Visiting Hoy: A Day Trip To The Highest Island In Orkney

There are plenty of islands to explore in the Orkney archipelago, from the islands to the south which are connected by road, to the varied North Isles with sandy beaches and cliffs full of puffins, or the island of Rousay which has so much history it’s been nicknamed the “Egypt Of The North”.

However, if you only had time to get a boat out to one island during a trip to Orkney, I would have to recommend Hoy.

Hoy is easily accessible either on the passenger ferry from Stromness, or the car ferry from Houton, near Orphir. Both of these ferries land on different places on Hoy – we’ve travelled on the passenger ferry before and visited the north of the island, taking the local bus over to Rackwick and walking to the Old Man Of Hoy. I’ve written about this trip before in my Orkney coastal walks post, but I’ll add some information to the end of this post too, as it’s probably the top attraction for visiting Hoy.

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On our trip this summer, we planned to get the ferry from Houton to Lyness as foot passengers to visit a museum, before a couple of friends decided they’d like to join us, which led to a decision to take the car instead and make more of a day of it.

As the largest Orkney island outside the mainland, it’s the one island I would recommend taking a car if you can – but there’s still plenty to do if you just go as a foot passenger.

Here’s what we got up to on our full day on the island.

Scapa Flow Museum

The main reason we were heading over to Hoy was to visit the newly renovated Scapa Flow Museum. We have heard so much about this museum since it re-opened last year, and it’s even just been shortlisted for extra funding as one of the best museums in Scotland!

As it was our first visit to Orkney since the renovations, we knew we had to go.

Even better – the museum is free!

We did donate some money and also grabbed tea and coffee from the café before we went into the museum itself. Given that almost everyone from the ferry had gone straight to the museum, this gave them a bit of time to get ahead of us, so we would have a quieter visit.

The Scapa Flow museum is FANTASTIC. It explores Scapa Flow’s crucial role as a naval base for Britain during WWI and WWII, with artefacts, information, videos and stories from wartime Orkney. There’s even an interactive room where you can use an Xbox controller to look around the entire area virtually on a TV screen. So cool! We met a lovely older lady in there who didn’t know how to use it so she was thrilled when we turned up and “showed her around” and I ended up chatting to her for ages.

There’s also the historic pump house building with the original machinery intact.

Just a short walk from the ferry terminal, it’s very possible to visit as a foot passenger and then head back on the next ferry.

However, we had plenty more plans on the island.

Read more about Orkney: Why You Should Visit Orkney

Longhope

It turned out that none of us had been to Longhope before, so we decided to head down there first. Unfortunately, the Lifeboat Museum was shut, which is a shame as although it’s small, it’s meant to be another excellent museum.

The Lifeboat Museum also pays tribute to the Longhope Lifeboat disaster of 1969, where eight men lost their lives trying to rescue a ship that had been caught in bad weather. The remains of the ship can be seen on a beach in Grimness in South Ronaldsay – but what’s even more sad is that everyone survived the shipwreck, meaning the lifeboat didn’t really need to be launched. Of course, nobody could have known that at the time, but it’s a really tragic story, especially as six of the men were from just two families.

The museum is only open Wednesday – Friday, but if you happen to be there on one of those days, it’s free!

Next, the shop in Longhope village was also shut, as were the public toilets. Our trip to Longhope was going extremely well!

No matter – the main attraction we were heading to was the Martello Tower & Battery.

…which was also shut.

It seems it’s only open Monday – Thursday, which is bizarre not having a tourist attraction open at a weekend? Anyway, I couldn’t resist climbing up the ladder, even if I couldn’t go in!

Unable to continue our military education, we had one more stop – driving to Cantick Head. You can actually stay in the lighthouse cottages, which I fancy doing one day, but one thing I will say is that the road there is horrendous. Literal pothole central. And I’d say not really worth the visit, if I’m honest, unless you particularly like lighthouses. That said, it’s been known to be good for puffin-spotting!

So, Longhope was a bit of a bust, but I would definitely recommend Martello Tower if you can catch it while it’s open, and the Lifeboat Museum too. I also liked the wee causeway over to Longhope, pictured above.

We headed up towards the north of the island instead, which to be honest is my favourite part of Hoy anyway, and I was excited that we’d have time to visit now that we’d brought the car with us.

This drive is stunning, and probably one of my favourite roads in Orkney!

On the way, there’s one main stop to make: Betty Corrigall’s grave.

Betty Corrigall’s Grave

Betty Corrigall’s story is a very tragic one – she lived on Hoy in the 1700’s, and when she became pregnant from a short-lived romance and the man buggered off and abandoned her, she was condemned by her community. Poor Betty attempted suicide twice, once by walking into the sea where she was rescued, and finally by successfully hanging herself.

Because she couldn’t be given a proper burial (she was a sinner, after all), she was buried in an unmarked peat grave instead, but the lairds didn’t want her to be buried on their land either, so she was finally laid to rest between the boundaries of the parishes.

