I Went To Scotland’s Ancient Islands | Orkney

I went to Scotland’s ancient islands. Lying off the north coast of Scotland, there is an archipelago of around 70 islands. A place where humans have lived for more than 8500 years and history is never far from where you look. Welcome to the Orkney Islands.

I start my journey in Scrabster on Scotland’s northern coast and catch the ferry to Orkney with my campervan. I always enjoy exploring lesser-visited places and during my time on the Orkney Isles, I visit other smaller islands in addition to the Orkney mainland. I managed to travel to Westray Island, The Isle of Hoy and the Isle of Rousay.

The more I explored Orkney, the more I became fascinated with its history. I delved into its Neolithic past, including a visit to Skara Brae, The Stones of Stenness and The Ring of Brodgar. I also visited the Old Man of Hoy, a natural wonder, and learned about Orkney’s role in World War I and II at Scapa Flow. I explored the charming towns of Stromness and Kirkwall and paid a visit to the unique Italian Chapel, a testament to human creativity on these islands.

Whether you’re planning your own Orkney adventure, looking for a NC500 detour or simply curious about these Scottish islands, I hope my Orkney travel guide video will help provide insights into the beauty and history of these incredible islands.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 OTHER ISLAND VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE:
▶ SHETLAND: https://youtu.be/92eIJSKrtWA?si=UZY6Uj4YPStlVKd-
▶ ISLAY: https://youtu.be/M9IQXLRrujo?si=1vkuXxjXOeza-VWI
▶JURA: https://youtu.be/VS9YI2M0hSU?si=-yZFdLNZBDxvYxeW
▶ GIGHA: https://youtu.be/W7Y9-M9qiDY?si=IMx9gKBvoDxh3kVi

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WHO AM I?
I’m Ruth 👋 and I recently bought a campervan to travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years. I’ve hardly seen anything or been anywhere in my home country Scotland and now is time to change that!

I am a huge fan of campervan travel and alternative living and I’ve spent over 600 nights living in vans, it’s my favourite way to travel due to the incredible freedom, adventure and the affordability.

My campervan is a 2001 Toyota Hiace high roof van. It was originally used by the Royal Mail and then purchased by the previous owner and self-converted into a DIY campervan.

On this channel, I’ll be sharing about my campervan, any DIY I do, and most importantly sharing my road trip adventures as I finally get to travel my beautiful home country of…. SCOTLAND!

DISCLAIMER: Affiliate links may be included in the description.

8,500 years that’s how long people have lived on these lands lying off the North Coast of Scotland is an archipelago of about 70 Islands a place where history is never far from where you look there’s so much to experience from dramatic Cliffs wartime shipwrecks prehistoric tombs breathtaking beaches

And incredible Wildlife join me as I explore the Arney Islands my journey to the ory Islands began in scrapster a town on Scotland’s northern coast I boarded the north link Ferry headed for stom Ness and it turned out to be one of the most scenic Ferry rides

I’ve ever taken I chose the 7 p.m. sailing and enjoyed an amazing sunset from the ship as we approached Arney we sailed past the of Hoy there were great views of the old man of Hoy sea stack and St John’s head one of the UK’s highest vertical Sea

Cliffs around 90 minutes later we arrived in stroes a beautiful town on or’s Mainland Island which happens to be Scotland’s sixth largest island I spent my first night at the point of NES Campsite in Strom Ness it’s got all the amenities you would need if you’re traveling by camper van

I started my journey in orne by exploring the heart of Neolithic orne one of Scotland’s six UNESCO world heritage sites approximately 5,000 years ago the prehistoric people of the ory Islands began constructing remarkable Stone monuments the four sites within the heart of Neolithic orany are exceptional examples of Neolithic craftsmanship and

Architecture together they represent one of Western Europe’s Most well preserved Neolithic Landscapes it’s absolutely unbelievable how long this has been here for I can’t believe people were standing on this land almost 5,000 years ago it’s incredible the Ring of Broger is one of the British isle’s largest stone circles

