Orkney

Orkney lies just over six miles beyond the north coast of mainland Scotland, across the fast, unpredictable water of the Pentland Firth. It is an archipelago of roughly seventy islands, around twenty of them inhabited, and the first thing most visitors notice is how little of it looks like the Highlands they have just driven through. There are almost no trees. The land rolls in low green curves of grazing and barley, split by drystone dykes and edged, quite suddenly, by cliffs. The sky takes up most of the view. On a clear day the light off the water is extraordinarily bright, and on a grey one the whole archipelago turns the colour of pewter.

What sets Orkney apart from every other part of the British Isles is the depth of its human record. People have farmed here continuously for more than five thousand years, and because there was so little timber they built in stone, which is why so much survives. The Heart of Neolithic Orkney is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering four monuments on the West Mainland, and they are not fenced-off curiosities but working parts of the landscape, with sheep grazing up to the stones. Layered on top of that is a Norse period that lasted six centuries and still shapes the place names, the dialect and the sagas, and on top of that again a twentieth-century military history centred on the great natural anchorage of Scapa Flow.

Orkney is also emphatically a lived-in, working place rather than a museum. Kirkwall, the capital, has around nine thousand residents, a busy harbour and a red sandstone cathedral at its centre. Stromness, the second town, is a single flagstone street winding along the waterfront with lanes running down to private piers. Farming, fishing, whisky, renewable energy and the ferries keep the islands going. Visitors who arrive expecting remoteness and hardship tend to be surprised by how comfortable, well fed and well connected they are.

Top things to do in Orkney

The archipelago packs an unusual amount into a small area, and most of the headline sites sit within half an hour of one another on the Mainland.

• Skara Brae — A Neolithic village on the Bay of Skaill, buried by sand for millennia and exposed by a storm in 1850. Stone beds, dressers and hearths survive inside the houses, which is why it is often described as the best preserved prehistoric settlement in northern Europe.
• Ring of Brodgar — A vast stone circle set on a narrow isthmus between two lochs, with a ditch cut into bedrock around it. Walking the ring in low evening light, with water on both sides, is one of the defining Orkney experiences.
• Maeshowe — A chambered cairn built with astonishing precision, aligned so that the midwinter sun shines down the entrance passage. Norse crusaders broke in and left the largest collection of runic inscriptions outside Scandinavia, much of it cheerfully rude. Entry is by guided tour only and must be booked ahead.
• St Magnus Cathedral — Founded in 1137 and built from alternating red and yellow sandstone, it dominates central Kirkwall. The ruined Bishop's Palace and Earl's Palace stand directly opposite.
• The Italian Chapel — Two Nissen huts on Lamb Holm transformed by Italian prisoners of war into an ornate chapel using scrap metal, concrete and painted trompe l'oeil. It sits beside the Churchill Barriers, the causeways those same prisoners helped build to seal Scapa Flow.
• Scapa Flow and the Lyness museum — The sheltered anchorage where the German High Seas Fleet was scuttled in 1919. The museum on Hoy tells the story of both world wars, and the wrecks below make this one of the great cold-water dive sites in the world.
• The Old Man of Hoy — A slender red sandstone sea stack rising around 137 metres from the water. The cliff walk out from Rackwick takes roughly three hours there and back and is the finest hike in Orkney.
• Seabird cliffs at Marwick Head and Yesnaby — Between late spring and midsummer these cliffs are loud with guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars and puffins. Marwick Head also carries the Kitchener Memorial, marking the loss of HMS Hampshire in 1916.

Getting to Orkney

There is no bridge, so every journey involves a boat or a plane. From London the usual rail approach is to Edinburgh or Inverness first; London to Inverness takes around eight hours by day or overnight on the Caledonian Sleeper, and the Far North Line then runs from Inverness to Thurso in roughly three and a half to four hours through some genuinely empty country. Thurso is a short bus or taxi ride from Scrabster harbour.

From Scrabster, NorthLink Ferries sail to Stromness in about ninety minutes, passing beneath the Hoy cliffs and the Old Man on the way in. Pentland Ferries run from Gills Bay, near John o' Groats, to St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay in around an hour, and this is often the cheaper crossing for cars. NorthLink also operates a longer overnight route from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, taking roughly six hours, which suits anyone who would rather sleep than drive north. In summer a foot-passenger service from John o' Groats adds another option.

