Papay Sound is marked as ‘Pierowall Road’ on old admiralty charts and the coastguard log books. Aikerness Holm is used to keep ‘holmie sheep’ on. Up to 70 breeding ewes have been kept on the island. Every year a group of intrepid Westray residents descend on the holm to shear the sheep.
Aikerness Holm was also the location where the German cargo ship SS Borkum came ashore in November 1939 after she had been captured by British armed merchant cruiser HMS California but then damaged by U Boat U33 in the Atlantic Ocean, west-northwest of here. She had been sailing from Buenos Aires to Germany with a cargo of wheat. As part of the salvage operation, local labour was enlisted to unload the shipment, which also included bath towels, jam and bully beef.
