Walter Sutherland

Who was Walter Sutherland?

Walter Sutherland of Skaw on the island of Unst in Shetland was reported to be the last native speaker of Norn, a Germanic language which had once been spoken throughout Shetland, Orkney and Caithness. He lived in the northernmost house in the British Isles, near the present-day Unst Boat Haven.

Sutherland may, however, have been merely the last native speaker of Norn on Unst. Some unnamed Norn-speakers of Foula were reported by Jakob Jakobsen to have survived much later than the middle of the 19th century.