Elizabeth’s guidebook for Westray
Food scene
Westray's Pierowall Hotel in Pierowall Village. Family owned hotel with restaurant serving good home cooking to suit all tastes with varied and special diets catered for and using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. Pierowallhotel.co.uk/restaurant/
Pierowall Hotel
Pierowall - Papa WestrayWestray's Pierowall Hotel in Pierowall Village. Family owned hotel with restaurant serving good home cooking to suit all tastes with varied and special diets catered for and using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. Pierowallhotel.co.uk/restaurant/
Family run restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, coffee & homebakes. Popular with locals and very busy so it's advisable to make a reservation. Wheelchair accessible. Excellent food and friendly in a relaxed atmosphere. Occasional take-away pizza.
Saintear
Family run restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, coffee & homebakes. Popular with locals and very busy so it's advisable to make a reservation. Wheelchair accessible. Excellent food and friendly in a relaxed atmosphere. Occasional take-away pizza.
Groatie Buckie’s is a new café in the village within W I Rendall’s shop. Opening in 2017 they have provided an excellent coffee and lunchtime facility in the heart of the village and offer a choice of fresh soups each day, beautiful sandwiches and excellent cakes.
Groatie Buckies
Groatie Buckie’s is a new café in the village within W I Rendall’s shop. Opening in 2017 they have provided an excellent coffee and lunchtime facility in the heart of the village and offer a choice of fresh soups each day, beautiful sandwiches and excellent cakes.
Jack’s Chippy is normally open on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. They also sell fresh fish each weekday. https://www.facebook.com/Pierowall-Fish-JACKS-Chippy-160414830671342/
Pierowall Fish Ltd
Jack’s Chippy is normally open on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. They also sell fresh fish each weekday. https://www.facebook.com/Pierowall-Fish-JACKS-Chippy-160414830671342/
Cafe near the Rapness ferry terminal. The name Richan's Retreat comes from Captain William Richan who is in who’s who as being Captain of the Hire Cutter Norfolk – a kindly Captain who never had to conscript a crew. He was dishonourably discharged from the merchant navy for running contraband – they even found tea in the barrels of his guns. He was the Laird of Rapness for a while with the second floor of this house being the deck of a boat. there is a load bearing pillar supporting the ceiling as he had a hole cut to get up on to his deck. His wife Ester was a spendthrift and William ended up poor but the West End Hotel in Kirkwall was their town residence.
They also sell crafts made by island crafts people.
Opening hours are usually from half an hour before the first ferry till half hour after last one .
Richans Retreat
Cafe near the Rapness ferry terminal. The name Richan's Retreat comes from Captain William Richan who is in who’s who as being Captain of the Hire Cutter Norfolk – a kindly Captain who never had to conscript a crew. He was dishonourably discharged from the merchant navy for running contraband – they even found tea in the barrels of his guns. He was the Laird of Rapness for a while with the second floor of this house being the deck of a boat. there is a load bearing pillar supporting the ceiling as he had a hole cut to get up on to his deck. His wife Ester was a spendthrift and William ended up poor but the West End Hotel in Kirkwall was their town residence.
They also sell crafts made by island crafts people.
Opening hours are usually from half an hour before the first ferry till half hour after last one .
General merchants with a few tables and chairs and a coffee machine for anyone who wishes to call along there - with homebakes for sale. Peter Miller’s shop is found in Skelwick, in the southern part of the island, signed off the main road between the village and the Rapness ferry terminal. Here you will find a very well stocked rural shop with an off license. There is also a small post office run to community hours, but the friendly staff are always willing to open it for you. Open 9am – 6pm Monday to Saturday, 2pm – 5pm Sunday.
Peter Miller Merchants
General merchants with a few tables and chairs and a coffee machine for anyone who wishes to call along there - with homebakes for sale. Peter Miller’s shop is found in Skelwick, in the southern part of the island, signed off the main road between the village and the Rapness ferry terminal. Here you will find a very well stocked rural shop with an off license. There is also a small post office run to community hours, but the friendly staff are always willing to open it for you. Open 9am – 6pm Monday to Saturday, 2pm – 5pm Sunday.
