The remote Scottish islands now more accessible than ever

The airline’s turboprops are a real lifeline, all year round ploughing the often choppy skies over the 70 islands that make up the Orkney archipelago, 20 of them inhabited.

Once we landed we were quickly bathed in the gentler and more trusting pace of island life. A cheery text message from the hire car company told me we would find the Peugeot waiting outside the tiny terminal and we find it unlocked with the keys in the glovebox.

We headed into Kirkwall. Its little harbour is busy from first light, acting as a hub for ferries that constantly glide in and out in perfectly rehearsed choreography, almost as if they were dancing with each other.

Jonathan Samuels with his son

Everything seemed brighter, sharper and more in focus — the deep blue of the sky, the sun’s reflection on the water, the screech of the gulls. Whether it was the lack of pollution and urban noise heightening my senses or the excitement of being back after almost four decades, it was hard to tell.

Along the harbourfront we made our way to the imposing grey brick of the Kirkwall Hotel. Its 37 bedrooms have been tastefully refurbished, with roll-top baths and rainfall showers complementing the just-about-right amount of tartan and vintage photos of fishermen. The cosy, wood-panelled bar is perfect for a pint of Scapa Special and a chat with the regulars (B&B doubles from £162; kirkwallhotel.com).

Dining options in town are up a notch from the sausages we cremated over the campfire all those decades ago. My son and I feasted on succulent hand-dived scallops and local steak at the welcoming Storehouse restaurant (mains from £17; thestorehouserestaurantwithrooms.co.uk).

Looming over the town is the red sandstone cathedral named after Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney and its patron saint. This quiet, religious man fell out with his cousin and rival Haakon Paulsson. The two men met to do battle, Erlendsson turning up with the agreed two ships full of fighters, Paulsson treacherously turning up with eight. Erlendsson knew the game was up and was killed by Paulsson’s cook with an axe, leading to his martyrdom.

In 2017, on the 900th anniversary of St Magnus’s death, a 55-mile pilgrimage walk was created. It roughly followed a route from where he was killed to the hamlet of Birsay, where he was originally buried, and then continues on to Kirkwall.

We walked a little part of it and I thought about how those mourners carrying his body would have had the same heady mix of seaweed and peat in their nostrils, felt the same salty air on their faces and looked at almost the same view as us, all these centuries later.

As I reflected on the trip with my dad and watched Ned skip along in front of me, our visit felt a little like a pilgrimage too.

Jonathan Samuels and his dad on his first camping holiday to Orkney

JONATHAN SAMUELS.

Poor old Magnus’s fate is relatively recent history for Orkney. The rich soil and easy access by boat mean settlers have lived on the islands for thousands of years.

Lizzie Linklater, our guide, has spent her life here, much of it as an NHS manager. Now retired, she delights in showing off her home with a permanent grin (price on request; lizziesorkneytours.com).

● Best family hotels in Scotland
● Best things to do in Scotland

We pulled up at the Standing Stones of Stenness, erected in about 3,100BC and part of a group of neolithic monuments designated a Unesco world heritage site. Originally 12 upright stones in a circle, the remaining four cast dramatic shadows with their height of six metres. They are older than Egypt’s pyramids and Stonehenge and are thought to have been a place for gathering and ritual. The nearby Ring of Brodgar, more than 100m in diameter, is even more majestic.

But it is at Skara Brae, Europe’s best-preserved neolithic village, where the achievements of those early Orcadians can be seen most impressively. As we got out of Linklater’s van, it felt like we were stepping out of a time machine. The community that inhabited the village for about 600 years from 3,100 to 2,500BC farmed and reared animals near to the often storm-battered coast.

The Standing Stones of Stenness were erected around 3,100BC

ALAMY

We peered in wonder at the cluster of ten houses made of flagstones, sunk into the ground and complete with hearths, beds and cupboards. Looking into the homes we imagined the families once living there and contemplated what language they spoke, how society was structured and why the community came to a sudden end.

“There’s something rather magical and mysterious about not knowing,” Linklater said as we gazed over the site.

On the way back to Kirkwall we crawled through a narrow entrance into a 5,000-year-old neolithic tomb in Maeshowe where people and dogs were once interred during long-forgotten ceremonies. After that we got up close to enormous modern-day wind turbine blades on a blustery hilltop.

From tombs to turbines, where better to mull over the extremities of human endeavour?

There was one ferry journey, though; an early-morning departure for the nearby island of Westray. The smell of diesel and bacon in the galley, the chugging of the engines and the clanking of chains all brought back the anticipation of those early trips to the Scottish isles.

Once arrived, we strolled along a sandy beach, marvelling at the deep turquoise of the ocean, before coming across a clifftop graveyard with magnificent views and the ruins of a Norse church from the 1100s.

We struck up conversation with a fisherman making the most of the dry weather to paint the hull of his boat bright red. “Unlike down south, last summer was a washout here,” he said, in a gently lilting Scottish accent with a distinct hint of Scandinavian, a reminder that Orkney is much nearer to Bergen than to London.

A bumpy dirt track led us to a remote lighthouse, a recommended spot to see puffins and whales. The two of us sat in the heather with no one else for miles around staring in silence over sheer cliff faces and the rolling Atlantic towards Newfoundland. Lambs bleated at our side and guillemots squawked overhead as my son nestled his head into my shoulder.

And it was there, with the sun on our faces, a generation on from my first visit, that I realised what makes Orkney with its ancient history and sagas so special and life-affirming. These peaceful, windswept islands afford you the time and space to ponder your own story and place in the world, whatever and wherever it may be.

Jonathan Samuels was a guest of Visit Scotland (visitscotland.com) and Loganair, which has Heathrow-Kirkwall returns from £205 (loganair.co.uk)

Sign up for our Times Travel newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Twitter