Hoy, island, Orkney, pop. 1380; P.O., 4 miles SW. of Stromness; is 13 miles and 6 miles in extreme length and breadth, and is the largest of the Orkney islands after Mainland, from which it is separated by the Sound of Hoy; is sometimes called the Highlands of Orkney, and rises in Ward Hill (the highest point of Great Britain N. of the Pentland Firth) to a height of 1564 ft.; all along the W. coast, from the Kame of Hoy to Roray Head, are lofty cliffs, which at one point rise to a height of 1140 ft.; 1 mile N. of Roray Head is the Old Man of Hoy, a detached pillar-shaped rock, 450 ft. high; 4 m. SW. of Stromness is Hoy Lodge.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))