holms

Only about one-half of these were inhabited, the remaining and smaller islands being known as holms, or pasturages for sheep, which, seen in the distance, resembled green specks in the great blue sea, which everywhere surrounded them.

From John O'Groats to Land's End Robert Naylor

The number of inhabited islands is 29: of small islands, called holms, 38; and the number of skerries, or rock islets, has not been accurately ascertained.

A Geography for Beginners. Kensey Johns 1864

Page 65 several instances only by a few individuals; about 70 are grazing islets, called holms, which afford herbage for cattle and sheep, but offer no shelter or sustenance for man; and a great but unascertained number are skerries or rocks, -- mere sea-washed and naked stone.

A Geography for Beginners. Kensey Johns 1864

The established form of duel in the viking times was to land the combatants on one of the rocky islets or "holms" that stud the Norwegian coast, and there let them fight it out.

The Vikings of Helgeland The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III. Henrik Ibsen 1867

These alluvial holms were frequently bordered by triple and quadruple rows of large trees, which gracefully marked their boundary, and dipped their long arms into the foaming stream of the river.

Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

I had recollections, too, of fair and fertile holms, or level plains, extending between the wooded banks and the bold stream of the Clyde, which, coloured like pure amber, or rather having the hue of the pebbles called Cairngorm, rushes over sheets of rock and beds of gravel, inspiring

Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

The holms are but partially cultivated, and on the other parts grows rank and weedy grass.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

Meantime, John moots doubtful questions about the farming of certain 'crofts,' and 'ings,' and 'holms,' and his mistress is necessitated to fetch her garden-hat - a gipsy-straw - and accompany him, over stile and along hedgerow, to hear the conclusion of the whole agricultural matter on the spot, and with the said 'crofts,' 'ings,' and 'holms' under her eye.

Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte 2004

When the Clyde fills the holms (“haughs”) above Bothwell Bridge and retires again into its channel, it resembles the river we are speaking of, only here there are no high lands sloping down toward the bed of inundation, for the greater part of the region is not elevated fifty feet above them.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

The bright clear night showed us silhouettes of dark holms, high and wooded to the north, and southwards banks of papyrus outlying long straggling lines of thin islands like a huge caterpillar.

Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo 2003