📌 Isle of Hoy, Orkney Isles
★
One narrow and winding strip of tarmac links southern and northern Hoy. Travelling northbound, the road climbs high across Hoy’s moorland interior. At the high point a lochan suddenly comes into view, unimaginatively titled Water of Hoy. Stop in the unmarked layby and follow the short boardwalk to Betty Corrigall’s grave: the eventual resting place of a 27 year-old lady whose partner deserted her and ran away to sea after she became pregnant in the 1770s. Unable to bear society’s shame, she first attempted to drown in the ocean off Hoy, before hanging herself in a nearby barn. Taking her own life denied her a Christian burial, so she was laid to rest on unconsecrated ground close to the Water of Hoy. Even in death she seemed unable to find peace, with her body accidentally disturbed multiple times by peat cutters and Scapa Flow soldiers; only now does a small headstone afford her dignity.
🌍 Location
📌 Off B9047 just south of Water of Hoy, 3 mi southeast of Moaness, Hoy
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: ND 280998
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 58.879226,-3.250184
🚌 Infrequent bus stops on B9047, connecting with ferries from Orkney Mainland
🚗 Layby at south end of the Water of Hoy
📝 Key info
⌚ Always viewable
🎫 Free
