A pirate called John Gow ran his ship aground off Eday in 1725. He had grown up in Orkney and came back under a false name meaning to rob Carrick House, home of his old schoolfriend James Fea, but strong currents off the Calf of Eday drove his ship onto rocks in full view of the house. Fea talked him into surrendering; Gow was sent to London and hanged, and the bell from his ship is still kept at Carrick House.
Around 100 people live on Eday, reached by a daily Orkney Ferries sailing from Kirkwall to Backaland and some inter-island Loganair flights. The island itself is mostly heather moorland and peat, with farming confined to the coast. The Eday Heritage Walk crosses the north past the Stone of Setter, a standing stone about four and a half metres tall, and on to Vinquoy, a Neolithic tomb with internal stone chambers and wide views over Calf Sound. Another tomb stands close to Carrick House itself, and Mill Loch, below Vinquoy Hill, is one of the more reliable places in Orkney to see red-throated divers.
