Check out the galleries for Shetland and Orkney: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2!

Last year in June I went to the Shetland Isles, the most northerly part of the United Kingdom, and from there I went to the Orkney Isles, working my way back to mainland Scotland.

But here’s the thing I am terrible at keeping an editing schedule! I take a lot of images but I take forever to get around to editing them.

So, in this article I am going to give you a sneak peak at my upcoming gallery featuring images from my journey around the Northern Isles of Scotland. 

The first week of my trip, I was booked on to a wildlife photography tour with the great guys at Shetland Nature. After that I wanted to continue to explore Shetland by myself, aiming to get some landscape images and continue what I had learned the previous week.

After a week of exploring Shetland, I took the ferry from Lerwick, Shetland to Kirkwall on Orkney, I had a week to explore the Orkney Isles. During my time there, I mainly stuck to Mainland Orkney with a couple days on the Isle of Hoy. 

This fourth and final part of my adventure, chronicling my time on the Orkney Isles, following on from Part One, Two and Three which told of my adventures on the Shetland Isles. I continue my exploration alone and marvel at how different the 2 sets of islands are, even though they are often grouped together as the Northern Isles. 

Day 13 

I arrived late last night and immediately made my way from the ferry to my hotel in Stromness. Thank god I had satellite navigation because I had no idea where I was or where Stromness was but I managed to find my way easily enough thanks to my car’s GPS. 

In the morning I had no idea where to go or what to do, so I decided to visit Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney, and find the tourist information. I got to Kirkwall without any problems and made my way to tourist information; they managed to give me a lot of information and as I wanted to visit Hoy they informed me of how the ferry service worked.

After that I had a quick wander around Kirkwall town centre to get a feel of the place. It was very different to Lerwick on Shetland, which had a fishing village sense about it, whereas Kirkwall felt very much like any town in Scotland. 

Pro Tip: Make use of local knowledge, people that live around the areas that you are exploring often know some places that are overlooked. That being said not every lead you get will yield the results you want, as not everyone is a photographer. 

On the advice I received in tourist information I decided to go for a walk at The Gloup on the eastern side of Mainland Orkney, that way I could explore more on the western side in the week to come.

The Gloup is a sea cave whose roof collapsed on itself creating a giant hole with a land bridge traversing the cliff edge and it is on the Mull Head Nature Reserve, that has multiple paths and wildlife watching opportunities. So I went for a walk along the cliffs happily snapping away with my camera. I came across species such as Black Guillemot, Fulmar, and Cormorants. 

From there I had an exploration and found some small sea stacks that were quite photogenic, so I got a couple of images. Then I continued down some islands that are connected to Mainland Orkney by bridges and discovered the sunken ships of the Scapa Flow, which was very impressive and I got a lovely image of a ship reflected in the water. 

Day 14 

This was the day I ventured to Hoy, a small but tall island that sits to the south of Orkney Mainland. Most people have heard of the Old Man of Hoy, which is a large sea stack, and that was my target for the day. 

I began my day by leaving the hotel I was staying at in Stromness, I decided to overnight on Hoy because I wanted to try and get the Old Man at sunset as it sits on the west of the island. I made it to the ferry port to find that I needed to book on to a crossing as it often fills up fast, so I booked a crossing for a couple hours time and that was the next big contrast to Shetland.

The prices of the inter-island ferries on Orkney was about 5 times that of the prices on Shetland, and on Shetland you can arrive and 9 times out of 10 get onto the next ferry without any issues. But never mind. 

Now I needed to kill a couple of hours. Luckily on the map I had picked up from the tourist information, I saw that there was a museum dedicated to the Orkneyinga near by.

I had no idea what the Orkneyinga was until I went to that museum, after which I was fascinated. It was only a small museum, not very well laid out or with a lot of information, but I learnt that the Orkneyinga was a Viking saga telling the lives of the Vikings that inhabited Orkney. It was very interesting and I began to keep an eye out for more informations about the Vikings of the Northern Isles. 

After crossing the ferry, I decided to scout out the route to the Old Man of Hoy, so that I could get there with no issue later on in the evening. I took a couple landscape images on the way.

After I found where I needed to be, I decided to explore the island more; driving along the only real road. It was bigger than I realised, but I didn’t find much inspiration, so I decided to check in to my hotel and have a rest before I went out later. 

Pro Tip: Scout out locations before your intended shoot, that way you know what to expect and how to get there, then you can return and try for the conditions that you want in your image.