At around 104 M wide there’s strict instructions to stay to the outside path it looks like previously that you could go on the inside path on the inside of the stones it would be nice to do that to see the stones close up but at the moment I think they’re doing some

Conservation efforts there so you can only walk around the outside but you can still get a good view there’s a carved ditch around the exterior and it’s surrounded by beautiful locks and Hills out of the original 60 Stones 36 are still there today around a mile away you’ll find the

St Nest Stones there were originally 12 Stones but now four massive upright Stones remain reaching Heights of up to 6 M so I’m walking into the middle of the stone Sur here wow so beautiful here there was a lady playing the drums and I don’t know why

Maybe it was something to do with it being the standing stones but it sounded really Nice and then this here was where they would have a fire back in the day 5,000 years ago and sing songs and play music it’d be so cool to have a fire in the middle though and everyone’s gathered here and then you have the stones around you

Just behind me here is Scara BR I’m going to go along and have a look it’s a really important site here in ory and it’s a prehistoric Village which is over 5,000 years old Scarab bra is often referred to as the Scottish Pompei for its remarkable state of preservation dating back 5,000

Years it was discovered in 1850 when powerful waves tore apart a sand June revealing several ancient houses hidden within it today you can see nine of these surviving houses these old dwellings still feature Central Hearts box beds covered passageways and Furniture used for storing household items the fourth

Site in the heart of Neolithic Arney is mow a chambered tomb it was designed so that during the winter solstice the sun setting light shines into the passage lighting up the chamber inside they only allow a limited number of people inside each day and you should book your

Tickets ahead of time I could get tickets the next available ones were in 3 weeks so if you plan to visit I recommend booking well in advance I then explored stess which is the second biggest town in orany and is very picturesque known for its Charming Harbor and historic Stone buildings

Stromness offers a glimpse into ory’s Maritime past its cobbled streets and Alleyways wind through the town leading to quaint shops cafes and art galleries it reminded me a lot of lar in Shetland and I picked up some ory oat cakes and Arney butter at a deli that I came

Across in the town for those of you traveling by camper van it’s useful to know that the north link Ferry Terminal building in Stoess has 1 showers and a Laundry y naabi has incredible Cliffs sea stacks and rocky shores formed from ancient seabed rocks dating back 4 million years wow these Cliffs are so impressive and it’s only a 20 30 minute walk from the car park to the point over here where you can see the

Sea just where I was standing a moment ago there is actually an arch there water’s so blue as well I then stopped at the orany brewery for lunch which was recommended to me by a local they offer a selection of delicious dishes using locally sourced produce and seafood I tried the Wester

Open sandwich which included locally caught smoked mackerel it was delicious my lunch at the orany brewery was amazing the menu there is fantastic there’s lots of seafood from orany so if you’re in the area that’s a great place to go for lunch I’ve now arrived at a

Place called The Brock of bur this is an island which is accessible at low tide When the tide goes out you can walk across I checked the tide times today and the low tide is around 3:00 so it’s just before 3:00 now and the car park is

Quite busy here I think everyone’s come for the low tide I’m going to walk over Island this title island is reachable for approximately 2 hours before and after low tide there’s remains of a pictish settlement and later structures including a viking church you can explore a cliff path around the island and it’s even possible to spot puffins here sometimes I headed to Ting wall to

Catch the ferry to Rousey Island the unique thing about this Ferry is that you have to reverse onto to it which was a new experience for me it was a bit challenging but I successfully Managed IT first fairy that I’ve ever got on that you reverse onto the ferry if

Anyone else has experienced a ferry like this please let me know in the comments where it was wow it was a bit nerve-wracking getting on but it was manageable they help you with the reversing and you can look in the mirror so that was good Martin who works on the