When she was discovered 150 years later, her body was virtually intact due to the peat, and she was eventually given a proper burial with the new marked grave. This has become one of the most visited graves in Orkney, and I recommend a quick stop to pay your respects.

Moaness for lunch

Before heading over to Rackwick, we needed something to eat.

It appeared there were precisely two cafés open on Sunday – the museum café, and Beneth’ill Cafe by Moaness pier.

(As an aside, Emily’s Tearoom at Lyness looks excellent too – but it was unfortunately shut.)

There isn’t much else to do in this area unless you’re walking, but it’s definitely a good place to stop for lunch, and even more so if you’re getting the ferry to or from Stromness.

Rackwick

We had saved the best for last – Rackwick is most people’s highlight of Hoy, with the sprawling bay flanked by giant cliffs, and one of the world’s best cliff walks to the Old Man Of Hoy.

Rackwick Bay is a local favourite for camping weekends with kids, although if camping’s not your thing, there’s also a basic hostel on the hill overlooking the bay, and there’s a bothy by the beach too.

This is a fabulous area to explore – we took a walk down to the beach, ended up being stalked by a dog who had lost its owner (it was reunited when we got back up to the car park), and even made friends with a couple of highland coos.

The scenery at this end of the island is stunning, and while much of Orkney is flat and largely covered in farmland, Hoy is uncharacteristically hilly and wild, making it more like the highlands on the Scottish mainland.

For more Orkney inspiration: 50 Photos To Make You Want To Visit Orkney

Walking to the Old Man Of Hoy

I’ve covered our walk to the Old Man Of Hoy on my post about coastal walks in Orkney.

If you only have a day on Hoy, you’d just about have time to do this along with everything else, but I would prioritise perhaps Lyness and Rackwick in order to really have time.

The usual advice is to allow three hours for the walk to the Old Man Of Hoy, but to be honest we got there in under an hour, so it took around two hours with time to take photos there. It’s not a strenuous walk at all, and you get superb views of Rackwick Bay as you head up.

If you are coming over as a foot passenger, I would recommend taking the ferry from Stromness to Moaness, jumping on the shuttle bus to Rackwick from the ferry (it was £3 when we took it but that was a few years ago now), walking to the Old Man and then back through Rackwick Glen for a full day out.

This is a fantastic walk! But if you’re doing other things on this list and you have a car, just walk to the Old Man and back to Rackwick.

(As an aside, I can’t find any up-to-date info on how the bus works, so perhaps call 01856 701356 to check, as you may need to book outside the summer months anyway. When we went, a minibus met the ferry.)

Stop at the Dwarfie Stane

If you do have a car, or you fancy a walk to Rackwick as well as back, make sure to stop at the Dwarfie Stane. This is the one thing we didn’t actually do on our day on the island, but it’s an impressive rock (stane = “stone”) that has chambers carved into it from 3,000 years ago. It’s thought to be a tomb, but legends say that a dwarf, Trollid, once lived inside!

It’s a few minutes walk from the road – but it was about to rain so we headed back to the ferry, leaving the dwarf in peace.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa

A bonus is given to this road sign that had us in fits of laughter and saying it for the rest of the day. We didn’t even want to know what the hill was called – it shall forever be known henceforth as “yaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Getting to Hoy

We took the car over, which meant taking the ferry from Houton (between Orphir and Stromness) over to Lyness. There are several sailings a day – six during the week, and 3 or 4 at weekends during the summer, or 2 or 3 a day in the winter.

You can also take the ferry from Stromness to Moaness (North Hoy) five times a day, or twice a day at weekends.

Ferry tickets are just £2.82 each way, and a car is £8.93 at the time of writing (August 2023). This makes it such a reasonable day out, especially if you’re splitting the cost of the car between a few people.

For up-to-date timetables and fares, check out the Orkney Ferries website.

Overall, Hoy is probably my favourite Orkney island to visit – but there are lots of islands to explore. For more coastal walks and even better beaches, Stronsay is a great choice. For archaeological wonders, Rousay is the best place to go. For puffins on cliffs, go to Westray. And to get truly off the beaten path and connect with nature (and seaweed-eating sheep), North Ronaldsay is waiting a bit further away.

But for a piece of everything, and in particular fantastic scenery, within easy reach of the Orkney mainland, my top pick is Hoy.

Want to read more about Orkney?
⭐ A Perfect Orkney Itinerary For 2, 3 or 7 Days
⭐ Why You Should Visit Orkney
⭐ 50 Photos To Make You Want To Visit Orkney
⭐ 7 Coastal Walks In Orkney You Need To Take
Or how about some other islands in Scotland?
⭐ Landscapes & History On Lewis & Harris: A Five Day Itinerary
⭐ Four Islands, One Epic Weekend On The Isle Of Mull
⭐ Spending A Perfect Weekend On Skye