Island of Hoy Day Trip

Hoy is the odd one out. Where the rest of Orkney rolls in low green farmland and exposed sky, Hoy rears up in peat moor, treeless cliff and sudden glen, looking — frankly — like someone towed it down from the Outer Hebrides and forgot to mention. It is the second-largest island in the archipelago, and locals will quietly tell you it is the most dramatic. They are not wrong, even if they say it with the resigned air of people whose ferry is often cancelled.

The day rolls together the headline acts and the quieter ones. You'll meet the Dwarfie Stane, the only rock-cut tomb in Britain and a lump of sandstone someone hollowed out by hand around 3000 BC, presumably while wishing they had better tools. Then Rackwick Bay, with its giant rounded boulders and a beach that always feels borrowed from somewhere wilder. Betty Corrigall's lonely moorland grave gets a stop too — a sad eighteenth-century story that the guides tell properly, without making a meal of it.

This is a relaxed, vehicle-led day rather than a hill-walking expedition, which makes it the sensible choice if you want Hoy's atmosphere without committing to the famous four-hour round-trip hike to the Old Man. Expect short walks on uneven ground at each stop — moor, beach pebbles, the odd boggy patch — so trainers and a waterproof are sensible, but you don't need calves of iron. Cruise passengers, older travellers and families with mobile teenagers all fit comfortably.

The ferry from Stromness or Houton is included in the fare, along with transport on the island in a comfortable 8-seater vehicle, which spares you the genuinely confusing decision of whether to bring a car across (the foot ferry is cheaper but leaves you stranded; the car ferry runs from Houton and books up). Pickup is sorted by the operator and the day runs roughly eight and a half hours door to door, with a hot drink provided at lunchtime — touchingly British of them.

Bring a packed lunch. The island has a couple of small cafés but nothing reliable enough to plan a tour around, and the guides are honest about it. On the Old Man of Hoy: you won't see the 137-metre sea stack from the road — it requires the Rackwick-to-Moaness clifftop walk, which this trip doesn't include. The consolation is the cliffs at St John's Head, which are taller than the Old Man and most people have never heard of them.