It is approximately 18 hectares (0.07 sq mi) in extent and rises to only 11 metres (36 ft) above sea level.

Erlend celebrated after returning to the islet for Christmas and retired to his ship the worse for drink on the night of 21 December.

[4][5][6] Later a small nunnery was built on the islet leading to a legend that no frogs or toads (or possibly rats and mice) could live there.

She described a feature like a "stone table" made up of "a large slab about a metre and a half long and it's sitting up on four pillars or walls" and said that the "quality and condition of some of the stonework is remarkable.

"[9] A fieldwork report published in 2010 stated that "local ethno-archaeological information suggests the presence at one time of a causeway to the west, across a stretch of shallow water and existing skerries" that connected Damsay to the mainland.