South Walls
| Norse name | Vágaland/Vágar |
|---|---|
| Meaning of name | The southern inlets |
 Cantick Head lighthouse, on South Walls, viewed looking west |
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| Location | |
 South Walls
South Walls shown within Orkney
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| OS grid reference | ND304895 |
| Coordinates | 58°47′16″N 3°12′18″W / 58.78788°N 3.2049°W |
| Physical geography | |
| Island group | Orkney |
| Area | 1,100 ha (4.2 sq mi) |
| Area rank | 47 |
| Highest elevation | 57 m (187 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Country | Scotland |
| Council area | Orkney Islands |
| Demographics | |
| Population | No estimate available |
| Largest settlement | Longhope |
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| References | |
South Walls is an inhabited island adjacent to Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. The name is a corruption of "Sooth Was", which means the "southern voes" - as with Kirkwall, it was assumed that it was a mispronunciation of "walls".
South Walls forms the southern side of the harbour of Longhope. It was a tidal island until a narrow causeway, was constructed over the sandbank, which was known as the Ayre, although this name has become transferred to the causeway itself. Although sometimes considered to be a peninsula, it is an island in all but name.
South Walls is a popular stopping off place for Barnacle Geese.
The island, like most of the Orkney archipelago, is made up of old red sandstone with the Rousay Flagstone Group predominating.
The island is more or less oval in shape, but there is a small promontory, called Cantick Head in the south east, which is created by Kirk Hope (Church Bay). It is separated from Hoy by an arm of the sea, also called Longhope. The area to the south of the causeway is known as Aith Hope.
The fact that neither the 2001 or 2011 censuses mention South Walls in their lists of inhabited islands suggests that there is some dubiety about its status as an island. (In 2001 the General Register Office for Scotland defined an island as "a mass of land surrounded by water, separate from the Scottish mainland" and although the inclusion of islands linked man-made constructions is not clear from this definition in practice they list several separately that are joined to one another by bridges and causeways). The evidence for its island status includes:
Although it is clear that the island is inhabited as it was not listed as such by the census no reliable estimate of the current total is available. Presumably the presence of the causeway linking South Walls to Hoy has resulted in the population of the former being included with the latter for statistical purposes.
South Walls features fairly prominently in the Norse period, partly because it was the first landfall when sailing from west Caithness or Sutherland. The Orkneyinga saga mentions the island several times, such as in Chapter XCV:
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