Boat um he actually watches the channel so he said hello so that’s really cool and so he lives on the island of Rous so we’re heading there should be arriving shortly great see you later thanks Martin last night I stayed here on the island of Rousey at the py motor home stopover and py is the word in Arne for small small or we so in Mainland Scotland we say we to describe something small in or they say py and then in

Shetland they say py so you might see those words if you travel to ory or Shetland so this is the PD motor home stopover and there’s place for a few Vans to park up here there’s incredible views I woke up this morning to the most amazing views over the islands in the

Distance if you’re seeing in your camper van you can drop any toilet waste here and you can stay the night here for £10 the owner is actually Martin who I met on boat and he’s building an Ecco house here on the island and he showed me around yesterday and it’s incredible

He’s building the house from straw and tires and he even has a natural swimming pool if anyone’s watched any videos about natural swimming pools before you’ll know how interesting they are Martin the owner was telling me that his motor home stopover is part of CRA so

Cra is a new system that has been set up which is based on the model of airs in France so I’ve I’ve never been to France in my camper van and I’ve never stayed on air this is the first one but it’s basically a more simple setup H where

You can drop your waist and you can park somewhere safe overnight and they’re usually cheaper than the full service camp setes that you’ll find with all the amenities like showers and toilets and bins and all that I’ll keep an eye out for more of these Campa stopovers as I

Travel more in my van in Scotland let’s go and explore the island Rousy is the sixth largest of the or islands and it’s home to a population of around 219 people the island has been given the nickname Egypt of the North and the reason why is because there’s a huge

Number of archaeological sites here on the island and at the last count there was 166 sites to visit here so today I’m going to explore some of Them wow so inside they’ve built this roof here to protect the tomb looks like there’s also a ladder which goes down to the lower levels so let’s go down and have a look There okay so we’re in the lower tomb here and it’s a bit dark so I hope you can see just a few minutes on from the previous site there’s another one called the black hammer chamber car so this one was built 5,300 years ago and it was discovered only in

1936 Wow Let’s go and have a Look so you enter through this hatch and into this tomb wow it’s like a tunnel so there’s been the concrete roof constructed on top here again wow it’s just fascinating that these are so old people’s hands 5,000 years ago lifted these rocks and constructed this tomb I really enjoyed going to scur on

The mainland of orne but it is a major tourist site and with a lot of tourists on the mainland in Arney of course everyone heads there sky was really fantastic but I really enjoyed these smaller Islands so much more I’ve arrived at at one of the major sites

Here on Rousy this one seems to be the top one to go and see it’s called midow Brock and chambered care it’s just started raining so going to enjoy my coffee looking out at the view wait for the rain to stop before I head down I

Think there’s a bit of a walk to get to this one on some of the previous videos there were questions about what time of year I was visiting these places that I’m going and it’s early September at the moment that I’m here on orne the rain is not stopping and I was

Reading some reviews and looking at pictures on Google and someone wrote on Google reviews even if it’s raining it’s worth walking down because it’s that good so I’m going to embrace the rain and just go for it I think I’ve just arrived this looks like the building

Here 32.5 M long Neolithic tomb with fragile remains about 5,400 years old wow It mentions here that basically these barriers have been put up due to the risk of falling material so I think previously you could go inside like I was inside some of the other tombs but this one at the moment it’s not possible to go in due to the danger of Falling

Rocks but still incredible to see I’m going to go up there looks like you can climb up there and have a look from the top I find it really fascinating that this used to be the tradition of a burial and then things have obviously changed now in Scotland graveyards and

Cemeteries or chrom are are more common when I was living in Japan I really like the tradition that they had there that after someone has passed away they have the funeral but then one year later I think it’s be 3 years or 5 years or seven years later they again have

Another gathering on that same day to celebrate that person and everyone comes together who knew that person they enjoy a meal together they enjoy a ceremony together remember that person again even years after they’ve they’ve passed away I really like that and I I almost wish