Come evening I left my hotel and went to the car park I had visited earlier in the day. The Old Man itself was a fair distance from the car park and the walk to and from the stack was just under 6 miles (just over 9km).

On the way I encountered several Mountain Hares, which were a little bit darker than the ones I had seen in the Cairngorms, but I lacked a wildlife lens as the route was quite steep and difficult, so I wanted to reduce the weight I carried.

I arrived at the stack and hoped for a dramatic, colour filled sky but I was disappointed; the sunset was very drab and lacking colour.

I still enjoy the image I got!

Day 15 

Today I left Hoy and went back to Mainland Orkney but the weather was a bit crap, to be honest. Luckily so far through out my trip, I had had great weather, but it couldn’t last forever.

I explored some more, but ultimately the only image I managed to get was in the evening.

I decided to try for a sunset image at the pre-historic site of the Standing Stones of Stenness, but again the weather thwarted me.

During the day with the weather so bad I decided to visit some other historical sites, as I was inspired by the Orkneyinga museum. 

Pro Tip: Don’t get disheartened when inspiration is lacking, try to find an image anyway, you might be lucky and make something you were not expecting. 

Day 16 

Again the weather was horrible but I persevered and went to Yesnaby on the West side of Mainland Orkney. It is a very dramatic cliff walk, punctuated by stacks and islands that have been severed from the Mainland by the power of the sea cutting through caves, creating arches that eventually collapse to form islands.

The rain was continuing to pound me but I managed to get a couple of images when it abated.

But again eventually I was rained out and left to find something indoors to do, and to take the time to relax a bit! 

Pro Tip: Don’t let the weather hold you back, often rain can be intermittent and you can get very atmospheric images in those periods of quiet, but if you are really unable to make the image that you want, then leave and return when conditions are better.

Day 17

On the map I had I had taken notice of the Marwick Head Nature Reserve run by the RSPB, a coastal area that had a walk up a cliff and leading to the Kitchener Memorial. I managed to find a gap in the weather and made my way there.

Walking along the beach I came across a dead dolphin or porpoise or minke whale, which was fascinating as I had never seen a skeleton of one before. I didn’t take any photos of it though. 

Continuing my walk on the cliffs I encountered a volunteer for the RSPB and I struck up a conversation, as I was curious what he was up to.

He told me that he was checking the populations of Guillemots and Razorbills that were nesting on the cliff face and that it was fairly easy because they return every year to the exact same spot that they nested on the year before. He had a laminated image of the same cliff face taken 20 years before, and he was able to tick off the couples that were in the same position and make noted of whether they had a chick or not. I found that utterly fascinating!

I could understand with a bird like an Osprey because they build gigantic nests at the top of the trees that feel a bit like a helicopter pad, but Guillemots and Razorbills don’t use an actual nest.

Instead their eggs have evolved to be conical so that they can’t role off of the cliff face and instead just spin in circles. So the fact that these birds use the exact same spot every year was incredibly illuminating. 

Pro Tip: Take the time to chat with people you encounter, you might learn something interesting or find out about something that you had missed, such as a new location. 

I carried on from him up to the Kitchener Memorial and took some images of it, but the clouds started rolling in again and I quickly returned back to my car. I left there and continued to explore around Marwick, eventually finding another small walk that had an old fishing hut that had been built into the side of the cliff, so I took that image. Then the rain came again and I went back to the hotel. 

Day 18 

This was my last full day on Orkney and I wanted to get the images of Yesnaby that I had missed a couple of days ago, so I made my way back there and managed to get a few images.

I spent a lot of my time waiting in the rain for a dryer period, and with patience came rewards!

I got the images that I was after!

I had to get all of my stuff organised for my return trip home the next morning, so I went back to the hotel and packed my car. 

Pro Tip: When returning to a location, take the time to try and see it from new and different angles, you might find a compelling composition you had missed on your first visit

Day 19 

I left Orkney in the morning arriving at Scrabster on Mainland Scotland, I had a long drive back home of about 4 hours but the landscapes on the way were impressive and I made a note to return at a later day.

My time on Shetland and Orkney was amazing! I had never visited those places before and I improved my photography a lot. Shetland Nature had taught me so much about wildlife photography and I continue to use those skills now.

The islands of Shetland were amazing, so dramatic and different to anything I had seen before that they inspired my no end.

Orkney had a lot more farms and less dramatic landscapes, but the history was fascinating, and I hope for my next visit the weather is a lot better, so I can get a lot more images!

Both groups of islands were beautiful and amazing. I truly cannot suggest enough that you make a trip to those wonderful locations. 

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Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.