W I Rendall is found in Pierowall village and has a good selection of gifts and souvenirs. It also boasts the only fuel pumps on the island and stocks Calor Gas. It is open from 9am -6pm Monday to Saturday (Sunday 2-4:30pm, Summer only)
W I Rendall
Pierowall - Papa WestrayW I Rendall is found in Pierowall village and has a good selection of gifts and souvenirs. It also boasts the only fuel pumps on the island and stocks Calor Gas. It is open from 9am -6pm Monday to Saturday (Sunday 2-4:30pm, Summer only)
JC Tulloch is also in Pierowall village and along with a wide range of produce also has an off licence and the Post Office. Opening hours are 9 am – 7.30 pm Monday to Saturday and during the afternoon on a Sunday.
J C Tulloch Licenced Grocers & Post Office
JC Tulloch is also in Pierowall village and along with a wide range of produce also has an off licence and the Post Office. Opening hours are 9 am – 7.30 pm Monday to Saturday and during the afternoon on a Sunday.
Sightseeing & places of interest in Westray
Don't miss the chance to visit this gallery when you're in Westray. Wheeling Steen is old Norse for ‘Resting Stone’.
You can still hear remnants of this ancient language in the local dialect as spoken by the Rendall family who created and run the gallery.
Edwin, Elaine and their daughter Rosemary design and produce all their work on the premises allowing them to aim for the highest quality at every stage from concept to completion. Including – photography, original paintings, prints, handmade cards and souvenirs.
Cold drinks, snacks and sweets are available. Also, during the summer months they have a delicious soft serve frozen yogurt!
The gallery is situated 2 miles north of Pierowall on the Airport road. Whether you walk, cycle or drive you will enjoy the stunning views of the northern isles.
Wheeling Steen Gallery
Don't miss the chance to visit this gallery when you're in Westray. Wheeling Steen is old Norse for ‘Resting Stone’.
You can still hear remnants of this ancient language in the local dialect as spoken by the Rendall family who created and run the gallery.
Edwin, Elaine and their daughter Rosemary design and produce all their work on the premises allowing them to aim for the highest quality at every stage from concept to completion. Including – photography, original paintings, prints, handmade cards and souvenirs.
Cold drinks, snacks and sweets are available. Also, during the summer months they have a delicious soft serve frozen yogurt!
The gallery is situated 2 miles north of Pierowall on the Airport road. Whether you walk, cycle or drive you will enjoy the stunning views of the northern isles.
The Church of Scotland (The Old Kirk) holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. All welcome. Services are often held jointly with the Baptist Kirk during holiday periods.
Westray Parish Kirk (Church of Scotland)
B9066The Church of Scotland (The Old Kirk) holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. All welcome. Services are often held jointly with the Baptist Kirk during holiday periods.
The Baptist Kirk holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. All welcome. Services are sometimes held jointly with the Church of Scotland during holiday periods.
Westray Baptist Church
Pierowall - Papa WestrayThe Baptist Kirk holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. All welcome. Services are sometimes held jointly with the Church of Scotland during holiday periods.
The Brethren Gospel Hall holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. and evening services are 6:30pm prayer meeting, &7pm Gospel meeting.
Gospel Hall
The Brethren Gospel Hall holds Sunday morning services at 11:30 am. and evening services are 6:30pm prayer meeting, &7pm Gospel meeting.
Westray Golf course is situated next to Noltland Castle and from Pierowall is within an easy walking distance, alternatively a 3.5 mile drive from Westray Airport in the North just off the B9066.
The golf course has excellent sea views and within an easy ten minute walk of Pierowall.
For more information please contact any of the office bearers:
Captain: Bill Turnbull
mobile: 07867630616 home: 01857677862
Vice Captain: Brian Kent
mobile: 07753387773 home: 01857677532
Secretary/treasurer: Margaret Hutchison,
Home: 01857677397
Westray Golf Course
Westray Golf course is situated next to Noltland Castle and from Pierowall is within an easy walking distance, alternatively a 3.5 mile drive from Westray Airport in the North just off the B9066.
The golf course has excellent sea views and within an easy ten minute walk of Pierowall.
