Stromness – Eighteen Holes on the Ness, Facing Hoy
A day.
The route
Stromness Golf Club plays its short, imaginative 18 holes on the Ness at the south end of the town, over old wartime gun emplacements and with views across the water to the hills of Hoy.
Visitors simply turn up and play, and afterwards the Stromness Museum is just along the road, with a late lunch at Julia's by the ferry. It's a relaxed day for golfers of any standard, and very good value in the winter months.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is House of the Northern Gate, 24 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
Stromness
Eighteen short, windy holes on the Ness with Hoy across the sound, an hour among the town's seafaring stories, and a late lunch by the harbour.
About five hoursAbout 3 miles on foot
Stromness Golf Club
Stromness Golf Club is on Ness Road at the south end of Stromness, with views over Hoy, Scapa Flow and the town; head for the clubhouse. It's a short 18-hole parkland course, just over 4,800 yards, par 65 for men and par 69 for ladies, with seven par 3s, small undulating greens, and always some wind to play. Some holes cross the gun emplacements and underground bunkers of the Second World War. Visitors turn up and play: weekday mornings and afternoons are always free for them, but weekends can be taken by club competitions, so ring 01856 700410 first for a Saturday or Sunday. A day's golf is £16 from November to March and £50 from April to October at the time of writing, with juniors £8 and £10. Hire clubs (£20 a set) and trolleys (£5) come from the greenkeeper, at the clubhouse between 10am and 10.15am, or on 07876 700 830. A fourball usually gets round in under three hours; from November to January, tee off by 11am to finish in good light.
Stromness Museum
Stromness Museum is a few minutes north, at 52 Alfred Street, where the old flagstoned main street begins; parking at the door is limited. Its galleries hold the town's seafaring and social history, wartime Scapa Flow, natural history and ethnography, and Sea Stories, a show of maritime objects rarely seen before, runs until April 2027. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday from 11am to 4pm, from February to December. Adults pay £8 at the time of writing, and under-16s go free. The entrance and ground floor are level, with a stair lift to the natural history gallery only, and there's an accessible toilet with baby changing. Assistance dogs only.
Julia's
Lunch
Julia's is at the far end of the street, on Ferry Road opposite the ferry terminal, with short-stay pay-and-display parking by the terminal and free long-stay parking along Ferry Road. It's a bright, busy café for breakfasts, light lunches and home baking, and it usually opens all year, Monday to Saturday from 9.30am to 4.30pm and Sunday from 10am, so a late lunch is no trouble. If it's full, the Ferry Inn, a couple of minutes' walk away, serves food from 12.30pm every day from April to November.
If it rains
A round in Orkney rain and wind is hard going: if the day is wild, start at the museum, which is all under a roof, and play when it clears; the course takes under three hours. Julia's is indoors.
Where to stay
Photographs by Iain Fergusson, douglas slater, Ian Tresman and Wendy Wolmarans via Google