Places to explore in Orkney IslandsScotland · Highlands and Islands

Orkney's main island, home to Kirkwall's St Magnus Cathedral, Stromness and the Neolithic sites of Skara Brae, Maeshowe and Brodgar

517 km²

A 137-metre red sandstone sea stack, taller than the towers of the Forth Bridge and first climbed on live television in 1967.

Great Neolithic stone circle on Orkney.

Neolithic village older than Stonehenge.

Tidal island off Birsay with Pictish and Norse ruins, a 12th-century church, a lighthouse and puffins on its cliffs

0.21 km²

Orkney's hilliest island, walked for the Old Man of Hoy and Rackwick's bay, with Scapa Flow's wartime base at Lyness

132 km²

A vast natural harbour ringed by Orkney's southern isles, a former naval anchorage and now a world-renowned wreck-dive site.

Small island with the Knap of Howar, among north-west Europe's oldest houses, St Boniface Kirk, and the world's shortest scheduled flight

8.6 km²

A characterful town museum in Stromness covering maritime, natural and Hudson's Bay Company history.

Dwarfie Stane, rock-cut tomb, Hoy

Moorland island of the Eday Heritage Walk, passing the Stone of Setter, Vinquoy's chambered cairn and red-throated divers on Mill Loch

28 km² · Orkney Islands

Hilly island with Midhowe's broch and stalled cairn, Taversoe Tuick's two-storey tomb and the Westness heritage walk along the shore

47 km²