St Margaret’s Hope

📌 Village on South Ronaldsay, Orkney Isles
★★

First impressions of a place can be critical, and passengers on the ferry to Orkney from Gill’s Bay on the Scottish mainland couldn’t be treated to a lovelier first village than St Margaret’s Hope. Strung around a sheltered, horseshoe bay, this sizeable settlement (by Orcadian standards) centres on two streets parallel to the sea front with wonderful views over the water. Admittedly there isn’t a long list of tourist attractions here, but the narrow lanes reward exploration (driving past on the new ring road doesn’t count).