This is the location of one of Papay’s most intriguing place names: ‘Minister’s Flag’, which is a flat rock, where the minister could land off a boat and proceed to the chapel up the coast, without setting foot on Traill (the landowner)’s property.
At a very low tide (known as a ‘spoot tide’) the sandy stretch of shore at the Bay o’ Quoyolie is a favourite location of Papay folk for ‘gaan tae the spoots’, which is the practice of walking backwards along the shore and at the sight of one of their burrows sucking in water, digging furiously to capture the ‘spoot’ (razor clams) which are then eaten as a local delicacy. You can watch a film of this being done here.
