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Window on Orkney
The images shown below are set to appear randomly in the window on the main page. We thought you might like the chance to find out something about the photograph and see a larger version. The pictures are a random selection that have appealed to us and they will be added to frequently.
If there is a view of Orkney you would particularly like to see, let us know.
Aurora Over Rousay
Most winters you get a few displays of the Aurora Borealis in Orkney, though they're not often as bright as this. The Orkney name for them is the Merry Dancers, which my father believes should be Mirri Dancers, the Orkney word for hazy or blurred
It used to be believed that red Merry Dancers were a sign of war and vivid displays are said to have been seen before both World Wars.
Photo: Max Fletcher
Barrier Beach
This beach has built up against the east side of the furthest south of the four Churchill Barriers, between Burray and South Ronaldsay. Before the barriers were built, ships were sunk to block the channels in WWI and two used to lie on this beach. When I last brought my children here to swim, less than ten years ago, a fairly large boat lay on the sand, visible right down to the keel. The sand has built up so quickly that not even the ship's derrick is still visible.
Birsay Whalebone
The whalebone was a well-known landmark on the coastal walk on the north shore of Birsay until it fell over this winter. Behind it you can see the Brough of Birsay, a tidal island with rich remains from the Pictish and Norse eras. It is also one of the few places in Orkney where there is a good chance of seeing puffins. There are pictures of puffins and other Orkney birds, along with lots of information in the on-line guide book.
Photo: Max Fletcher
Black Craig
This view looks south along the west coast of Orkney, to the Black Craig,with the Ward Hill of Hoy showing behind it. The picture was taken on a lovely walk last September, from Yesnaby to Stromness. All the west shore, from the Brough of Birsay to Stromness, provides wonderful walks and fantastic scenery.
The European Marine Energy Test Centre, based in Stromness, tests wave generators just off the coast here.
Bluebells in Happy Valley
Happy Valley was created by Edwin Harrold in the Bigswell district of Stenness when he planted trees along the burn beside his house. Edwin lived there to a ripe old age and welcomed many visitors to his garden and it is now being maintained by the Council.
It is worth visiting at any time but, as you can see here, it is particularly lovely when the bluebells are out.
Cathedral Nave
The building of St Magnus Cathedral began in 1137, ordered by Earl Rognvald in honour of his murdered uncle, Earl Magnus. It is built of Orkney's red and yellow sandstone, probably by masons who had worked on Durham Cathedral and was once described as 'the wonder and glory of the north'. Glasgow is the only other surviving medieval cathedral in Scotland. Visitors to the Orkney Museum across the road have been known to ask where the cathedral is. Presumably they think a medieval cathedral must be a ruin, but this one is lovingly maintained by the people of Orkney, who own it. There are lovely images and much more information in Charles Tait's guide book
Cloud Over Marwick Head
One of the simple pleasures of living in Orkney is watching the clouds and the play of light on the land and sea. This picture is taken from the Point of Buckquoy, just across from the Brough of Birsay, looking west to Marwick Head. The vertical cliff face usually dominates the view in that direction but this cloud just drew the eye to it.
HMS Hampshire, with Lord Kitchener aboard, was sunk just off Marwick Head by a mine in WWI. The weather was very different that evening and almost all the crew were lost.
Daffodils
Wordsworth would have loved Orkney in the spring, with thousands of daffodils dancing in the breeze. The older, double-headed flowers are particularly lovely and I was delighted to find these in South Ronaldsay. You can see great pictures of Orkney's wild flowers in Charles Tait's guide book.
Earl's Palace
This palace was built by Earl Patrick Stewart and completed about 1607. He didn't live in it for long, as he was charged with treason in 1610 and taken to Edinburgh Castle, where he was executed in 1615. A 1930s Orkney guide book described Patrick as "a bad ruler but an excellent architect" and the palace has been described as the finest example of French Renaissance architecture in Scotland. It has been roofless since the 18th century but remains an elegant, substantial ruin in the heart of Kirkwall.
Grey Seal
You can get a good view of Grey Seals at many places on Orkney's coastline. I took this picture at the Point of Ness in Stromness. My camera doesn't have much of a zoom, so the seals really were almost as close as they appear to be.
There are about 25,000 Grey Seals in Orkney, roughly 18% of the world population. You can find out more about the seals and see more of Orkney's fauna in Charles Tait's guide book.
Hamnavoe in Hoy Sound
The Northlink ferry Hamnavoe sails between Stromness and Scrabster three times a day in the summer. Here, she is sailing in through Hoy Sound on an August evening. Behind her, the Ward Hill of Hoy is wreathed in cloud. After a warm summer day, the sea fog often rolls in Hoy Sound.
The picture is taken from the Outertown Road behind Stromness, looking down towards the Stromness kirkyard by the shore. It ends before reaching the Black Craig but provides wonderful views of Hoy Sound and the West Shore, especially in a good westerly gale.
