Orkney - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 331

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STROMNESS

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3

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Main Ferry
Terminal

Warehouse
Stromness
Hotel

Hoy
Ferry
Terminal Community

Centre

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Pier Arts
Centre

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ACCOMMODATION
Brinkies Guest House
Brown's
Burnside Farm
Hamnavoe Hostel
Miller's House
Point of Ness Campsite

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4
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1
3
6

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CAFÉS, RESTAURANTS
AND PUBS
Ferry Inn
Hamnavoe Restaurant
Julia's Café and Bistro

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3
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Library

Stromness Museum

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0 200

yards

6 Hoy, Graemsay & Scrabster

women who gutted, pickled and packed the fish in barrels. Things got so rowdy by
World War I that the town voted in a referendum to ban the sale of alcohol, leaving
Stromness dry from 1920 until 1947. Nowadays, Stromness is very quiet, though it
remains an important fishing port and ferry terminal and is the focus of the popular
four-day Orkney Folk Festival , held at the end of May.
Unlike Kirkwall, the old town of Stromness still hugs the shoreline, its one and only
street a narrow winding affair, paved with great flagstones and fed by a tight network
of alleyways or closes. The central section, which begins at the imposing sandstone
Stromness Hotel , is known as Victoria Street , though in fact it takes on several other
names as it threads its way southwards. On the east side of the street the houses are
gable-end-on to the waterfront, and originally each one would have had its own pier,
from which merchants would trade with passing ships.

Pier Arts Centre
Victoria St • Tues-Sat 10.30am-5pm • Free • T 01856 850209, W pierartscentre.com
A warehouse on one of the old jetties forms half of the Pier Arts Centre ; the other half is
a modern glass-and-steel structure which offers views of the harbour. The gallery has a