Economy and Transport
The soil in the islands is thin and infertile, but is heaped into riggs, for better cultivation of potatoes, carrots and swedes. Sheep farming still occurs, but is far less important than it once was. Tourism on the other hand has increased.
The islands have a primary and secondary school, two shops, a fish processing factory, an airstrip, and a church, and a police station. The secondary school is the smallest in the UK; in 2010 the school had only three pupils. The main industry on the islands is fishing. There is a church on Housay.
There is little peat on the Out Skerries, so the residents have been granted rights to cut it on Whalsay.
The Skerries Bridge, which links Bruray to Housay was built in 1957, replacing the first bridge built in 1899.
There is around a mile of road, along which most of the population lives.
There is a ferry to the islands from Vidlin and Lerwick.
Read more about this topic: Out Skerries
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