Hole o' Row
The Hole o' Row (rhyming with how) is a well known feature on the west coast of the Mainland. It is the southernmost point of the Bay of Skaill, a few hundred yards from Skara Brae. When a heavy swell is running in the right direction, waves can break right through it
Italian Chapel
The Italian prisoners-of-war, who worked on the Churchill Barriers during WWI were given permission to create a chapel on Lambsholm, one of the islands linked to the Orkney mainland by the barriers. Their ingenuity and artistic skill created a thing of beauty out of almost nothing and created a bond between Orkney and the town of Moena in the Dolomites, home town of the principal artist, Domenico Chiocchetti.
Dominico returned to Orkney in 1960 to do restoration work on the interior and Moena gave the way-side shrine standing beside the chapel. Other ex-prisoners have returned to Orkney and Orcadians have visited Moena. Read more about the chapel in the guide book.
Italian Chapel Interior
Domenico Chiocchetti copied the Madonna and Child behind the altar from a card his mother gave him when he left home. A white dove and the symbols of the four gospel makers are painted on the roof. The altar and altar rail are cast in concrete, which there was no shortage of. The POWs even made a concrete billiard table. The candlesticks on the altar are made of stair-rods. At the top of the picture you can just see the imitation brickwork that covers the rest of the ceiling.
Kame of Hoy
The hill in this picture taken from Warbeth beach is marked on the map as the Cuilags but it is not a name I'm familiar with. The headland on the right is the Kame of Hoy and this name seems to have spread over the whole hill. The Ward Hill next to it is the highest point in Orkney and the Kame includes St John's Head, at 351m the highest vertical sea-cliff in Britain - the bit in between tends to be ignored. The large valley between the Kame and the Cuilags is the Valley of the Seven Echoes but I haven't heard that name used recently. My mother tried it out once and said it didn't quite live up to its billing - she could only hear five.
Kirkwall Town Hall
The Town Hall, which stands on Broad Street, opposite the Cathedral, is flying the new Orkney flag. You can see this street from the other end on the Long Partnership webcam.
The small pillar under the tree is a memorial to the Covenanters who drowned when the shop they were being transported on was wrecked in Deerness. The brightly painted shop beongs to Judith Glue and the shop front beside it is the constituency office of our MP Alistair Carmichael and MSP Liam MacArthur. The shop on the far right is Tait and Style.
Mackerel Sky
This is Hoy Sound, looking towards the Kame of Hoy from the Point of Ness near Stromness. The cloud formation is known as a mackerel sky. This is the route that the Hudson Bay ships would have taken as they left their last port of call in Britain.
Millquoy Shetland Ponies
These are just some of my neighbour Jim Sclater's prize-winning herd of Shetland ponies. At the County Show this year he again won the prize for the best horse in the yard.
Shetland ponies are from 28 to 42 inches high. The Shetland Pony Stud Book Society says that they have a general air of vitality, stamina and robustness. The picture was taken in early summer, when they hadn't all lost their thick winter coats.
North Galton Castle
This strikingly two-dimensional rock stack is on the west coast, a moderate walk south of Yesnaby Castle. It featured in a TV commercial a few years ago, when a Rover car was filmed on top of it. Before the first televised climb of the Old Man of Hoy, the climbers practised here.
Pentalina
The Claymore, one of the Pentland Ferries boats, sails between St Margarets Hope and Gills Bay near John o'Groats. Here the ferry is passing Hoxa, about to complete a nice calm sunny crossing, although it's the end of March. This beautiful little bay, with its warm pink stone, lies on a favourite circular walk from St Margarets Hope, that also passes the Sands o'Wright, which you can see in another window.
Plainstones, Stromness
This is the main street in Stromness and, believe it or not, it's two-way. The distinctive paving was designed for the horse and cart - the cobbles in the centre provided sure footing for the horse and the flagstones gave a smooth surface for the cart-wheels.
Can you spot the two shops in the picture? On the far left is Rae's, the newsagent, and the nearest red frontage is First Steps, selling baby clothes.
Photo: Max Fletcher
Quandale, Rousay
Quandale, a district on the west side of Rousay, was the only part of Orkney to be cleared. It was part of the Westness estate and the owner, George William Traill, cleared 210 people from the area in 1845.
Costa Head in Evie is in the background. An experimental windmill was built there in the 1950s but it blew down.
Photo: Max Fletcher
Sands o' Wright
The firm sand of the Sands o'Wright on South Ronaldsay is the setting for the Boys' Ploughing Match every August. The large house at the top of the picture is Roeberry House. Built in 1861 it was the home of the late Brigadier Malcom Dennison, Lord Lieutenant of Orkney.
Scapa Flow from Glimpsholm
The first two islands linked by the Churchill Barriers are uninhabited. This picture is taken from the second of these, Glimpsholm, looking over Scapa Flow. I fulfilled an ambition this summer, to walk right round the island,which took less than two hours.
If you look closely at the large image, you can see birds in the water. These were eider ducks and cormorants or shags. The island on the left is Burray and the other island in the middle distance is Hunda, which is actually joined to Burray by a causeway.
