Scalpa

   1) SCALPA, an island, in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, county of Inverness; containing 90 inhabitants. This is an island of the Hebrides, lying in the sound between the Isle of Skye and the main land; it is a high, bluff, and rocky island, about five miles in length and from two to three in breadth. The shores are low, and formed of a blackish-coloured argillaceous sandstone. In the highest part of the isle is a petrified rock of moss, in which are varieties of shells; and in many of the higher grounds are found great quantities of shells, several feet beneath the surface. The channel called the sound of Scalpa, separating the island from Strath, is about three-quarters of a mile broad.

   2) SCALPA, a village, in the parish of Kirkwall and St. Ola, Island of Pomona, county of Orkney, 1½ mile (S.) from Kirkwall. This is a small village, giving name to a safe and commodious bay, and is the usual place of landing from the coast of Caithness. This bay, called Scalpa Flow, is a beautiful piece of water, being, as it were, a small Mediterranean of about fifty miles in circumference, and surrounded by twelve different islands, through which are various outlets to the Pentland Frith, the German Sea, and Atlantic Ocean. In times of war, Scalpa Flow is the great thoroughfare for vessels coming north; and it abounds with numerous safe roadsteads and good harbours for vessels of large size, such as Holm sound, Floxa sound, the bay of Howton, St. Margaret's Hope, and other places, where is excellent anchorage with sufficient depth of water, even for ships of the largest class. The principal entrance to the Flow from the east is through Holm sound, and from the west through Hoymouth. The tide, on entering, is remarkably rapid, but it soon subsides and becomes scarcely perceptible; the course of the flood is, with little variation, from east to west; and on one part of the coast, where the current is intercepted by a reef of rocks, it runs nine hours in one direction, and three in the direction opposite. The smacks employed throughout the season in fishing, and carrying lobsters to the London market, all rendezvous in one or other of the harbours encircling the Flow. The sea-banks near the village offer, in fine weather, the most pleasant walks to the inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Kirkwall.