Hether Blether - the hidden isle

One legend regarding Hether Blether goes thus......

A long time ago, a Rousay girl disappeared. Despite a search that encompassed the entire island, the unfortunate girl was never found.

Many years later, when grief was calm and hope was dead, the girl's father and her three brothers were at sea when their small boat was enveloped in a thick sea fog.

They sailed on in what they hoped was the direction of Rousay. But hourse later they were amazed when their vessel grounded on the shores of a strange island.

As they pulled the boat up the mysterious shore, the Rousay men saw a white beach and white houses on the island and there, coming across the glistening sand to meet them, was the missing girl. Radiant, she was smiling and with her were three young bairns. She explained to her tearful kin that she was now married to a man from Hether Blether and had lived on the enchanted island for all this time.

The girl's father and brothers desperately wanted her to return to Rousay with them but she refused, stating that she could not leave her bairns and her husband.

Seeing their disappointment she gave them a cast iron stake (in different versions of the story a knife is given) and told them that if they kept if safely they could return and visit her at any time.

After food and rest, the time came for the men to leave Hether Blether and return to the familiar waters around Rousay. But in the excitement of saying goodbye they dropped the stake overboard and Hether Blether sank below the churning seas.

The island has supposedly been seen a few times since but no mortal has ever managed to reach it again.