South Ronaldsay – A Stone Age Tomb and Fossils to Hold
A day.
The route
Here's a day in Orkney's south isles for children who like to get their hands on things.
At the Tomb of the Eagles they can hold objects found in a 5,000-year-old tomb, then walk out to the clifftop and slide into it on a trolley. On Burray, the Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre has fossils to touch, rocks that glow in the dark and lunch in its café.
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, 23 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
South Ronaldsay
Stone Age finds to hold, then a walk to the clifftop and a trolley ride into a tomb. Lunch is over the Churchill Barrier on Burray, with fossils and glowing rocks after it.
About five hoursAbout 2 miles on foot
The Tomb of the Eagles
An attraction
The Tomb of the Eagles is at Liddle, at the southern tip of South Ronaldsay, with a car park beside the visitor centre. It opens every day from 10am, with last entry at 3.30pm, and shuts for the season after Sunday 18 October. There's no online booking, so pay at reception: adults pay £10, children aged 7 to 15 £6 and under-sevens go free, with family tickets from £18, at the time of writing. Start in the visitor centre, where children can handle objects found at the sites, with talks and worksheets made for them. Then it's a mile on farm roads and a grass path, past a Bronze Age site, to the tomb above the cliffs, where you crawl or lie on a trolley to slide in along the low passage. Allow two to three hours. Pushchairs manage except in very wet weather, there's baby changing in the centre, and dogs on leads are welcome on the walk. Keep small children close on the clifftop.
25 min by car
Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre
The Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre is about 25 minutes' drive north on Burray: after Burray village it's on the hill on the right, with parking in front. It opens every day from 10am to 3pm and gives no date for closing for the winter, so from November ring 01856 731255 first. Have lunch first in its Relic Café, open the same hours; a table can be booked by phone. Then the fossils: children can hold a real fossil 30 million years old and see rocks that glow in the dark. Adults pay £7.50, a family of two adults and two under-16s £20, and under-fives go free, at the time of writing. You go in step-free through the tearoom; the Glow Room is down steps, and the upstairs galleries have no lift.
If it rains
The Tomb's visitor centre, the Fossil Centre and its café are all indoors; the walk out to the tomb is open clifftop, so keep it for a dry spell, and pushchairs struggle on it in very wet weather.
Polly Kettle, a restaurant in Burray.
Photographs by Ian Barrow and Gema Garcia via Google