HISTORY
The name Papa Stour is believed to have been given to the island by the Vikings. "Papey Stjora" is a Norse phrase which means the big island of priests and refers to a community of Celtic missionary priests that lived on Papa Stour, perhaps as early as the 6th century. Papa Stour became an important area for Norsemen, providing both a strategic base and safe haven for their boats. By the end of the 13th century the island had become a Norwegian royal farm, the personal property of King Hakon. Although Shetland was pledged to Scotland in 1469 the `Lairds of Norway' kept their estates on Papa Stour until well into the 17th Century. During the 18th century two lairds from the mainland, Thomas Gifford of Busta and Arthur Nicolson of Lerwick, divided Papa Stour between them and the island has remained part of these estates until the present day.

ARCHAEOLOGY
Papa Stour is full of prehistoric remains, the evidence of settlement back through the ages to Neolithic and Bronze Age times, 5000 years ago. In the historic era, Papa Stour was the source of the oldest surviving written document from Shetland. It is known as the 1299 document and contains allegations of corruption made by one of the islanders.


GEOLOGY
The west coast of Papa Stour contains some of the most exposed coastline in the British Isles. Exposed to the full force of the Atlantic Ocean the island's Devonian age rocks have been carved into towering vertical cliffs, stacks and arches. Bands of volcanic ash (ignimbrite) and orange solidified lava (rhyolite) can be seen running through the rock faces. At Lamba banks at the south side of the entrance to Housa Voe a bed of calcareous mudstone containing broken remains of fossil fish has been discovered. Inland, ridges of glacial moraine - huge boulders carried by glaciers - run across the island, marking the edge of an ancient ice sheet.


FLORA
The island is divided by hill dyke that separates the fertile in-by land from the moorland of the scattald or common grazings to the west. In the past turf and peat from the scattald was removed and used by the islanders to provide fertiliser and fuel. This has produced a unique `scalped' heathland of short wind-clipped vegetation growing on gravely sub soil.