Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/57

 regarding the stones of this broch may contain an element of truth in a distorted form.

With reference to what is called the “Vir” (brig) of the Holm, I am of opinion that it was not formed by the Picts. A built roadway from the Holm to the shore would have involved engineering abilities that we can hardly imagine they possessed. The sound here is several hundred yards in width, and in the middle has a depth of water even at ebb tide sufficient to allow a small vessel to enter. Besides, in wintertime a very heavy ocean swell forces in through this sound—so heavy that no rubble-built wall could resist the impact of the sea. The Picts, being dwellers there and no doubt an observant people, were not likely to undertake a work sure to end in failure. The formation of the Vir is not artificial, but natural. Had it been artificial, the ocean wear of centuries would long ere now have destroyed it; but being natural, it abides, and the cause that