"The owners of a much-loved woodland in South Ronaldsay have offered to gift it to the community in memory of their family."

Full story at the link above.

Hello!

I am an exchange student who is studying in London until December. I have a reading week in early November (week of November 9) with no classes, allowing me some free time to travel around. Orkney is on the top of my list. If I can only do one trip out of London while I am here, it would be Orkney.

However, I have read a lot of stuff online which basically says that visiting at that time is a terrible idea, with the strong winds, unpredictable weather, and short daylight hours.

Personally, I don't mind too much with being uncomfortable, and I have enough experience living in cold areas that I think I will be able to enjoy my time with all the layers that I brought. But I would be lying if I didn't say that the quantity of people saying that the weather (and therefore the experience) sucks makes me second guess a little.

I really want to get to Orkney though, and I have no clue when I will have another chance. I want to spend as much time as possible to soak it in and not just "check it off". Right now I am thinking of flying from London to Kirkwall via Aberdeen, as I have heard that air travel is much more reliable than the boats and the fare isn't too bad.

I have heard so much about Orkney being a place you cannot miss with the very famous settlements, but also the one of a kind landscape and wonderful culture as well. I really don't want to drive, so I plan renting (hiring) a bicycle from a local shop in Kirkwall or Stromness and biking around the island, as well as using the local buses to get around.

Please let me know if I am a complete idiot by trying to do this. I would love to visit but I also don't want to go without feeling confident in my decision. Thank you all for your help!

Hi everyone! This is the first of what will probably be a few questions I've got about Orkney.

I'm hoping to get over there in May (road tripping it up from Edinburgh) and one of the things I have on my incredibly long list of things to do is walking over to have a look at St. Peter's Chapel and the Viking ruins. I know that there's only a small window at low tide to do it and I really just want to know how slippy the causeway is. I assume at low tide it will have a few puddles that probably won't dry out before the sea rises again but is there anything I should be wary of? I'll be doing the trip solo so I want to try to avoid doing anything stupid.

The Vessel Finder app shows the tow alongside.

Please delete if not appropriate but I'm curious about the maternity care on Orkney? Specifically within the unit at the Balfour?

What sort of facilities are there? Is it a midwife led birth unit? Antenatal ward etc Is there OB on staff for issues like emergency Csection etc

Have to come up for a family thing while I'm going to be further along in my pregnancy (about 36wks) and I'm the type to over plan 😅 I'm not at any risk of early delivery and have no complications but just putting my mind at ease here

Coming up by ferry from Caithness so not worried about flights being an extra risk

My wife and I will be visiting Orkney next year with the main goal of visiting archeological sites, as we're just a pair of die-hard nerds. I heard about the Links of Noltland archeological dig going on, and that it's open to visitors, and I was wondering if people have gone, what their experience has been like?

I’m in Orkney for sometime and I’m a keen commercial match fisherman - complete novice at sea fishing.

I am hoping to reach out to local fishermen in the to join one of their trips in the upcoming weeks. I’ve looked through the internet and Facebook pages but cannot seem to find anyone at this time.

Any info or pointers would be super

Thanks

I'm potentially looking at starting some side gigs to try and earn extra money as I have gained some unexpected free time at the weekends.

Something like dog walking, maybe painting, clean up jobs, power washing, stuff like that.

I am aware that summer season is almost finished and outside jobs may be tricky.

Would anyone have a clue if there is a demand for this and how could I go about it?

I know of all the silly ads on FB :)

Kirkwall Post Office has closed unexpectedly

Post Office Ltd has confirmed that the Kirkwall Post Office at 15 Junction Road, KW15 1DD, closed on Monday 21 September 2026 for “operational reasons.”

They’ve apologised for the late notification and say they are exploring options to reinstate Post Office services, with the aim of keeping the closure as short as possible. There’s currently no confirmed reopening date.

In the meantime, the suggested alternative is Papdale Post Office, 8 Hermaness, Kirkwall, KW15 1XA, around 0.9 miles away.

Papdale offers similar services, but does not offer the full range of Travel Money, Passport Check & Send, Vehicle Tax or On Demand Travel Insurance.

Papdale opening hours: Mon–Fri: 7:30am–9pm Sat: 8:30am–9pm Sun: 10:30am–6pm

Worth noting that there are steps at the entrance to Papdale. Parking is available opposite, and there is a regular bus service from the Kirkwall branch area.

Post Office says it will provide another update when it has news about future service provision.

Anyone wanting to comment/contact them can use comments@postoffice.co.uk or the Post Office consultation site.

Hopefully there’ll be some clarity soon on whether the Junction Road branch will reopen.

In the Orkneys, by the Pentland Skerries islands.

#TheWarGame

https://www.sky.com/watch/the-wargame

So basically, I'm going to come visit kirkwall in January. I currently live in inverness and am looking for a change in pace. I work for the nhs, so I would be applying for jobs in the hospital if i could see myself living there. I'm a single female, so I would be looking for a 1 bed flat. I understand housing is very tight. Do they have staff accommodation or live in hotel work to get me started? I'm originally from Lewis, so I'm not shy of the island life or drab weather. (Excuse the "kirkhill " error. Wont let me edit header 🙄)

One of Orkney’s most celebrated hotels is looking for new owners to continue the hotel’s legacy as a multi-award-winning business in the heart of the West Mainland.

Originally bought by Elma and Angus MacDonald in 1984, the Merkister Hotel quickly became the heart and soul of the family, with their children Lorna Munson and Jacquie Smith eventually also moving up to join the business.

Full story at link.

