Orkney Part 2 – Westray

11/11/2024

While we were at Pool Farmhouse we planned out our visits to other islands. We were hoping to get to Westray, Sanday and Hoy on this trip, with possible side excursions. As the ferries to Westray and Sanday left from Kirkwall it made sense to go to those islands in succession. We had been warned to book ferries a couple of days in advance, but even in low season we didn’t get on our preferred crossings. Vehicles over 5.5 meters cant be booked online, so with the aid of the very helpful booking office we managed to work out alternative options and get both crossings booked up. It’s not cheap, Orcadians get a discount but we were paying £46.60 for each leg of the journey. It soon adds up.

At the same time we were also waiting to hear back from Westray’s only campsite – Chalmersquoy. Off grid parking in good locations seemed a little limited so we wanted to be confident there was a camping option. On Search for Sites it indicated that the campsite was closed in the low season, but their own website didn’t mention closing dates. We phoned with no response but an email managed to get an answer. The owners were away but the campsite and other accommodation was still open, they just asked us to give them notice of arrival so that someone could be on site to take our cash and show us around. Knowing we had the option of a campsite gave us a bit of extra confidence.

Kirkwall

Kirkwall is the largest town in Orkney – it’s ‘capital city’. It’s also the port from which the ferries to the Northern Islands leave. We drove to Kirkwall in the morning and parking in the large carpark opposite Tesco where there are free motorhome spaces with a max 24 hour stay. We took note, as we’d be staying here overnight when we got back from Westray.

We topped up a few bits in Tesco and then ventured into Kirkwall where we enjoyed a mooch around the town. It had some lovely little boutique type shops, gift shops and foodie outlets.

We visited St Magnus Cathedral with it’s warm red sandstone glowing in the low sun. The cathedral was restored in the early 20th century, revealing the beautiful stone which had been hidden under a layer of whitewash – a common practise in the reformation where decadent colourful decorations needed to be reduced to an austere blank canvas, the better to allow congregations to focus on worship.

We popped for a lunch at Archive Coffee and The Old Library. A venue that looked like a mere hole-in-the-wall from the outside but was a lovely modern cafe with a Scandi vibe on the inside. The food was pretty good too.

Westray and Pierowall

Turning up at the harbour in Kirkwall we found a bit of organised chaos as people queued to get on the boat while others attempted to disembark. Somehow there wasn’t quite enough room for everyone, or enough clear directions. But everyone got where they needed to be eventually and we rolled on to the front of the ferry ready to roll off at the other end.

After an hour and a half of smooth and sunny crossing, fruitlessly watching for cetaceans, we arrived in Rapness. We swiftly disembarked, without any of the fuss of Kirkwall and were off on our way to Pierowall, the main village on the Island. At Chalmersquoy campsite we were welcomed by Chloe, who showed us around as much as she needed to (which wasn’t much as it was all pretty self explanatory).

Pierowall is set around a wide sweeping bay. We were staying on one side and on the other was the harbour where you could get a ferry to Papa Westray. Despite Papa Westray being on our wish-list we didn’t end up making this crossing as the weather deteriorated and we decided it wasn’t worth it.

We explored Pierowall, visiting the two small shops and the visitor centre. Seals were lounging on the rocks, occasionally lolloping into the water if we got too close. Near the campsite was Pierowall Fish, where we bought some salmon and later returned for a delicious Scallop and Chips supper.

In the end we stayed at the campsite for all of our time on Westray. Pierowall is a lovely village and a perfect location for visiting the northern end of the island (and Papa Westray if you manage it). The campsite facilities are a bit rustic for the price, but are perfectly adequate.

Quoygrew and Notland Castle

We had a couple of historic sites on our agenda for our first full day on the island. From the campsite we cycled north towards the huge sandy bay that is ‘The Ouse’. We cycled out to the shingle spit that splits the bay. From there we decided to cycle around the coast for a short way, across slabby slippery rocks to the Bay of Skaill.

A track took us across the width of the island to some amazing coast with geos and arches. Cycling south along this coastline was spectacular although my heart was in my mouth as Paul ventured close to the edge. Despite the weather being relatively calm the sea was wild with waves crashing against the rocks. On this Atlantic coast there was nothing between us and Canada, or maybe Greenland, either way it’s a lot of sea.

We stopped at Quoygrew. The remains of this Viking era settlement have been excavated and you can see the stone walls and layout of this small fishing and farmstead. Amazingly the site was used all the way through to the 30s, with successive generations building new and repurposing the older buildings.

Past Quoygrew the coast dropped down and became sandy links again.

We stopped off at the remains of a Broch before heading to Notland Castle. This 16th Century ruin was built for Balfour who was a support of Mary, Queen of Scots. His family’s fortunes seems to have been as changeable as that of his Queen. No wonder that it was built with defence in mind, studded with 71 gun loops (we didn’t count them). The castle is opened every day for visitors to access under their own steam, with kitchens, stairs, nooks and crannies to explore and torches placed a strategic points around the castle so you can peer into the darker recesses.

Noup Head

Our second day was spent walking out to Noup Head lighthouse. We cycled as far as the farm at Backarass and chained our bikes to a fence before heading out to the cliffs. Yet again we had some marvellous feature filled sandstone cliffs to gawp at as we made our way towards the tip of the headland. And yet again we were between cliffs and the soggy clifftop moorland with it’s pools and lochans. Along the way we spotted a feral cat hunting in the grass, probably from one of the farms.

These cliff views still hadn’t got boring and I filled my phone with photo after photo of interesting formations.

Noup Head Lighthouse was built by (you guessed it) one of the Stevensons in 1898. We stopped for a snack overlooking the sea before following the lighthouse track back to our bikes. This was sheep farming country and we could see several tups amongts the flocks, wearing their chalk harnesses to mark the ewes they had serviced.

 

Aurora

We spent four nights on Westray and saw Aurora on three of them. There had been quite a lot of press speculation that aurora was going to be visible so we were primed with our aurora app ready to alert us when conditions were right. In the end we were too impatient to wait for the alerts and popped out every few minutes to see whether there was any action.

Using phones on night mode shows up the aurora a lot more vividly than with the naked eye at first. Once you see it through the camera it becomes a lot more easy to spot without the camera. There is something unique about the faint glow and the way it shifts and eddies in the sky, even when its not the bright green you might expect.