For more information please contact any of the office bearers:
Captain: Bill Turnbull
mobile: 07867630616 home: 01857677862
Vice Captain: Brian Kent
mobile: 07753387773 home: 01857677532
Secretary/treasurer: Margaret Hutchison,
Home: 01857677397
This is probably Orkney’s prime puffin-spotting site.
If you decide to visit the Castle o Burrian please please give the puffins their space. A sea stack provides the perfect home for hundreds of tammie norries during the summer months, and the surrounding cliffs form an almost natural amphitheatre, offering excellent vantage points to see them. They spend most of their lives at sea and return to their breeding colonies around April and May where they lay only a single egg. They then begin to leave their cliffside burrows in August.
Castle o'Burrian
This is probably Orkney’s prime puffin-spotting site.
If you decide to visit the Castle o Burrian please please give the puffins their space. A sea stack provides the perfect home for hundreds of tammie norries during the summer months, and the surrounding cliffs form an almost natural amphitheatre, offering excellent vantage points to see them. They spend most of their lives at sea and return to their breeding colonies around April and May where they lay only a single egg. They then begin to leave their cliffside burrows in August.
Westray has an incredible variety of beaches with wonderful coastal and inland walks which in the spring and summer are a delight with wild flowers.
Wildlife abounds, seals can be seen all around the coast. The Noup Head RSPB Reserve offers a spectacular opportunity to observe all manner of bird life.
See the local tourist website for lots more information https://westraypapawestray.co.uk/
Westray
Westray has an incredible variety of beaches with wonderful coastal and inland walks which in the spring and summer are a delight with wild flowers.
Wildlife abounds, seals can be seen all around the coast. The Noup Head RSPB Reserve offers a spectacular opportunity to observe all manner of bird life.
See the local tourist website for lots more information https://westraypapawestray.co.uk/
The Neolithic and Bronze Age site at the Links of Noltland is where the Westray Wife, a 4cm carved sandstone figurine was discovered. It is reputed to be the only Neolithic representation of a human form to have been found in Scotland.
Links of Noltland
The Neolithic and Bronze Age site at the Links of Noltland is where the Westray Wife, a 4cm carved sandstone figurine was discovered. It is reputed to be the only Neolithic representation of a human form to have been found in Scotland.
The 16th Century Noltland Castle is one of the most impressive in the Northern Isles.
Noltland Castle
The 16th Century Noltland Castle is one of the most impressive in the Northern Isles.
The Romanesque Cross Kirk is one of two surviving ruins of medieval churches on Westray: the other is Lady Kirk in Pierowall. The original building dates back to the mid 1100s, though it was later enlarged. It stands surrounded by its kirkyard above the shore near Tuquoy.
You reach Cross Kirk by driving past Tuquoy to a small parking area on the shore overlooking the Bay of Tuquoy at grid reference HY 459 436. From here a grassy path leads you half a mile round the Point o' the Scurroes past a barn to Cross Kirk itself. The view you first get of it along the shoreline is very striking.
The approach to the church itself can be a little confusing as the main path leads along the outside of the north wall of the kirkyard before coming round the west side to the main gate. Passing to the left rather than the right of a wall a hundred yards back gives you the option of entering via a stile crossing the east wall of the kirkyard.
As constructed in the 1100s the church comprised a small nave with a slightly offset rectangular chancel at the eastern end. The later enlargement, probably in the 1600s, more than doubled the size of the nave by extending it westwards.
The kirkyard remains in use, and there are many fine and fascinating graves on view here. Cross Kirk itself comprises just a few courses of masonry at its western end, though the walls steadily rise as you move east, culminating with the chancel, part of whose vaulted roof remains in place. Also still standing are the door and one window in the south wall of the original nave, the extent of which is marked by the flagged area of the floor. The later extension is floored in gravel.
Information from Undiscovered Scotland.
Cross-Kirk Westside Church Cemetery
The Romanesque Cross Kirk is one of two surviving ruins of medieval churches on Westray: the other is Lady Kirk in Pierowall. The original building dates back to the mid 1100s, though it was later enlarged. It stands surrounded by its kirkyard above the shore near Tuquoy.
