Pomona or Mainland?

"It follows, therefore, that “Pomona,” should be banished from the geography of the Orkneys..."
George W. Dasent - Icelandic Sagas Vol 3

The Latin name "Pomona" is still sometimes seen on the occasional modern map and encyclopaedia article about Orkney.

But the name Pomona, which is also the name of the Roman goddess of Fruit and Plenty, has never actually been used by Orcadians. Instead, its use is generally agreed to stem from a mistranslation of an early Roman passage.

It is believed George Buchanan (1506-1582), a Scottish scholar of Latin, mistranslated a passage by the Roman author Solinus.

Solinus, referring to Orkney (Orcades) and Thyle (Thule), wrote:

“Ab Orcadibus Thylen usque 5 dierum ac noctium navigatio est; sed Thyle larga et diutina Pomona copiosa est.”

The correct translation of which is:

“Thyle, which was distant from Orkney by a voyage of five days and nights, was fruitful and abundant in the lasting yield of its crops.”

However, Buchanan read the passage assuming that Pomona referred to a second island and that it read: “Thule is large and Pomona is rich and fertile." He concluded from this that Pomona must be the main island of Orkney, and in his Rerum Scoticarum Historia, wrote:

“Orcadum maxima multis veterum Pomona vocatur,”

Which translates as:

"The biggest isle of the Orcades is call’d by many of the ancients Pomona."

Thus by a "mere blunder" the name "Pomona" became attached to the Mainland.

And outside Orkney, the name stuck, although it was generally only used on official documents such as maps, accounts etc. The term eventually fell out of widespread use by the early 1800s but is still used here and there today. A mistake that has never been corrected.