We had that here in Scotland maybe other families do that I don’t know but in my family we don’t we don’t have that tradition and I I think that’s really nice I went to one of those ceremonies and I I remember thinking it was it was

A really nice thing to do let me know in the comments below what you do in your country for a burial perhaps in ancient times what happened and also if you visited anywhere where you’ve seen something interesting please please leave a comment below and share wow super windy out there and just

Beside the tomb is this Brock and it’s in quite good condition actually Brocks are commonly found in the north of Scotland and I hadn’t heard of Brocks until earlier in this year when I traveled to Shetland and saw Brock for the first time and maybe that sounds really ridiculous being from Scotland

And not knowing Brocks but in the south of Scotland where I’m from we don’t have any Brocks or I’ve not seen any we tend to have castles instead so it’s interesting to learn more about the history in other parts of Scotland and the plaque outside said that Brocks were

Generally built between 1,900 and 2,300 years ago which is amazing I have stopped at this beach on the north side of the island which has some seals I can see some seals out the window here going to sit inside the van and have a snack hamus and oat cakes and watch the the

Seals oh they’re bobbing up on the water and there’s some on the Rocks as well I love seals I stopped at the sh honesty Cafe in Heritage Center before my journey back to the ory main island oh my gosh the f is getting soaked with seawat from the ferry oh my

Goodness I’m going to have to wash the van to get rid of all this sea water otherwise it’s going to get rusty I’m here at the Highland Park whiskey distillery in kirkwall this is a really well-known brand of whiskey although I don’t really know much about

It so today I’m going to do the tour it cost £30 to do the whiskey Distillery tour here let’s go in and find out more on the tour I learned that Highland Park is the largest whiskey distillery in Arney and has been named the best spirit in the world three times unlike many

Distilleries in Scotland Highland Park still practices traditional floor molting in the video I made about Isa I also visited kilom Distillery which shares this traditional approach Highland Parks Pete differs from Isa Pete because it lacks tree roots the 30 CH of The Distillery includes three tastings and lasts approximately 1 hour

An Arney local recommended me to try an orne Patty and these are basically mints and Tatty and they kind of look a bit like crocketts I’m not really sure but I ordered the cheese and onion one I also got chips and cheese so this is also a specialty from Scotland just just joking

But it’s quite a common order that you can get in the chip shop and because the cheese is famous on orne I got the chips and cheese with the ory cheese just to try it and also about half a bottle of vinegar has been put on top of these

Chips so I’m going to give it a try let’s see what the Patty tastes like o so there’s a few places that sell these patties in orc but I went to the harbor fry fish and chip shop um here at the seafront in kirkwall okay let’s give the Patty a try

M very good M the cheese and onion Patty is delicious definitely recommend you to try it let’s try the orne cheese and chips excellent very well seasoned so you can also eat inside the harbor fry but um it was quite busy and also I don’t like to

Eat in chip shops cuz my hair gets smelly H from the fried oil I don’t know if anyone else has that problem but um yeah delicious need some more vinegar though you can never have too much vinegar the population of the orany islands is around 22,500 and approximately 7,500 people

Live in kirkwall so the population of orany is actually a little bit larger than Shetland it was around 133,000 if I remember but it makes sense because orany is a bit closer to the mainland and is a bit more accessible via Ferry as well there’s a huge free car park

Here in kirkwall and you can park your camper van here for 24 hours and there’s also a fantastic campsite within walking distance to the town and then you can just park up there and walk in have dinner and explore the town I’ve also seen three big supermarkets here in

Kirkwall there’s a Tesco with clothes as well a little and a co-op Kirk is a lovely town to walk around I visited the spectacular Magnus cathedral which was founded by a viking in 1137 using local red and yellow sandstone and built over a period of 300 years I also went to the

Kirkwall museum to learn about aran’s history and visited the Earls and bishop’s palaces I enjoyed walking around the streets checking out shops and taking in the harbor views really enjoyed my walk around kirkwall it’s very busy there today there’s a cruise ship that has docked and kirkwall is

