Orkney & Shetland

Orkney and Shetland are known as the Northern Isles. They are part of Scotland, and yet they are distinct from Scotland, for while Scotland is conventionally split into the Gaelic Highlands and the English speaking Lowlands, the Northern Isles have a strong Norse heritage and a history and culture of their own - they only became part of Scotland in 1468. Orcadians and Shetlanders are perhaps best thought of as somewhat reluctant Scots.

Orkney is an archipelago of around 70 islands lying 10 miles north of the Scottish Mainland, from which it is separated by the turbulent Pentland Firth. There are 20 populated islands. Mainland is the largest and has two main settlements: Kirkwall and Stromness.  The remaining islands include Hoy, Sanday, North Ronaldsay and Westray and Papa Westray, linked by the shortest scheduled air route in the world!  

Orkney is renowned for its rich prehistoric archaeology and history and boasts “The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site”

Orkney can be reached by air (car hire is readily available on arrival and there is also an excellent pubhic transport network) or by ferry from the North Mainland.

Shetland, a cluster of more than 100 islands, lies on the 60th parallel, 600 miles north of London and less than 200 miles from Norway.

Location is everything, for although sitting on the same latitude as the southern tip of Greenland, Anchorage in Alaska, St Petersburg and Oslo, and appearing remote to southern eyes, (the Romans called Shetland Ultima Thule, the end of the habitable world), the Islands are actually at the centre of their own world, that of the Northern Seas.

Shetland lies at the junction of temperate Europe and the Arctic Circle and of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and these conspire to give the Islands a magic all of their own. Geology, scenery, wildlife, archaeology, history, culture…. all have been shaped by the sea.

As with Orkney, Shetland can be reached by air and a car hired on the island, or by ferry from Aberdeen or Orkney.