The Foveran

About The Foveran

The Foveran stands in its own ground at St Ola, roughly three miles from Kirkwall on the Orphir road, in a single-storey building angled to take in the view across Scapa Flow. The setting does a great deal of the work: from the dining room and from the rooms you look out over the anchorage where the German High Seas Fleet was scuttled in 1919, with Hoy and the smaller islands on the horizon.

Accommodation is a small number of ground-floor en-suite rooms, quiet and comfortable, with the sea view from most. This is not a large hotel and it does not pretend to be; it is a restaurant with rooms, and guests are here principally because they want to eat well and not drive afterwards. Rates generally start around £150 for two with breakfast.

The kitchen has held its reputation for decades and is one of the names that Orcadians themselves suggest when asked where to eat. The menu is built on North Ronaldsay lamb, Orkney beef, hand-dived scallops and local crab, with Orkney fudge cheesecake a long-running fixture on the pudding list. Booking a table is essential in summer even if you are staying, and it is worth timing dinner for a long evening so you get the light going down over the Flow.