Island 22 - Orkney Mainland

The landscape of Orkney Mainland is mainly low lying with gentle hills.  The highest point is Ward Hill at 268 metres.  The soils are fertile and most of the island is farmed.    East and West Mainland are joined by a narrow isthmus between Kirkwall and Scapa.  Orkney was not part of Scotland until 1468.  

I have visited Orkney Mainland on 6 occasions - 1979, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2010 and 2015.  The island can be accessed by sea or air.  The airport is about 3 miles south east of Kirkwall.  Northlink Ferries run vehicle ferries from Aberdeen to Kirkwall and from Scrabster near Thurso to Stromness.  Pentland Ferries run a vehicle ferry from Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay.  In the summer there is also a passenger ferry from John O'Groats to Burwick on South Ronaldsay.  I can recommend Kirkwall Youth Hostel for budget accommodation. 

The roads on Orkney are well surfaced and not overcrowded.  Trees are conspicuous by their absence.  The only significant areas of woodland are at Binscarth near Finstown; Woodwick at Evie and Berstane, St Ola.  These are all old plantations.

The main town is Kirkwall, which, according to the Orkneyingasaga (Viking history of Orkney) was founded in 1030 by Earl Rognvald.   The magnificent St Magnus Cathedral was founded in 1137 by Earl Rognvald, nephew of St Magnus.  The bones of St Magnus, who was martyred on the island of Egilsay around 1116 AD, are buried in the cathedral.   It  was extended in the 13th and late 14th centuries and restored 1913-30 and in the 1980s.

Orkney is a great place to watch birds and there are 6 RSPB reserves on Orkney Mainland - Hobbister, Birsay Moors, the Loons and Loch of Banks, Marwick Head, Brodgar and Rendall Moss. 

The Orkney Vole is unique to Orkney and is a subspecies of the common vole.  It is thought that common voles were introduced to Orkney by Neolithic people and have evolved since then into today's Orkney Voles, which are twice the size of common voles elsewhere in the UK.

The rare primula scotica grows on the cliffs near Yesnaby and Gaulton on the south west coast

Orkney Mainland has dozens of things for visitors to look at, although most of them are at least partly outside. 

Orkney Islands Council runs the Kirbuster and Corrigall Farm Museums -

Kirbuster Museum was opened to the public in 1986. It is the last un-restored example of a traditional ‘firehoose’ in Northern Europe. The house has a central hearth and a stone neuk bed. Kirbuster was occupied up until the 1960s. The site also has an Edwardian parlour and Victorian Gardens. The ‘implement shed’ contains a collection of farming memorabilia.

Opened to the public in 1980, Corrigall Farm Museum is a traditional ‘but and ben’ house. It portrays a typical Orkney farmhouse and steading in Victorian times - late 19th Century. There is a working barn, grain kiln, horse-drawn machinery and livestock.

Historic Scotland manages the larger archaeological sites:

Click Mill, Dounby - the last horizontal watermill in Orkney

Skara Brae

One of the best preserved groups of prehistoric houses in Western Europe.  Skara Brae was discovered in 1850 when it was uncovered by a storm.  The site is 5,000 years old, it was buried by a sandstorm in around 2450 BC and was excavated in the late 1920s by Professor Gordon Childe.  The interconnected houses have stone beds, dressers, seats, hearths and fishponds.

Skaill House, which is located a short distance from Skara Brae, was built for Bishop George Graham in the 1620s but it has been added to extensively by subsequent generations.  It has been open to the public since 1997 and is furnished in  the style of the 1950s.

Skara Brae

Ring of Brodgar

A magnificent circle of upright stones with an enclosing ditch spanned by causeways, dating to late Neolithic period.  There are currently 27 upright stones but there were once 60.

Standing Stones of Stenness

The remains of a stone circle surrounded by remains of a circular earth bank.  There were originally 12 stones.  A large Neolithic temple complex has recently been excavated at the Ness of Brodgar between the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.

Round Church, Orphir

The Earl’s Bu at Orphir is the name for the foundations of ancient buildings, which may be an Earl’s residence of the Viking period.   The church is of the 12th-century, and consists of the chancel and part of the nave of the only medieval round church in Scotland.

In 1581 Robert Stewart, the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland, was made Earl of Orkney.  He and his son Patrick were tyrants and used forced labour to build palaces in Kirkwall and Birsay.

Bishop's and Earl's Palaces, Kirkwall -  The Earl's Palace is possibly the most accomplished piece of Renaissance architecture left in Scotland.  Robert Stewart acquired the Bishop's Palace in 1568 and it was remodelled by Patrick in 1600.

Earl's Palace, Birsay - The ruins of the residence of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, which was constructed in the late 16th-century round a courtyard.

Broch of Gurness - One of the most outstanding surviving examples of an Iron-Age settlement in northern Scotland

Maeshowe Chambered Cairn - the finest chambered tomb in north-west Europe and it is more than 5000 years old.   It was broken into in the mid-twelfth century by Viking crusaders who carved graffiti runes on the walls of the main chamber.   This is reputed to be the largest collection of runic inscriptions in one place in the world.  Entrance is by guided tour.  The entrance is aligned so that on the winter solstice sunlight shines up the entrance passage.   This is one of the must-see archaeological sites  on Orkney together with Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar.

Maeshowe

Earth houses at Grain and Rennibister

Chambered cairns at Unstan, Wideford Hill, Cuween Hill

Stone age village - Barnhouse

The natural wonders of Orkney include:

The Gloup, Deerness

Marwick Head

There is a memorial at Marwick Head to remember the sinking of HMS Hampshire off the coast here in 1916.  All but 12 of the crew died, including Lord Kitchener.

Yesnaby - sea stack

Towards Mull Head, Deerness

Other places to visit include the Highland Park Whisky Distillery (founded in 1798), Stromness Museum, Orkney Wireless Museum in Kirkwall, Barony Mill at Birsay (a working watermill) and Mine Howe (a prehistoric man made underground chamber).

Northern Isles Ferries - Varagen, Earl Sigurd & Earl Thorfinn

Stromness

Stromness is the second largest town on Orkney Mainland.  It grew in the late 17th century when its good natural harbour was used by trading ships on their way from Europe to America.  It was a base of the Hudson Bay Company from 1670-1891.

Rendall Doocot

Churchill Barrier No 1 - Mainland from Lamb Holm