Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Boat
Ferries to the Northern Islands depart from the town harbour; however, ferries to
Aberdeen and Shetland use the Hatston terminal, 1 mile northwest.
Bus
Bus X1 runs direct from Kirkwall to Stromness (30 minutes, hourly, seven Sunday);
bus 2 runs to Orphir and Houton (20 minutes, four or five Monday to Saturday); bus 6
runs from Kirkwall to Evie (30 minutes, three to five daily Monday to Saturday) and to
Tingwall to connect with the ferry to Rousay. All services leave from the
bus station
(West Castle St)
.
East Mainland to South Ronaldsay
After the sinking of the battleship HMS
Royal Oak
by a German U-boat in 1939, Winston
Churchill had vast causeways of concrete blocks erected across the channels on the east-
ern side of Scapa Flow, linking Mainland to the islands of Lamb Holm, Glims Holm, Bur-
ray and South Ronaldsay. The Churchill Barriers, as they became known, flanked by the
rusting wrecks of the blockships, now support the main road from Kirkwall to Burwick.
Getting There & Away
Bus 3 from Kirkwall runs to Deerness in East Mainland (30 minutes, three to five Monday
to Saturday), with some buses calling at Tankerness. There are buses from Kirkwall to
South Ronaldsay's St Margaret's Hope (30 minutes, almost hourly Monday to Saturday).
EAST MAINLAND
At Tankerness is the mysterious Iron Age site of
Mine Howe
(
01865-861234;
www.minehowe.com
;
adult/child £4/2; 10am-4pm daily Jun-Aug, 11am-3pm Tue & Fri
Sep & May)
, an eerie underground construction, the function of which is unknown. In the
centre of an earthen mound ringed by a ditch, a claustrophobic, precarious flight of nar-
row steps descends steeply to a stone-lined chamber about 1.5m in diameter and 4m high.
Archaeologists from TV's
Time Team
concluded that it may have had some ritual signific-
ance, perhaps as a shrine.
LAMB HOLM
On tiny Lamb Holm, the
Italian Chapel
(
01865-781268; admission free; 9am-dusk)
is all that remains of a POW camp that housed the Italian soldiers who worked on the
Churchill Barriers. They built the chapel in their spare time, using two Nissen huts, scrap