You reach Cross Kirk by driving past Tuquoy to a small parking area on the shore overlooking the Bay of Tuquoy at grid reference HY 459 436. From here a grassy path leads you half a mile round the Point o' the Scurroes past a barn to Cross Kirk itself. The view you first get of it along the shoreline is very striking.
The approach to the church itself can be a little confusing as the main path leads along the outside of the north wall of the kirkyard before coming round the west side to the main gate. Passing to the left rather than the right of a wall a hundred yards back gives you the option of entering via a stile crossing the east wall of the kirkyard.
As constructed in the 1100s the church comprised a small nave with a slightly offset rectangular chancel at the eastern end. The later enlargement, probably in the 1600s, more than doubled the size of the nave by extending it westwards.
The kirkyard remains in use, and there are many fine and fascinating graves on view here. Cross Kirk itself comprises just a few courses of masonry at its western end, though the walls steadily rise as you move east, culminating with the chancel, part of whose vaulted roof remains in place. Also still standing are the door and one window in the south wall of the original nave, the extent of which is marked by the flagged area of the floor. The later extension is floored in gravel.
Information from Undiscovered Scotland.
Westray Heritage Centre is a four-star museum, archive and information centre in the island’s main village of Pierowall.
As well as staging exhibitions focusing on Westray’s history and storing an archive of artefacts, documents and photographs, we have resources for those researching family history, the story of farming, fishing and other trades in the island and an insight into the ongoing archaeological investigations here.
The centre is also the home of the 5,000-year-old “Westray Wife” figurine, also known as Orkney Venus, (pictured above right), found at the Links of Noltland in 2009, and the the fabulous carvings on the Westray Stone, discovered by accident in a quarry Pierowall in 1981.
Westray Heritage Trust
Westray Heritage Centre is a four-star museum, archive and information centre in the island’s main village of Pierowall.
As well as staging exhibitions focusing on Westray’s history and storing an archive of artefacts, documents and photographs, we have resources for those researching family history, the story of farming, fishing and other trades in the island and an insight into the ongoing archaeological investigations here.
The centre is also the home of the 5,000-year-old “Westray Wife” figurine, also known as Orkney Venus, (pictured above right), found at the Links of Noltland in 2009, and the the fabulous carvings on the Westray Stone, discovered by accident in a quarry Pierowall in 1981.
In the words of Lizza & Jenna Hume (who better to tell you about themselves :-))
"From our workshop, located on Westray, one of the most northerly of the Orkney Islands, we create a range of the knitted garments and home textiles.
We have worked hard over the years, to establish our brand, playing with soft muted tones and textures derived from the sky, sea and landscape of our home. We take pride in our Nordic connection which heavily influences the colours, styles and shapes of our products. Using natural and luxury yarns, we aim to create products which, whilst reflective of our island home, are equally at home anywhere in the world.
Our shop overlooks Pierowall Bay and is a stones throw from the beach. The workshop is situated at the back of our premises and here we busily design and make.
If ever you are in Orkney visit us here in Westray or in our new Kirkwall Shop where you will be able to browse at your leisure and view a more extensive range of our products.
Kind regards,
Lizza and Jenna Hume
Hume Sweet Hume
In the words of Lizza & Jenna Hume (who better to tell you about themselves :-))
"From our workshop, located on Westray, one of the most northerly of the Orkney Islands, we create a range of the knitted garments and home textiles.
We have worked hard over the years, to establish our brand, playing with soft muted tones and textures derived from the sky, sea and landscape of our home. We take pride in our Nordic connection which heavily influences the colours, styles and shapes of our products. Using natural and luxury yarns, we aim to create products which, whilst reflective of our island home, are equally at home anywhere in the world.
Our shop overlooks Pierowall Bay and is a stones throw from the beach. The workshop is situated at the back of our premises and here we busily design and make.
If ever you are in Orkney visit us here in Westray or in our new Kirkwall Shop where you will be able to browse at your leisure and view a more extensive range of our products.
Kind regards,
Lizza and Jenna Hume
Tipps für Reisende
Buche vor der Abreise
Mobile phone coverage
Mobile phone users should note that reception is quite dependent on the provider in Westray, with Vodafone and O2 providing coverage reasonable outdoor coverage and EE/BT working quite well more or less everywhere.