Papa Stronsay (; ) is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Stronsay. It is in size, and above sea level at its highest point. After being largely abandoned, the island was bought at the end of the 20th century by traditionalist Catholic monks of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, who operate a monastery and farm there. According to folklore, some of the natives were descended from a female selkie. This was because they had horny skin on their feet and hands, and permanently smelt of fish. Geography and geology The geology is middle old red sandstone. A thin tongue of land curls west from the main part of the island, and then south to form the Point of the Graand (a local word meaning a "sandbar"). The island in general is low lying, reaching a mere at its highest point. There is an light beacon in the north east. History The island has remains of two chapels. One dates from the eleventh century, and an eighth-century Pictish monastery may lie under it. It has been described as the most northerly early Christian monastery ever found. Other remains include cairns and a burnt mound, and a number of abandoned crofts. The island is one of the "Papeys" or "islands of the papar". Joseph Anderson noted that: The Orkneyinga saga recalls in Chapter XXXIV that Earl Rögnvald was killed on Papa Stronsay in 1046: Everyone agrees that of all the Earls of Orkney Rögnvald Brusason was the most popular and gifted, and his death was mourned by many (Orkneyinga saga Ch. XXIX). Earl's Knowle on Papa Stronsay is traditionally thought to be the final resting place of Sir Patrick Spens. His burial there is related by William Edmonstoune Aytoun (1813–1865), who after his retirement as Sheriff and Lord Admiral of Orkney and Shetland edited a collection of Scottish poetry. In his forward to the ballad about Spens, Aytoun wrote: A fertile island, it became an important centre for the curing of herring in the eighteenth century, but was abandoned in the 1970s. Present day In 1999, the island was purchased from farmer Charles Ronald Smith by the monastic community of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a traditionalist Catholic religious congregation formerly affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X. In 2008 the congregation, along with most of its members, was received into full communion