- published: 20 Feb 2012
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Hoy (from Norse Háey meaning high island) is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of 143 square kilometres (55 sq mi) it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls. Unusually, the two islands are treated as one entity by the UK census.
The dramatic coastline of Hoy greets visitors travelling to Orkney by ferry from the Scottish mainland. It has extremes of many kinds: some of the highest sea cliffs in the UK at St John's Head, which reach 350 metres (1,150 ft); the impressive and famous sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy; some of the most northerly surviving natural woodland in the British Isles; the remote possibility that Arctic Char survive in Heldale Water and the most northerly Martello Towers, which were built to defend the area during the Napoleonic War, but were never used in combat.
The highest point in Orkney, Ward Hill, is found on Hoy.
The main naval base for the British fleet Scapa Flow in both the First and Second World Wars was situated at Lyness in the south-east of the island. Some rather incongruous art deco structures nearby date from this period.
Sir Christopher Andrew "Chris" Hoy, MBE (born 23 March 1976 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish track cyclist representing Great Britain and Scotland. He is a multiple world champion and Olympic Games gold medal winner. With his three gold medals in Beijing 2008, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian, the first Briton to win three gold medals in a single Olympic games since Henry Taylor, in 1908, and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time.
Hoy went to school at Stockbridge Primary School, a state school in Edinburgh. He subsequently attended George Watson's College, a prestigious Edinburgh private school before continuing his studies at the University of St Andrews in 1996, before transferring to Moray House at the University of Edinburgh from where he graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Sports Science in 1999. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in July 2005 and another from Heriot-Watt University in November 2005. Hoy returned to St Andrews University in June 2009 to be awarded an honorary Doctor of Science. Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Before track cycling, Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked second in Britain, fifth in Europe and ninth in the world. He received sponsorship from Slazenger and Kwik-Fit and was competing in Europe and the US. Hoy also rowed for the Scottish junior team, coming second in the 1993 British championship with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs. He played rugby as part of his school's team.
i think i'm rotting on the inside. way down deep inside my soul.. i've built
this little coffin that i live in every day. i peek out every day or so to see
those ghosts at play. i've got my knife right by my side. i keep it warm, i hold
the blade. i want to keep watch, keep hold.. for when they come to take my soul
away. i've got this fear living inside me. it keeps me crippled and cold. like a
child i lie frozen. i hope these arms won't reach out and take hold. there's