DELTING, a parish, in the county of Shetland,
'25 miles (N. N. W.) from Lerwick; containing, with the
islands of Muckle Roe and Little Roe, 2019 inhabitants.
This parish, the name of which is said to be of Danish
or Norwegian origin, is situated about the centre of the
Mainland, and is separated on the west from the parish
of Northmavine by a long narrow harbour called Sulom
Voe, and from the island of Yell on the north by Yell
Sound. It is so indented by fissures and intersected by
narrow bays, no part of it being above two miles from
the sea, that an estimate of its superficial extent cannot
be given with accuracy. Its length is about fourteen
miles, and its mean breadth from three and a half to
four miles. The surface, in its general appearance, is
hilly, bleak, and dreary, ornamented occasionally with a
few small lochs, and the quantity of land under tillage is
not more than 600 or 700 acres, attached to which is
pasture of nearly the same extent; the remainder of the
parish is hilly pasture ground abounding in peaty soil,
which affords abundance of excellent fuel. The arable
land has been lately much improved by draining, and a
considerable number of Scotch ploughs have been introduced,
as well as carts, which before were very scarce
here. The annual value of real property in the parish
is £1777. The principal rocks are gneiss and syenite,
with which also are found limestone and hornblende.
There are three mansion-houses, namely, Busta,Ullhouse,
and Garth. The inhabitants are mostly employed in
fishing; and in the month of May, the whole of the
fishermen meet at the stations in Northmavine and Papa-
Stour, to commence operations for the taking of ling and
cod, upon which they chiefly depend: in a recent year
528 barrels of herrings and sixty tons of ling, cod, tu.sk,
aud saith were cured in Delting, and these were only a
part of what had been taken. Piltocks and sillocks,
called also coal-fish, are likewise caught to a considerable
extent, and supply the inhabitants with a large portion
of their food, and frequently with a quantity of oil.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of Olnafirth,
synod of Shetland, and in the patronage of the
Earl of Zetland. The stipend is £150, of which about
a third is received from the exchequer; with a manse,
built in 1751, and thoroughly repaired and enlarged
about the year 1820, at an expense of £500; and also a
glebe valued at £10 per annum. The minister is likewise
entitled to the vicarage tithe of certain quantities
of butter and oil, which is appropriated for the communion
elements. There are two churches, that of the south
district, which was erected in 1714, and is reckoned the
principal, and the north-district church, built in 1811;
the number of sittings in each is about 560. The parochial
schoolmaster receives a salary of £25. 13. 3., and
abput £3 fees. There are two other schools, of which
the masters are allowed, one £25, and the other £20, by
the General Assembly. Near Yell Sound is a Pictish
castle called Brough; at Burravoe are the remains of an
ancient harbour, and at Bustaa block of granite between
ten and eleven feet in height, called the Standing Stone
of Busta. There are also two caves, one at Culsterness,
containing two apartments, and supposed to have
been originally used as a hiding-place, and the other in
the vicinity of the loch of Trondavoe, said to have been
used in times past as a depository for stolen sheep.