Beyond Skara Brae: why Orkney’s wildlife is worth travelling for
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People come from far and wide to see Orkney’s famous stone circles, chambered cairns and 5,000-year-old villages – but Orkney’s wildlife is just as worth travelling for. We talked to Megan, a local Orcadian naturalist who guides our guests on the wildlife-rich islands of Westray and Shapinsay. Megan talks about what you can expect from an Orkney wildlife trip.
Most people visit Orkney for the history. After all, the archipelago is home to the most important collection of Neolithic sites in Europe, together known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage site. Stand at Skara Brae, Maeshowe or the Ring of Brodgar and you can feel the long human story of these islands rising through the grass.
But take a moment to tear your eyes from the ancient tombs and stone circles and gaze up to the wide skies and horizon. A skylark may be singing overhead, a curlew calling across the fields. Out to sea, gannets and fulmars ride the wind, while seals bask on rocks polished by tide and time. Orkney’s wildlife is just as incredible as the archaeology, not a side note to its prehistory.
It’s all part of the same great island story: sea, stone, weather, people and wildlife, all woven together. And that’s precisely what makes a trip here feel so rich, says Megan, a local Orcadian naturalist and guide.
What wildlife can you see in Orkney?
The answer depends partly on when you visit – and that’s part of what makes Orkney so rewarding. Each season brings its own cast of characters.
In late spring and in summer, Orkney’s cliffs and coasts are alive with breeding seabirds. From spring through early summer, puffins are the headline act – colourful, charismatic and surprisingly approachable if you know where to sit and how to move quietly. Westray, one of Orkney’s northern islands, has a rock stack where several hundred puffins breed each year, and it’s one of the best places in Scotland to watch them at close range without causing any disturbance. You’ll also encounter guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars and the occasional gannet riding the updrafts.
On the water and the rocks, harbour seals haul out near some of Orkney’s most remarkable archaeological sites. The juxtaposition never gets old: ancient stone and basking seal, side by side. In summer, pups are born and you may watch them resting on rocks just offshore while oystercatchers pipe across the foreshore.
By late August and September, the mood shifts. The seabird cliffs quieten as the breeding season ends, but a different wildlife picture emerges. Migrant birds arrive, geese begin to return and grey seals gather on quieter shores.
Shapinsay, a calmer and more pastoral island than Westray, comes into its own at this time of year – a place of sheltered gardens, reedy lochs and moorland edges where curlews, redshanks and meadow pipits are reliably found.
Wherever you go on Orkney, the flowers are worth pausing for too. Roadside verges can be spectacular in summer, and the islands are one of the last British strongholds of the rare great yellow bumblebee.
Travel slowly and look carefully
Those who travel slowly bring out the best in Orkney. A standard day tour, cramming in as many sights as possible, gives you pretty views and a ticked-off checklist. But a slower approach reveals the deeper relationships between landscape, wildlife, humankind and time.
You see ancient stones rising from grassland where skylarks sing the same tunes they’ve sung for millennia, causeways built for war now sheltering wildlife, harbour seals hauling out close to some of Britain’s most remarkable archaeological sites.
“I love to take the time to go a bit slower, to stop. Look at your surroundings and listen to the sounds of nature around you,” says Megan, who has spent years learning when to pause and where to look. “It’s important for us to take time out from our busy lives and go slower, to look at the smaller insects busy feeding on the flowers: butterflies, moths, hoverflies and bees, or the caterpillars munching on the leaves.”
That quality of attention – noticing what’s there rather than racing past it – is what make a truly memorable Orkney trip. And it’s something Orkney rewards generously.
The ferry crossing: your first Orkney wildlife encounter
The ferry from Scrabster to Stromness is not just a way of getting to Orkney. Done right, it’s the beginning of the adventure. Out on deck, the sea opens wide around you and the islands begin to take shape ahead.
The wildlife begins before you even arrive. “Out on deck on the ferry crossing, keep an eye out for seabirds including gannets, fulmars, guillemots and puffins,” says Megan. “If you’re lucky you might even spot some dolphins or orcas.”
It’s a fine beginning to your own story in Orkney.
Seeing Orkney’s wildlife responsibly
Orkney’s wildlife is intrinsic to island life. It belongs as much to the working landscapes, ferry routes, village edges and historic places as it does to the wild sea cliffs, waving grasslands and wide-open skies. Which means that how you move through it matters.
On Westray, Megan plans the puffin visit with care. “We’ll wander slowly along to a rock stack where there are several hundred puffins breeding, and here, we will sit for a while and watch them,” she says. “This is an amazing experience where you can get close to puffins without causing them any disturbance.”
On Shapinsay, the same principle applies to seals. Megan knows the right spots to observe them without disturbing their rest.
In practice, seeing wildlife responsibly takes patience, local knowledge and a willingness to let the animals set their terms. That’s why working with local specialists like Megan matters. They know where to look, when to pause and how to share what they see without turning the moment into a lecture.
So, is Orkney’s wildlife worth travelling for?
Absolutely. And the time of year you visit will shape what you find – that’s the joy of it. There’s always something more to experience.
Orkney is a fantastic wildlife destination – and it’s so much more. If you come here for the puffins, seals and sea birds, you’re just as likely to be blown away by the history and the warmth of the local communities. And if you come here for the ancient stones, you’ll likely leave talking just as much about the wildflowers, the soft hum of bees in the grass and the birds calling across the water.
Orkney is a place where you can stand inside a 5,000-year-old story in the morning, listen to skylarks over Neolithic sites in the afternoon and watch seabirds wheel over the wake of your ferry the next day. Archaeology, island culture and the natural world don’t compete for your attention here. They deepen each other.
Our 6-day Orkney Islands tour includes a day on Westray (May, June & July departures) or Shapinsay (September) with Megan, as well as time discovering the islands’ UNESCO sites, Viking heritage, wartime history and island life.