Skaill Breaker
In Orkney we're spoilt for choice when it comes to beaches, whether you want to scramble on rocks, hunt for shells or play on the sand. The Bay of Skaill lies on the west side of the Mainland, in the parish of Sandwick.
It's a beautiful sandy bay and on a summer Sunday afternoon can get, by Orkney standards, quite busy. There could even be more than fifty people there. When it has been windy and there's a good swell going, the Atlantic breakers can be spectacular and I've seen kayakers surfing in on them. It looked like fun but I don't think I'll be joining them - they must have been freezing.
Snowy Maeshowe
Maeshowe in Stenness is one of the most famous of Orkney's myriad historic sites. One of the finest chambered cairns in Europe, it also has one of the largest collections of runic writing in the world, left by Vikings who broke in through the roof and carved on the walls.
We don't get much snow in Orkney but when we do the roads are blocked quickly because the wind blows it into drifts, or 'fans' as they're known here. On a still, sunny day it makes a magical landscape. Over Maeshowe's right shoulder, you can just make out the Ring of Brodgar.
St Magnus Kirk, Egilsay
St Magnus was killed by his cousin Haakon about 1117 on Egilsay, one of the smaller of the North Isles. This church was built there sometime in the 12th century to commemorate his martyrdom. The tower is 14.9m high and is now unique in Orkney, although there used to be churches with towers in Deerness and Stenness.
Photo: Max Fletcher
Stenness
This view is from the Brae of Negheads, just above my house, looking roughly east. As you can probably tell from the colours, it was taken in the autumn. In the distance you can see Maeshowe and, a little closer, the Stenness Church, which is celebrating its centenary this year.
The large white house near the middle of the picture used to be the schoolhouse and the old school is to its right, on the edge of the photo. It closed in 1994, after celebrating its centenary too. The building is now the West Mainland Day Care Centre and the new school is just around the corner, off to the left of the photo.
Stoneyhill Road
This view looks down the Stoneyhill Road in Harray, across the Harray Loch, the Brig of Brodgar and the Stenness Loch to the Ward Hill on Hoy. The Ring of Brodgar is just out of sight,between the lochs, on the right of the picture.
The lochs are famously good for trout-fishing and, as in almost all the Orkney lochs, the fishing is free. They are the largest lochs in Orkney and although just separated by a causeway, the Stenness Loch is almost entirely saline and the Harray Loch is almost entirely fresh-water.
Stromness Pier
This picture was taken beside the Stromness Museum, looking north. The Stromness waterfront is largely made up of slips and piers like these, in the brown stone typical of the area.
Almost all the waterfront houses in Stromness are like these, at right-angles to the sea. You can see another example of this in the picture of the house that used to be Login's Inn in the biography of Sir John Login. This picture is taken just a few yards north of the inn.
View from Wideford
Even if you aren't keen on hill-walking, you can still enjoy the view from Wideford Hill near Kirkwall as you can drive to the top. This is the view looking west, over the Bay of Firth to the village of Finstown and beyond, to the Harray Loch, Sandwick and the Atlantic.
The little tidal island in the bay is the Holm of Grimbister. The bay is shallow, with many skerries (rocks under water at high-tide). A hundred years ago, Finstown merchants had their own schooners and one boasted that he knew every skerry in the bay. His friends reckoned this was true, as they thought he had been aground on most of them.
The hill on the left is the Hill of Heddle and the quarry on the top provides most of Orkney's building stone.
Vintage Tractors
At the beginning of April, the Orkney Vintage Club arranged a display of ploughing with vintage tractors in Tankerness in the East Mainland. More than a dozen tractors ploughing in formation made short work of the field in the lovely dry conditions. The rich dark soil is typical of the fertile Orkney farmland.
The tractor in the lead here is the Massey-Fergusson, or little grey Fergie. The first tractor to be designed for small farms, it was introduced into Orkney after the War and made an enormous impact, although old farmers shook their heads and said they were far too heavy for the land.
Like many farmer's children, I was behind the wheel early. When I was nine I had the job of driving the tractor a few yards between the 'stooks' of oats, as my parents loaded the sheaves onto the cart.
The back wheels on modern tractors are just about as big as the whole Fergie but they'll never generate the same nostalgia and affection.
Wave with Rainbow
It wasn't very windy but there was a very good swell coming in at the Point of Buckquoy, just by the Brough of Birsay. When the wind is blowing the spray back you can see why they're described as white horses. If you look carefully at the large image you can just see a rainbow at the top of the spray.
Winter Solstice
In the Ring of Brodgar there are two stones standing back to back. My father, Peter Leith, believed that they were placed to mark sunrise on the shortest day.
21 December 2006 was a clear sunny day so we went to the ring to test the theory. The sun rises behind a hill so we only had to be there by about quarter to ten. As you can see, the sun does rise exactly in line with the double stone.
Yesnaby Castle
The Old Man of Hoy isn't the only rock stack in Orkney. This spectacular scenery is just a short walk from a car-park and is a very popular tourist spot.
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