📌 Isle of Sanday, Orkney Isles
★★★★
Quoyness Cairn showcases Orkney’s Neolithic history at its finest. This 5,000 year-old tomb is one of Europe’s best: a hefty construction with a 9 metre-long entrance passageway you need to negotiate to get inside. The reward for muddy knees is a hugely impressive and 4 metre-high interior ceiling above the central chamber, with 6 separate cells leading off it. The short walk from the nearest road takes in the beautiful bay at Quoy Ayre, and we would have found it straightforward if it hadn’t been for the nervous herd of cows densely occupying the confined field through which the access path passes when we visited. Probably best to stick to the partly-obscured, seaward side and exercise caution.
🌍 Location
📌 Els Ness, 2 mi south of Lady Village, Sanday
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: HY 677378
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 59.225553,-2.568365
🚌 Sanday Bus (on demand) (1 mi)
🚗 Car park at Quoy Ayre, 🧭 HY 677390 / 🛰️ 59.235869,-2.567866 (1 mi) – rough going for the last km of access track, initially on gravel, then sand
📝 Key info
⌚ Always open
🎫 Free
💬 From the car park it’s a 20-min walk (each way) to the cairn on a rough, grassy track through fields (⬤ Easy). Take a torch to explore the cairn, although one may be available on site. See warning about cows in text above.
