Orkney - A natural playground

In rural Orkney, nature is always on your doorstep. The unspoilt environment is home to seabirds, seals, otters and voles, and wild flowering plants produce a riot of colour.

Exploring the coastline

It is not unusual to see whales and dolphins in Orkney's pure, clear waters. Closer to shore, there are important populations of grey and common seals. The coastline itself is famous for its maritime heath and stretches of colourful flowers like pink sea thrift, blue sea squill, purple bell and common heather, and the Scottish primrose, a tiny relative of the common primrose, which is only found in Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland. Puffins, kittiwakes, shags and black guillemots (tysties) make their homes here and exploiting the seaweed tangles on the shores are turnstones, ringed plover and purple sandpipers.

Look even closer and you might spot a tiny Orkney vole, scuttling along one of its many corridors through the heather. We know the vole has been in Orkney for more than 4,000 years as remains have been found in middens at Skara Brae, although it is thought that they have been brought to the islands much earlier, by Neolithic settlers some 5,000 years ago. Closely related to the common vole from continental Europe, the Orkney breed - at 10-13 cm - is twice the size of the field vole found in the rest of Britain.

The vole feeds on leaves, stems and roots of plants and likes rough grassland and old peat cuttings on moorland. It is also a key part of the food chain, being the favourite dish of Orkney's famous hen harriers.

Skydancers

Over thirty years ago, local ornithologist Eddie Balfour began what has become a virtually unbroken monitoring of this spectacular bird that is still continued by the RSPB today.

To see both males and females hurling themselves across the horizon in their phenomenal mate-attracting displays known as ‘sky-dancing’ is to see one of the wonders of the ornithological world. To see the ‘food-pass’ as a female spots her mate flying in with prey, flies up to greet him then flips upside-down beneath him as he drops the food into her outstretched talons is to wonder at their magnificent aerial abilities.

Following a serious decline in population during the 1970s, the hen harrier is once again a common sight dancing across the Orkney skies.

Get back to nature by discovering Orkney's wild side with animals, birds and flowers. Walk quietly and slowly and take in the peace and solitude and the islands' natural riches are yours for the taking.