Sandwick

Sandwick Map

SANDWICK (ON Sand Vik, sandy bay) The Bay of Skaill has a beautiful, if variable, beach. This is one of the best places on the west side of the Mainland for wave-watching, and depending on winter storms, it may be very sandy or all rounded pebbles and large boulders. At low tide the sand is exposed, while in westerly gales a spectacular surf breaks here. The internationally renowned prehistoric village of Skara Brae is at the south end of the bay.

Nearby Skaill House dates from the 17th century, although there was almost certainly a large Norse farmstead near here long before that. The Loch of Skaill has many wintering wildfowl, while in summer waders are abundant around its edges. The banks beside the road past the loch are particularly beautiful in May with primroses in flower, while later the loch shores are a sea of Meadowsweet and Irises in bloom.

Sand Fiold, the area of sand dunes at Skaill has been the site of several cist graves, the most recent and spectacular excavation being in 1989. A rock-cut hole 2m deep and over 3m square contained a large flagstone cist, one side of which could be opened. Inside were the remains of three burials. In one corner a large urn contained cremated remains and grass, while a mother and foetus had been placed in another corner, but not cremated. Finally more cremated remains lay in the centre and had been covered in something like matting.

Excavating the Sandfiold burial cist

The burials were made about 2000 BC, and so far this tomb is unique, other cists being much smaller and not re-used. The fact that not very much tangible evidence of the Bronze Age in Orkney has so far come to light may well indicate that much remains to be discovered.

St Peter’s Kirk, at the north end of the Bay of Skaill was built in 1837 as the Sandwick Parish Church under the Reverend Charles Clouston, a forebear of Storer Clouston the author and historian. It is a rare survival of a 19th century Scots Presbyterian kirk in its most austere form. By the 1960s, St Peter's was used occasionally for worship and by the 1970s, only for funerals, the last being in 1984. A 1988 report by the Presbytery of Orkney

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