The Orkney Islands - Scotland's Remote and Remarkable Island Group

The North Atlantic Drift warms Orkney, making it a temperate, year round destination with a fascinating history, colorful wildlife and great seafood.

Closer to Norway than to England, Orkney was the last holdout of the Vikings in the United Kingdom. They stayed until 1468. Before them, and reaching back to a mysterious past of at least 5,000 years, Stone Age communities lived, farmed and built houses on Orkney. You can still see the monuments they left behind. There are so many, in fact, that large tracts of the main island are included in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Orkney is also a sophisticated island, popular with artists and artisans inspired by the islands' subtle colors, their dramatic and changing light and their melancholy beauty.