By road, Inverness to Scrabster is about 110 miles on the A9 and A99 or A836, allowing two and a half to three hours without stops. Bringing a car is worth doing if you plan to explore the Mainland properly, though book ferry vehicle space well in advance for June to August. Both ferry terminals have parking if you prefer to travel as a foot passenger and hire locally. Kirkwall Airport, a few miles from town, has Loganair flights from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Shetland, and inter-island flights connect the smaller isles, including the famously brief hop between Westray and Papa Westray.

Best time to visit Orkney

Spring is when Orkney begins to feel generous. From April the seabird colonies fill up, wildflowers appear on the cliff tops and the days lengthen quickly. May is often the driest month of the year and the Orkney Folk Festival brings Stromness alive at the end of it. Puffins are generally around the cliffs from late April to early August.

Summer brings the long light Orcadians call the simmer dim, when it barely gets properly dark in June and you can walk a beach at eleven at night. The St Magnus International Festival takes over Kirkwall in June, and July and August are the warmest months, though warm here means highs of about fifteen or sixteen degrees. This is peak season for ferries and accommodation, so book months ahead.

Autumn thins the crowds without losing much. September still has decent light and settled spells, the archaeology sites are quieter, and by late October the first aurora displays, known locally as the Merry Dancers, become possible. Winter is dark, windy and genuinely dramatic. Some attractions close or cut their hours and ferries occasionally cancel in heavy weather, but the storm watching is superb and Kirkwall's Ba' game, a mass street football contest played on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, is unlike anything else in Britain.

Where to stay in Orkney

Kirkwall is the obvious base for a first visit. It has the widest choice of hotels, guest houses and restaurants, the cathedral, the main ferry links to the northern isles and the airport, and roads radiating out to almost everywhere on the Mainland. It suits anyone without a car and anyone who wants shops and evening options.

Stromness is smaller, older and more atmospheric, and it is where the Scrabster ferry docks. Staying here puts you closest to Skara Brae, the Brodgar sites and the Hoy ferry, and the town itself, with its narrow paved street and the Pier Arts Centre, rewards a slow evening.

The West Mainland, around Stenness, Harray, Sandwick and Birsay, places you in the middle of the World Heritage landscape with lochs on either side. It is the best choice for archaeology, fishing and dark skies, though you will need a car.

South Ronaldsay and the linked isles, reached over the Churchill Barriers, suit visitors arriving at St Margaret's Hope and anyone drawn to quiet beaches and the wartime story. Hoy is the wildest of the islands, with real hills and cliffs, and is best for walkers happy to work around ferry timetables. The northern isles such as Westray, Sanday and Rousay reward anyone with a week or more to spare.

Food and drink in Orkney

For a group of islands this size, Orkney eats extremely well, and much of what reaches the table has travelled only a few miles. Orkney beef and lamb are protected-status products and appear on almost every menu, while the seaweed-fed sheep of North Ronaldsay produce a dark, unusual meat worth trying once. Shellfish is the other strength: Westray crab, hand-dived scallops, lobster and langoustine.

Local baking runs to bere bannocks, made from an ancient barley still milled at Barony Mills in Birsay, and to oatcakes from Stockan's in Stromness that are sold across the UK. Orkney cheddar, fudge and ice cream are staples of every farm shop, and clootie dumpling turns up as pudding more often than you might expect.

Drink means whisky first. Highland Park has been distilling in Kirkwall since 1798 and runs excellent tours, and Scapa sits a short distance away above the anchorage that gave it its name. The Orkney Brewery at Quoyloo has a visitor centre and café, Kirkjuvagr distils gin in Kirkwall using local botanicals, and Deerness Distillery makes gin and rum on the east Mainland.

For eating out, the Foveran above Scapa Flow and the Storehouse in Kirkwall are the names most often mentioned for a proper dinner, while Kirkwall and Stromness both have solid harbourside pubs and cafés. The Orkney Craft Fairs and farmers markets held through the summer are the easiest way to buy direct from producers, and most villages have an honesty box or farm shop somewhere along the road.