Full of people so if you do plan on coming to to orany and you want to do things like the Highland Park Distillery tour I’d recommend to book in advance or perhaps check if there’s a cruise ship docking that day here at the petrol station I wonder

How much it’s going to cost for the Diesels looks like the diesel is 16190 I’ve just arrived at the Sheila Fleet Kirk gallery and cafe and apparently this is an amazing place for lunch and also Sheila Fleet is one of Scotland’s leading jewelry designers and she has an OB looks like the gallery and Cafe are inside a renovated Church let’s

Go in and have a look inside the church there’s lots of Sheila fleets jewelry on display and the restaurant serves lots of amazing local food including Seafood I’d already had lunch so I didn’t have anything but I recommend you to go if you visit orgy I’ve just arrived here at

A Viewpoint for the Church Hill barriers which you can see here in the distance behind me I’m going to drive down further and have a look at them from a bit closer I just drove over the Church Hill barriers and there’s a few different barriers that you can cross

And I spotted some shipwrecks here in the bay behind me so I’m going to go and have a look I think this might be the first time I’ve ever seen a shipwreck in Scotland on the sign it mentioned that before they built these barriers they actually sunk old ships to block the

Passage of submarines and boats entering into the bay the Church Hill barriers are a set of four causeways built during World War II to safe guard the Royal Navy Anchorage scapa flow from enemy submarine attacks named after prime minister Winston Churchill they link several islands effectively blocking Eastern access to scapa flow these

Barriers not only served as wartime defenses but also improved transportation between the ory Islands they were constructed after the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by a German submarine in 1939 highlighting the need for better protection the barriers consist of large concrete blocks placing older block ships and they were completed in September

1944 officially opening in May 1945 just after World War II ended in Europe while crossing the causeways the visible shipwrecks are the block ships from the wartime defenses on the island of lam Holm is the Italian Chapel which is a small church that Italian prisoners of War built during World War II they

Transferred a simple hatut into a beautiful Chapel using creative decorations it’s now famous landmark and a symbol of Hope and Artistry I’ve just arrived somewhere called huton and this is where I’m going to be catching the vehicle fairy over to the aisle of Hoy Hoy looks like it’s an amazing Island

And there are amazing Cliffs and a big sea stack it seems that there’s two different fairies that go to Hay one is only a passenger Ferry and then this one that I’m taking is the one that takes vehicles and passengers when I tried booking this fer some of the slots were

Already sold out so I recommend booking this fery in advance if you plan to go to Hoy where we’re about to get on okay let’s Go I’ve just arrived on the aisle of Hoy and I already love it it’s so remote there’s nobody here compared to the main island of orne these are the kind of places that I like the Isle of hay has a population of approximately 400 residents and has a

Unique landscape distinct from the rest of orne the scenery is very dramatic mountainous so I’ve just arrived here at rat Quick Car Park and parked at my van I’m going to head down and have a look at the beach my first impression of this place is incredible it is I think may be

The most impressive place I’ve ever seen in Scotland so far haven’t been that many places but wow look at those Cliffs behind Me this place is fantastic it’s just about to get dark so I’m going to stay here for the night and then Explore More Tomorrow last night I stayed in the rck beach car park and had an amazing night’s sleep I’ve just come down to have a look at the beach again before starting the walk up to the old man of hoi so it’s up that way and it takes

Around 3 hours to the return height it’s one of the most iconic sites in ory and I’m really excited to see It I don’t know if you can see in the distance the north link Ferry it’s sailing past so that’s the morning sailing which leaves from scrapster on the north of Mainland Scotland and then arrives into stom Nets Now I’m about to start the hike up to the old man of Hoy and it takes around 3 hours one and a half hours each way let’s get going really enjoying the walk so far it’s so nice to walk along the top of the cliffs here and look back over rat

