North Eastern Atlantic

West of Shetland the North Atlantic separates the Northern Isles from the Faroe Islands. Norse settlement and navigation joined these island groups to one another and to Norway in the early medieval period. South of Shetland, Fair Isle stands between the archipelago and Orkney, close to the meeting of the North Sea and Atlantic. The wreck of the Spanish ship Gran Grifón on Fair Isle in 1588 showed the danger of these exposed waters to a fleet driven north around Scotland.