Orkney Islands: Easy like a Sanday morning
By Linzi Buckmaster
Imagine the most perfect jewel of an island, with turquoise water and white sand. This lovely island is the aptly named Sanday, one of the Northern Isles of Orkney in the far North of Scotland.
Erman Gunes/Shutterstock.com.
It offers a rich tapestry of natural beauty and history with miles of unspoiled coastline and pristine beaches.
Wild rabbit. Short-eared owl.
Here, moths hover from flower to flower in the sunshine, swans swim in the sea, and short-eared owls fly in the daytime, scouring the ground like terminator robots. Rabbits are also prolific, with their comical marker pen eyebrows.
As we drive along the single-track lane, lined on each side with white sand, we find ourselves temporarily blocked by a huge black pig, careening forward in between the flower ditches. While we sit in the car wondering what to do, it suddenly veers off down a grassy path to head for home.
And the beaches—oh, the beaches. There are many, all with their own personalities.
Dandelions at Clocks Beach.
Doun Helzie has cliffs, Tresness hosts giant sand dunes visible from most of the island, where a sandy plume extends with the sea on each side, and Cata Sands boasts a shallow tidal lagoon. Doun Helzie beach is below spectacular cliffs with caves to explore.
Doun Helzie Cliffs. Doun Helzie Trail.
The cliff sides are lined with sea thrift (Armeria maritima) pink flowers and fulmars nesting precariously. We accessed the beach by a walk through fields and down the cliff front.
Seashells on the beach. Aerial view of Lopness.
Whitemill Bay is another notably beautiful white sand beach. At the Bay of Lopness, you can find a WWI German destroyer rusting in pieces amongst inches of deep aqua ripples.
Start Point views. Start Point Lighthouse beach.
And, Sanday is an archaeological paradise with Norse heritage and plenty of folklore. Earlier in the year, before we arrived, a shipwreck was revealed on the beach by stormy weather—the ultimate beachcombing find. When we visited, it was being preserved under curtains as a temporary measure.
Shipwreck remains. Graoatie Buckies.
At each beach, we searched for groatie buckies, the evasive tiny pink northern cowrie shells (Trivia arctica) said to be lucky. You’ll need luck to find any. I searched every day for what we jokingly called “grotty buckets.” It took until our very last day for my eye to adapt, and once it happened, I realized they were there the whole time, hiding in plain sight.
The roads that crisscross the island have few signposts, and it’s amazing how many times we got lost on such short trips. That being said, I can’t think of a better place to get lost. Everyone waves as you pass in the car, all so friendly and welcoming. It’s also a great place for cycling and walking as there is so little traffic.
The whole island is only 15 miles from one end to the other, and the “main road” is three single tracks with smaller lanes intersecting. We spent a glorious week navigating using C3PO and R2D2, yellow lichen roofs, and a farm flagpole with a fluttering Orkney flag as landmarks. There are two shops, very comprehensively stocked, and deliciously old fashioned. There’s even a pub and a pizza place with its own campsite.
Seal at sunset. Old Man of Hoy viewed from the ferry.
We stayed in a beautiful cottage, steps from the beach. There was an otter regularly emerging from a pipe that runs from the loch to the sea. If you are a nature fan, then you will be in your element. Seals often appear, bobbing curiously in the waves and following you along the beach as you wander.
We visited in May and were lucky to have some glorious sunny days. Even getting here is an adventure, as it took three days just to travel up in a leisurely fashion from the Lake District in the North of England—though we could just as easily have flown in. There are regular ferries and small inter-island plane flights. We sailed from Scrabster on the North coast of Scotland over to Stromness with the ferry, passing the Old Man of Hoy on the way—a sandstone stack off the island of Hoy.
Stromness is a delight—its incredibly narrow cobbled main street lined with alleyways leading to the sea. Pity the unwary tourist who sets off there towing a caravan, having missed the warning signs and finding the road squeezing in tighter the further you persevere. Can you tell we accidentally took that route?
Ring of Brodgar.
We had a day to explore mainland Orkney before our ferry out to Sanday. There are many prehistoric sites and standing stones, with Ring of Brodgar being the most well-known. Cruise ships dock at Kirkwall, so it can be busy with the excursion coaches. We timed it right—just as a bus left, the warm air was filled with peace and skylarks and curlews sang as we walked around the stones.
There are so many prehistoric sites to visit, such as Stones of Stenness and Skara Brae, and don’t forget to explore the Italian Chapel and the Churchill Barriers if you have time.
Italian Chapel.
Our onward ferry left from a dock with signposts to all the small islands—there are many destinations to choose from. It was a two-hour sailing, passing other islands until we arrived at Stove, the port on Sanday. Sandy is an agricultural island with fields and farms scattered around. We encountered free-range cows with their newly born calves along the beach, and the calves were tucked in, mostly hidden amongst the flowers while Mum wandered to eat grass.
Quoyness entrance. Quoyness chamber. Aerial view of Quoyness.
We visited Quoyness, a chambered-cairn burial site, which involved a crawl along a dark passageway into a center chamber with six other knee-height passages leading off. Don’t forget a torch/flashlight.
Sand dunes near Quoyness.
The complete silence inside is slightly eerie.
Heritage Center. Heritage Center. Rough sand. Turnstone bird. “The Devil’s Clawmarks” at Ladykirk. Aerial view of Start Lighthouse.
Sanday has a heritage center in the village called Lady, with treasures on show and historical artifacts. A restored croft house is furnished as it would have been 100 years ago. It had a box bed—imagine sleeping in a cupboard—cozy though. And outside, a reconstructed Bronze Age burnt mound that was rescued from sea damage. At Ladykirk, a ruin of a church with some stunning lichen on the walls, there is a stone with deep scratches called “The Devil’s Clawmarks.”
The aptly named Start Point has a lighthouse on a tidal island which you can walk to if the tide is low, wonderful patches of the coarsest sand, and flocks of Turnstones which are like overwound clockwork birds who pick through the seaweed. This was where I was eventually successful in my groatie mission.
What a wonderful place to wander for hours picking up shells, birdwatching, and of course taking photographs. We stayed for a full week of bliss. As the island slogan says, “There’s nothing to do...” and it was an absolute pleasure to do nothing at a wonderfully slow pace. See you later, Sanday!
Map used with permission of VisitSanday.com.
Getting to Sanday:
- Sail from Scrabster to Stromness with
- Northlink Ferries
- Sail between islands with Orkney Ferries
- Fly to Kirkwall and onward with Loganair Orkney inter-island service
- Learn more about archaeology on Sanday at archaeologyorkney.com.
Photography by Linzi Buckmaster and drone photography by Julian Buckmaster, except as marked.
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This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 48 May/June 2025.
