Island 110 - Papa Westray, Orkney

Papa Westray (or Papay as it is known by the locals) can be reached by passenger boat from Pierowall on Westray or vehicle ferry from Kirkwall twice a week.  Alternatively you can take the shortest scheduled flight in the world from Westray to Papay.  It takes 2 minutes, so is comprised entirely of take off and landing.  We chose this way to arrive and for someone who has only flown once before in a fixed wing aircraft, it was quite scary.  The plane is very noisy.  It only takes 8 passengers and you can see the pilot.  At one point during the 2 minute flight the pilot looked down at his paperwork, which concerned me slightly!  We flew from Kirkwall to Westray first, so there were 2 take offs and landings for the journey.  It took ages to get to Westray, as we were flying into a very strong headwind of above 35 miles an hour.  The return journey was much quicker with the wind behind us.   

 

There is a small museum, which is free to look round at Holland Farm, which was the home to the Traill family, who were lairds of the island for 3 centuries.  This was one of the few places on the island to shelter on a showery and very windy day.

There is no café on the island but the shop is very well stocked and we were allowed to go in the hostel, which is next to the shop and help ourselves to tea and coffee for a donation and sit in the hostel’s dining room.  The hostel seemed very well equipped.

St Boniface Kirk on the west coast is one of the oldest Christian sites in Northern Scotland.  Other historical sites on the island include a water mill, St Tredwell’s Chapel and smaller sites from the Iron and Bronze Ages.

The northern end of the island is a Nature Reserve and the rare Primula Scotica can be seen here. 

Loganair Plane at Papa Westray Airport

 

Papay Airport - on a very windy day

 

The markings for the airport approach have been painted directly on to the dry stone wall

 Looking towards Holm of Papa Westray 

 

The east coast of Papay 
 

Knap of Howar

 

My main reason for visiting Papay was to visit the Knap of Howar, which is the oldest standing house in Northern Europe.  It was first occupied 5,000 years ago.  You can walk into it, although you need to stoop to get through the low entrance corridor. 

Knap of Howar