THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The Fryup Islands, known colloquially as the ‘Fryups’, are a small group of islands situated between two and three miles off the North Riding coast. The largest islands in the group, Mardoll, Throng and Vanadis, were permanently inhabited until the end of the 19th century. Their population, never more than two hundred in number, originally lived in burrows and subsisted on seabirds and seals. They spoke Fryoese, a derivation of Old Norse and English. The outlying islands of St Agnes and St Olaf were populated by hermits in the 14th and 15th centuries. Hundreds of ships have been wrecked on the dangerous reefs surrounding the islands, and the iconic, purple-striped Edda Lighthouse was completed 1760. Since the beginning of the 20th century the islands have been temporarily inhabited and claimed, respectively, by Maoists, nudists, environmentalists, Bitcoin entrepreneurs and members of an End Times cult. The islands are popular with bird watchers, and are the only recorded nesting site of the critically endangered Dwarf Auk.

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