Quick Beach let’s keep going so the path pretty much looks like this it’s not the easiest hike though there is a bit of an uphill from the car park so if you’re not much of a walk or hiker or if you don’t like hiking on Hills or if you have some mobility

Issues probably don’t recommend doing this Hike start to see the old man of haai poking up there not too far I think I’ve just arrived wow oh wow look at those Cliffs behind me that is insane there are no words and just in front of me here is the old man of H there he

Is wow I’ve never seen anything like that in my life before it is so impressive the old man of Hoy is a famous sea stack standing about 449 ft tall and is one of the tallest sea stacks in the United Kingdom the old man of hay is a popular attraction and has

Become an iconic natural landmark in Arney the hike to the old L of ha was amazing I really enjoyed it and I was so lucky with the Weather I’ve arrived here at the beginning of the Walk for dwarfy stone and this apparently is the oldest cutout Rock Neolithic bir elf chamber in the United Kingdom so let’s go and have a look the view of this Valley is just incredible oh my goodness wow going to have a look

Inside I’m scared to go in it says on the sign here that it was hollowed out using stone tools by hand around 5,000 years ago around the same time that the other Neolithic structures were constructed in ory and also around the same time as the standing stones the

Scapa museum on the Isle of Hoy tells the story of scapa and oran’s vital role in both world wars it has been nominated for a museum of the year and personally it’s one of the best museums I’ve ever visited that museum was really interesting and after going to the

Museum I wanted to come here to the naval cemetery on the outskirts of the town so there are a lot of graves here for the people who died in a lot of the ships that were sank in the first and second world Wars for this fair from kirkwell to westre I called up yesterday and booked it by phone you can book it online as well but my return Ferry didn’t have any availability so I’m on standby for the way back but basically they said I can

Pay over the phone or I can pay on the ferry so I chose to pay on the ferry so I assume someone will come and collect the money Soon I’ve made it onto the aisle of West stre and my first stop here is Castle Berrian it’s located around a 4-minute drive from the fair terminal and I heard it’s a great place for seeing puffins so fingers crossed I can see some today Castle Au Buran is a bulky sea stack off

The westre coast it’s said to be one of the best plac plac in all of oron to see puffins at close range so it looks like the puffins just left and it’s just the beginning of September now so they probably left just a few days ago or

Last week so I just missed them wow I didn’t know that puffins live to be 20 years old that’s really interesting if you’re here in April May time you’ve got a better chance of seeing the puffins as that’s when they arrive in Wester so apparently there are two shops

On the island and actually there are a few things produced on the island so there’s this cheese which the lady at the shop told me is produced in the north of westray and there’s also lots of cookies as well that are produced on Wester so I bought this smoked

Cannonball cheese to try I already picked up some oat cakes when I was in stom Ness so I’m going to try these as well and see how they go together I’ve stopped at this really nice picnic spot and the beach here is incredible because the sun’s out today the water is so blue

It looks amazing amazing and there’s nobody here it’s just me which is really cool let’s try the orany oat cakes and cheese M very good creamy but has a smokey flavor to it might be good with some Chutney very good so I was checking on Google and I saw this place called the

Links and it’s a beach and the reason I came here is because on Google people had posted pictures of seal that they’d seen here so I’ve decided to come but this beach is actually amazing the pictures that I saw don’t do it Justice is so cold oh I didn’t want to go out too deep just in case there’s current wow very refreshing I’ve just arrived at the campsite here on the aisle of Wester this is where I’ll be staying while I’m here it has everything you need if you

Have a camper van all the disposal and fill up facilities and there’s also showers and a laundry and it’s a great place to come with tents as well around 600 people live on the aisle of West and the main Town pier wall has a hotel campsite shop and popular fish and chip

Shop which was closed when I went I’ve had an incredible time exploring the or Islands in my camper van Ernie but the adventure on these islands is not over yet join me in my next video where I’ll be catching the shortest scheduled flight in the world which leaves from

Here the Isle of westray subscribe so you don’t miss it see you next time