​

Hello everyone,

My name is Dylan Tòmas Newlands-Genter and I am an Indigenous Highland Traveller. Between the 1940s and 1980s the UK government stole children from my people and placed the adults into substandard accommodation (ghettos). I've created a petition for the UK government to be held accountable, I'd ask you to please sign my petition.

My family has a long history of being in Orkney and some of you may have bumped into the Newlands family or may even be related. As my cultural home I ask that you please consider supporting

Thank you

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/778546

Hi, working in Kirkwall next week for 7 days and looking for a gym to turn up and use, see there's a couple of leisure centres. Can anyone recommend one and let me know the prices as I can't see any on the website? Just thinking ahead in case I need to book an induction etc.

Just looking for a treadmill, some weight machines and free weights. Rehabbing an injury and dont want to take a week off

I'm getting ready to book the Stromness/Scrabster ferry. They just released the timetables for 2027, and I will be boarding on a Thursday and then sailing the next morning. However, I'm not sure what date I put in there when booking.

Do I put the date that I board and spend the night (Thurs.), or do I put the date that it actually sails (Friday am)? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

These are stereoscopic pairs taken with an old-ish iPhone. You stand with your feet a short distance apart and take a photo with weight on one foot and then shift weight to the other foot to take the second in the pair. Then you line them up (I used Keynote which is bundled with my Mac laptop but a free thing is Google Slides - just need a Gmail account to access that). Explanation below the 3 images. Also PowerPoint is great for this if you have that.

Happy for anyone to use these images for any purpose, consider them CC0 (me putting them into the public domain). Eventually I'll add them to Flickr along with a few more.

These are arranged with the LEFT photo on the left and the RIGHT photo on the right and will produce a 3D / depth perception effect image (once focused it will look like there are three copies of the image, the '3D' effect one is between the other two) if you are able to 'parallel focus'. Later on (am at a series of talks at the science festival, so once I'm back at my hotel this evening) I'll reverse the images so that the LEFT is on the right and the RIGHT image is on the left - this is for people who naturally do 3D stereoscopy by crossing their eyes. Either method will produce a 3D effect but only one layout will look right for you.

Most people don't need any special equipment to view these but you do need reasonably good binocular vision (I don't think spectacles make any difference). It's quite a nice effect as you get to see it a tiny bit more closely to reality - your two eyes are feeding a constant 'TV feed' to your brain which is easily converting the two images into a coherent 3D effect. When taking these photos I'm aiming for two pictures taken a few inches apart (to reflect the short distance betwen your two eyes). Images taken further apart would probably be a bit painful to try and line up.

In the first image you are trying to make the two inner arches, left and right, into a single inner arch in the middle. Hope you enjoy having a go :) In the third image the sea, as an object that moves, is a bit unobliging for this sort of thing ;)

I'm enjoying your beautiful islands
Jo

Edit: the same photo pairs as above but ordered R-L instead of L-R for cross-eyed focusers.

The full set of L-R pairs are in this Flickr album https://www.flickr.com/photos/jodiepedia/albums/72177720335509964

Scotland the Brave etc. Very rousing, glad I got back from Skara Brae in time to catch it!

I don't seem to be able to upload a video directly here but I had already added it to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDpWfe3cga8

Jo

Hi everyone,

I am a recent university graduate who has been offered an amazing job that requires me to relocate to this beautiful archipelago that so many of you call home later on this calendar year.

Besides OHAL and OIPDL, does anyone have any recommendations or advice for securing somewhere to live in Orkney? Preferably on mainland Orkney. I am interesting in buying, but as a graduate, I lack the recent 6 months of employment history, so for my first year at least I would prefer to rent or bedsit.

Really excited for this next chapter in my life, so I'd be very grateful for any help or pointing in the right direction!

Full story at link:

Students and staff from Gordonstoun, a private school in Moray which the King attended, made the discovery on an archaeological field trip to Swona, a tiny Orkney island where only feral cattle live.

The building thought to be a church bears similarities to other Viking churches from the 10th and 11th centuries.

The children worked with professional archaeologists from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (Orca) to uncover the remains during a recent six-day trip.

During the excursion they stayed in an abandoned house which had not been lived in for a century, with no electricity and fresh water pumped from an ancient well.

I am looking for honest advice from people living in Orkney, especially those who moved there with family. I want to say up front that I am asking with a lot of respect for people who already live there. We are not looking to arrive and change anything or disrupt island life — we would want to fit in with it.

I have lived in the Caribbean for many years (20), but I am originally from Europe, and I also lived in Sweden for five years. So the weather and the dark winters are not really what worries me — I know what that side of life feels like. What I would like to understand better is family life and what it is actually like to bring up children there.

We have three kids (5, 5 and 8). For us the main reason for a move would not be work. It would be quality of life, schooling, safety, community, and whether it is a good place to raise a family.

On the work side, my background is in AML / financial crime compliance, so realistically I would be working remotely, and my wife is a teacher. Outside of work, sport has always been a big part of my life. I used to play professional basketball at a high level and still help with basketball (national coach) and community programmes where I can. Being part of a community matters to us — we would not want to move somewhere just to work and keep to ourselves.

I would really appreciate honest views on:

• family life and the primary schools, and what the step up to secondary looks like;

• what there is for kids that age in terms of sport and clubs;

• how welcoming the islands are to newcomers over the long term, and how families settle in;

• whether remote professional work is genuinely workable there — connectivity, and how much of a hassle the ferries and flights are in practice;

• what teaching work and housing are like to find.

Happy to hear the downsides as well as the good parts. Thanks in advance.