Orkney – Fossils on Burray and Soft Play in Kirkwall
A day.
The route
Orkney has a whole day for young families, nearly all of it under a roof.
On Burray, the Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre lets children hold a real fossil and see rocks glow in the dark. Back over the Churchill Barriers in Kirkwall, Jungle World at the Pickaquoy Centre is soft play made for under-fives. It suits families with babies and toddlers.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
None of ours is close by: the nearest is House of the Northern Gate, 28 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
Burray
Fossils and glowing rocks on Burray in the morning, and lunch in the centre's café. Then it's back over the Barriers for an hour in the ball pool while you sit with a coffee.
About four and a half hours
Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre
The Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre is on Burray, on the left half a mile after the third Churchill Barrier as you come from Kirkwall, with parking in front of it. It opens every day from 10am to 3pm and gives no date for closing for the winter, so from November ring 01856 731255 before you go. Adults pay £7.50, a family of two adults and two children under 16 pays £20, and under-fives go free, at the time of writing. Downstairs, children can hold a real fossil 30 million years old, see the fossilised remains of creatures that lived in Orkney hundreds of millions of years ago, and look at rocks that glow in the dark. You go in step-free through the tearoom, with an accessible toilet by the main door, and the downstairs galleries are mostly level; the Glow Room is down steps, and the heritage galleries upstairs have no lift. Lunch is in the Relic Café, open 10am to 3pm, and a table can be booked by phone.
20 min by car
The Pickaquoy Centre
The Pickaquoy Centre is about 20 minutes' drive back over the Barriers, on Muddisdale Road on the west side of Kirkwall, with plenty of parking. Jungle World is its soft play for children up to five, with a ball pool, a log slide, big stacking cubes, musical instruments and a toddler corner for the littlest. It's open until 6pm at weekends and 8pm on weekdays, at £5.15 a child an hour at the time of writing, and shuts now and then for a private party, so check the centre's programme changes page first. A netted wall runs between the soft play and the Picky Café, so you can watch with a coffee and a scone; the café shuts at 3pm on some days. There's a disabled toilet with baby changing opposite the cinema doors. Ring 01856 879900 about the way into Jungle World with a buggy.
If it rains
It's all indoors but the short walks from the car.
Worth a detour
- Italian Chapel
The Italian Chapel is beside the road on Lamb Holm, between the barriers, a few minutes on from Burray: two Nissen huts that Italian prisoners of war turned into a painted chapel. It costs £4, with children of 12 and under free, at the time of writing. From November to March it shuts at 1pm, so in those months stop on the way out to Burray instead, and there's a step up at the door.
Lynnfield Hotel, a restaurant in Kirkwall.
Polly Kettle, a restaurant in Burray.
Make it a weekend
More days out on Orkney.
Photographs by Gema Garcia and The Pickaquoy Centre via Google