on the eastern shore, about 600 feet high, and the resort in summer of swarms of migratory and other birds. On the south is Hova, another headland, 200 feet high; and contiguous to the coast are several holms, or uninhabited isles, of very small extent, among which the holm of Ness is the most conspicuous. This is a rock with a perpendicular elevation of about 200 feet, separated from Ness by a very narrow frith, and communicating with it by means of a cradle fastened to ropes, which is used for the transit of ten or twelve sheep, sent for two or three months in the summer to graze upon it.