AUTUMN BREAKS


you just get on with what you have to do. A lot of people fl y into Orkney because there


are direct fl ights from Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and so on, but I always recommend that people arrive by ferry so they have that sense of arriving on an island. You get a sense of escaping to another community. People go to Orkney for different reasons.


‘It’s just so varied. The coastal walks are second to none’


The wildlife is a huge attraction. You don’t even have to be a twitcher, but if you enjoy birds in general then the sea bird colonies are just incredible. Then the Heart of Neolithic Orkney is a Unesco World Heritage Site, so if you’re into your history and archaeology then defi nitely go to Orkney. To combine all these things, it’s best to walk.


I’m a walker myself and so I loved walking on Orkney. It’s just so varied. The coastal walks are second to none. There are about 600 miles of coastline to choose from. What’s always surprised me is that each


island – even if it’s uninhabited – has its own feeling, its own theme. If you’re going to expe- rience Orkney then you should visit at least one of its smaller islands. And there are plenty of walks to be had on any of them. There’s a great walk up to the Old Man of


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Hoy. You take the passenger ferry from Strom- ness on the mainland of Orkney, which gets you to Moaness on Hoy, and then you walk through Glen Rackwick to this amazing bay, called Rackwick Bay. There’s a wee bothy there – a former croft – where you can stay overnight. From there it’s about a two-hour walk along the cliff tops to the Old Man of Hoy, which is one of Britain’s tallest sea stacks. The sight of walking over the headland and slowly seeing the sea stack emerge beyond it is very reward- ing. Watch out for the skuas, which will be dive-bombing you as you walk.


Deerness, on the eastern side of the main- land, is a bit more sheltered than the west coast. It has really good coastal features like The Gloup, a dramatic collapsed sea cave.


Shetland is similar to Orkney in terms of the


wildlife that you see. The birds are amazing and plentiful. But on the other hand Shetland is so, so different. It reminds me more of the North- West of Scotland – it doesn’t have the green, rolling hills of Orkney; it’s more rugged, and a bit more edgy and rocky. There are amazing walks to be had, which


are more wilderness walks. Orkney is slightly more civilised – you’re never too far from the


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