Orkney's Islands

The largest of the Orkney islands is the Mainland, linked to the south isles of Burray and South Ronaldsay by the Churchill Barriers.

The other islands are reached by ferry and air services from Mainland Orkney.

Many other tours neglect the islands, but we don't! The following is a selection of highlights from the islands we regularly visit.

The Island of Hoy

Dwarfie Stane: Britain’s only Neolithic rock cut tomb.

Lyness Naval Museum & Scapa Flow visitor centre.

Martello Tower & Hackness Battery: built during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Island of Papa Westray
 
St. Boniface Kirk: 12th century church built on a massive eroding multi period settlement site, with occupation layers going back to the 3rd millennium BC.

Knap of Howar Neolithic settlement: the earliest houses in Europe dating to the mid 4th millennium BC.

The Island of Sanday

Quoyness chambered cairn: fine Maeshowe type Neolithic tomb

Tofts Ness prehistoric landscape: the Tofts Ness peninsular is a relict landscape with traces of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age occupation.

The Island of Shapinsay

Balfour Village & Heritage Centre

Burroughston Broch: Iron Age broch tower excavated in the 19th century.

The Island of Westray

Castle of Noltland: 16th century Z-plan castle probably built by Gilbert Balfour, who was implicated in the murder of Mary Queen of Scots' husband Lord Darnley.

Links of Noltland: eroding sand dunes revealing a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape, find site of the Neolithic ‘Orkney Venus’ figure aka the ‘Westray Wife’

Quoygrew Norse settlement: Viking/Norse settlement from the 9th – 17th centuries AD.

The Island of Wyre

Cubbie Roo’s castle: 12th century Norse stronghold probably built by Kolbein Hruga

St. Mary’s Chapel: 12th century chapel