Pentland Skerries

   PENTLAND SKERRIES, an island, forming part of the district of St. Mary's, in the parish of South Ronaldshay, county of Orkney; containing 11 inhabitants. This is the largest of several small islets situated at the east end of the Pentland Frith, and bearing the common name of the Pentland Skerries. It is a mile long, and half a mile broad, and has a lighthouse on which two fixed lights are exhibited, a hundred feet apart, and seen at the distance of from sixteen to eighteen nautical miles: the light was erected in 1794, previously to which time the Skerries were most formidable to mariners. No anchorage can be found in any part of the Frith; and when a west or south-west wind causes an increase in the current, scarcely any vessel can withstand the tremendous surge, which dashes with such violence against the coast, that the spray is often carried a great distance inland, and falls like a shower of rain. This strait has been the terror of the boldest sailors, and the grave of thousands; it connects the Atlantic with the German Ocean, and from the Hebrides and Cape Wrath the flow of the former comes rolling in one unbroken and irresistible stream.