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Italian Chapel · Orkney
Orkney

Italian Chapel.

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Orkney  8° · Mostly cloudy
Orkney

Where to go, eat and stay in Orkney.

Green farmland runs down to the sea in Orkney, and the sky seems to go on for ever. Just across the Pentland Firth from Caithness, these islands hold the Heart of Neolithic Orkney: the stone village of Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar between its two lochs and the great tomb of Maeshowe.

Stone Age villages, stone circles and a cathedralPlaces to visitOrkney produce, seafood and island tearoomsFood and drinkShops, studios and makersShops and makersDays we have driven, stop by stopDays out
The guide

Our guide to Orkney.

All of Orkney, part by part: what is where, how to get round, and where to eat and stay. Photographed by us.

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From our guideBay of SkaillSkara BraeStennessRing of BrodgarStennessStanding Stones of StennessStennessMaeshowe Chambered CairnStennessNess of BrodgarNear StromnessUnstan Cairn

The history of Orkney.

People have farmed Orkney for more than five thousand years.

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Days outA morningThe Brough of Birsay, the Earl's Palace and lunch by the bayBy carA morningThe Stromness to Warebeth shore walk on OrkneyBy carA morningA walk to Yesnaby Castle sea stack on Orkney's west coastBy carA morningThe Stones of Stenness to the Ring of Brodgar walkBy carA morningCoasteering in Orkney with Over the EdgeBy carA morningA harbour sauna at Ness Slip, StromnessBy car

New days out in Orkney.

Ready-made days, the newest first, each with its drive times, its stops and somewhere to eat.

See every day out in Orkney
Did you know9 minutes ago

In the old stories of Orkney and Shetland, a selkie is a seal that can slip off its skin and come ashore as a person.

The legend says that a selkie can shift between seal and human form by taking off or putting on its seal skin, and that without the skin it cannot return to the sea. The word itself comes straight from the shore. Selkie is a Scots diminutive of selch, which strictly means a grey seal, and in Orkney lore the name was given to the larger seals. Further west, in Gaelic stories, selkies are rarely told apart from mermaids. So behind one of the islands' best-loved legends stands a real animal, the grey seal.

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In Orkney24 minutes ago

Twenty One won the prizes for the best à la carte meal and the best bar meal at this year's Orkney Food and Drink Awards, which are decided by public vote.

Archive Coffee in Kirkwall also won two, for the best café and the best kids' meal. Among the producers, the prizes went to Orkney Gin Company for drink, Jolly's of Orkney for fish, Rendall's Bakery for baking and The Orkney Dairy for dairy.

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In Issue 13The magazine

Mad as a March Hare

In the rich farmlands and rolling hills of east Scotland there once lived a young woman named Hester, and her husband Angus.

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From the magazine38 minutes agoThe printed copy of Issue 08Issue 08Spring / Summer 2024

At the Ness of Brodgar dig in Orkney, a student could lift a stone and find an axe head left as an offering 5,000 years ago.

The excavations, led by the archaeologist Nick Card, began behind a farmhouse in 2003, and over two decades they uncovered a complex of massive buildings from 5,000 years ago. The axe heads were ceremonial offerings, put there when the Pyramids of Giza were still brand new. Whenever one turned up, everyone gathered round to watch the trembling student become the first person to touch it in 5,000 years. The photographer Jim Richardson, who spent days at the dig, writes that real people began to emerge from the mists of prehistory, not so different from us. 2024 was to be the last season, after which the site would be covered over to keep it for future generations.

See Ness of Brodgar · Orkney
From the JournalThe journal53 minutes ago

Conquering the Old Man of Hoy

A true icon of the Orkney islands - The Old Man of Hoy rises defiantly from the churning blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Did you know1 hour ago

Start Point lighthouse, on the island of Sanday in Orkney, is the only lighthouse in Scotland painted in black and white stripes.

The first marker on Start Point was an unlit stone tower, and ships kept being wrecked on the point. So the engineer Robert Stevenson moved the light from neighbouring North Ronaldsay, and the new lighthouse shone for the first time on 2 October 1806. It was the first lighthouse in Scotland with a revolving light, which made it easy to tell apart from the others. The bold vertical stripes came around 1915, to make the tower an unmistakable landmark by day. The last keepers left in 1962, and today a sensor switches the light on and off with the daylight.

A white sand beach in Orkney, with an old creel washed up among the stones.Read about it
Free1 hour agoOrkneyStanding Stones of StennessAttractionOrkneyRackwick BayAttractionOrkneyUnstan CairnAttractionOrkneyMaeshowe Chambered CairnAttractionOrkneyGlimps Holm BeachAttraction

Free to visit.

Beaches, waterfalls, viewpoints and stones: nothing to pay and nobody to ask.

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Did you know1 hour ago

A fulmar ringed as a chick on the Orkney island of Eynhallow in 1975 was spotted again in 2021, aged 45 years, 9 months and 12 days.

A volunteer bird ringer fitted the numbered ring while the bird was still a fledgling, and when it was seen again the number gave away its exact age, making it one of the oldest of its kind ever recorded. Fulmars take life slowly: one might be as old as 12 before it lays its first egg. Eynhallow is a small uninhabited island between Rousay and the Orkney Mainland, and the University of Aberdeen has been studying its fulmars since 1950. These long-lived seabirds nest on cliffs right across Orkney.

Fulmars wheeling above a lighthouse on a headland in Shetland.Read about it
Quiz1 hour ago

The weather is so harsh on Hobbister Moor in Orkney, where Highland Park cuts its peat, that no trees grow. What is its peat made from instead?

Did you know2 hours ago

North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, has the tallest land-based lighthouse in the British Isles, and close by stands an older beacon that was put out in 1809.

The tall tower dates from 1854. It is built of brick, because the island had no good stone for masonry and brick was easier to ship in. Before work began, its builder had to make a stone jetty half a mile long with the help of the islanders. It stands 42 metres high, with 176 steps to the top, and in 1889 it was painted with two white bands so ships could pick it out by day. The Old Beacon nearby was first lit on 10 October 1789, built by Thomas Smith with his stepson Robert Stevenson. Once a new light went up on neighbouring Sanday, the old one was thought unnecessary and put out, but its tower still stands.

Photograph: rachelvisualSee North Ronaldsay · Orkney