We could not match "BIRSAY" in our simplified list of the main towns and villages, or as a postcode. There are several other ways of finding places within Vision of Britain, so read on for detailed advice and 18 possible matches we have found for you:

• If you meant to type something else:
  
  



• If you typed a postcode, it needs to be a full postcode: some letters, then some numbers, then more letters. Old-style postal districts like "SE3" are not precise enough (if you know the location but do not have a precise postcode or placename, see below):
  
  
  
  
  
• If you are looking for a place-name, it needs to be the name of a town or village, or possibly a district within a town. We do not know about individual streets or buildings, unless they give their names to a larger area (though you might try our collections of Historical Gazetteers and British travel writing). Do not include the name of a county, region or nation with the place-name: if we know of more than one place in Britain with the same name, you get to choose the right one from a list or map:
  
  
  
  
  
• You have just searched a list of the main towns, villages and localities of Britain which we have kept as simple as possible. It is based on a much more detailed list of legally defined administrative units: counties, districts, parishes, wapentakes and so on. This is the real heart of our system, and you may be better off directly searching it. These administrative units are not currently included within "places" and exactly match your search term:

  Unit Name	Type of Unit	Containing Unit (and Type)
  BIRSAY	Scottish Parish	ORKNEY AND SHETLAND (Scottish County)

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find units with names similar to your search term:
  
  



• If you are looking for hills, rivers, castles ... or pretty much anything other than the "places" where people live and lived, you need to look in our collection of Historical Gazetteers. This contains the complete text of three gazetteers published in the late 19th century — over 90,000 entries. Although there are no descriptive gazetteer entries for placenames exactly matching your search term (other than those already linked to "places"), the following entries mention "BIRSAY":

  Place name	County	Entry	Source
  Birsay and Harray	Orkney	Birsay and Harray, a united parish in the NW of the mainland of Orkney. It has two post offices, Birsay	Groome
  Birsay and Harray	Orkney	Birsay and Harray , a united par., in NW. of Mainland, Orkney, 26,743 ac., pop. 2326. Birsay post-office is 20 miles	Bartholomew
  Brough	Orkney	Brough, Orkney. See Birsay.	Groome
  Cairston	Orkney	Birsay (q. s.), Hoy and Graemsay, Orphir, Sandwick, and Walls and Flotta. Pop. (1871) 10,465, (1881) 10,414, of whom	Groome
  Costa	Orkney	Birsay parishes. Projecting to a point 4 miles ENE of the Brough of Birsay, it comprises a hill 478 feet	Groome
  Evie	Orkney	Birsay, it has an utmost length from NW to SE of 15 miles, an utmost breadth of 4½ miles	Groome
  Harray and Birsay	Orkney	Birsay , united par., in NW. of Mainland, Orkney, 26,743 ac., pop. 2326; contains Harray , vil., 4 miles NW. of Finstown	Bartholomew
  Hundland	Orkney	Hundland , place with school, Harray and Birsay par., Orkney, on Loch of Hundland, 3 miles W. of Birsay church.	Bartholomew
  Kirkwall	Orkney	Birsay, where it was first interred, and which was originally the seat of William's bishopric. It was also the temporary	Groome
  Loch of Hurray	Orkney	Loch of Hurray , loch, Mainland, Orkney; is bounded E. by Harray and Birsay par.	Bartholomew
  Marwick Head	Orkney	Marwick Head , headland, on S. side of Birsay Bay, Harray and Birsay par., Mainland, Orkney.	Bartholomew
  Orkney	Orkney	Birsay (Harray and Birsay), Flotta (Walls and Flotta), Stenness (Firth and Stenness), Eday and Fara (Stronsay and Eday), North Ronaldsay	Groome
  Pomona or Mainland	Orkney	Birsay, Sandwick, Stromness, Evie, Rendall, Harray, Firth, Stenness, Orphir, Kirkwall, St Andrews, Deerness, and Holm; but Birsay and Harray, Evie	Groome
  Sandwick	Orkney	Birsay, E by Harray and the Loch of Harray, SE by Stenness and the Loch of Stenness, S by Stromness	Groome
  Swannay	Orkney	Swannay , hamlet, Harray and Birsay par., Orkney, on Loch of Swannay, 14 miles NW. of Finstown; P.O.	Bartholomew
  Twatt	Orkney	Twatt, a post office in Birsay and Harray parish, Orkney, 12 miles N by E of Stromness.	Groome
  Twatt	Orkney	Twatt .-- Harray and Birsay par., Orkney, 11 miles N. of Stromness; P.O.	Bartholomew

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find names similar to your search term:
  
  



• Place-names also appear in our collection of British travel writing. If the place-name you are interested in appears in our simplified list of "places", the search you have just done should lead you to mentions by travellers. However, many other places are mentioned, including places outside Britain and weird mis-spellings. You can search for them in the Travel Writing section of this site.



• If you know where you are interested in, but don't know the place-name, go to our historical mapping, and zoom in on the area you are interested in. Click on the "Information" icon, and your mouse pointer should change into a question mark: click again on the location you are interested in. This will take you to a page for that location, with links to both administrative units, modern and historical, which cover it, and to places which were nearby. For example, if you know where an ancestor lived, Vision of Britain can tell you the parish and Registration District it was in, helping you locate your ancestor's birth, marriage or death.