Underrated Hidden Gems in Orkney
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The underrated hidden gems in Orkney are Unstan Chambered Cairn, St Magnus Way, Barnhouse Settlement, Kitchener Memorial, Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn, Hoxa Head, Noup Head Lighthouse and Sanday Heritage Centre.
Orkney is celebrated for its headline sights, and most visitors arrive with a set list in mind: Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar, the Old Man of Hoy and the Italian Chapel. Those places earn their crowds, yet they can leave the rest of the archipelago in shadow.
Scatter beyond the busy car parks and Orkney opens into something quieter, a landscape of low green hills, sea lochs and windblown headlands where the past sits close to the surface. Here you can crawl into a five thousand year old tomb at Cuween Hill, walk among the knee-high walls of Barnhouse Settlement, or follow the cliffs out to Marwick Head and Hoxa Head with only seabirds for company.
Some sites are free and open all year, others reward a longer walk or a ferry hop to Westray or Sanday. This roundup deliberately steers clear of the well-known names and looks instead at the overlooked corners that deserve a little more attention.
Here are eight underrated hidden gems to seek out in Orkney.
Unstan Chambered Cairn
Photo: Derek Mayes via Geograph.org.uk
Unstan Chambered Cairn sits on a small promontory by the Loch of Stenness, a couple of miles from Stromness, and slips past most itineraries despite its quiet appeal. From outside it is a grassy round mound, but a low passage leads into a stalled stone chamber with a side cell tucked within, capped by a concrete dome added in the 1930s.
The site gave its name to Unstan ware, a type of pottery first found here in 1884. Historic Environment Scotland cares for it, and it is free and open all year, so there is nothing to stop you dropping in and having the place to yourself.
St Magnus Way
Photo: Oliver Dixon via Geograph.org.uk
St Magnus Way is a long-distance pilgrimage route across the Orkney Mainland, opened in 2017 and inspired by the story of Saint Magnus. Running some fifty-eight miles in several stages, usually walked over a week, it is waymarked and follows the paths along which the saint's body was carried and, later, his bones moved to Kirkwall.
The route mixes coast, moor, farm track, forest and quiet road, taking in brochs, chapels and shores before ending at St Magnus Cathedral. This stretch runs through the west Mainland near Evie and Birsay, an easy stretch to seek out for anyone wanting the island at walking pace.
Barnhouse Settlement
Photo: N Chadwick via Geograph.org.uk
Barnhouse Settlement is a cluster of low stone foundations beside the Loch of Harray, a few steps from the Standing Stones of Stenness yet far quieter than its neighbours. It is what remains of a Stone Age village, the house walls now only knee-high, laid out so you can walk among them and read the plan of each dwelling.
Inside, the stone fittings survive: a central hearth, box-beds built against the walls and stone dressers, the same furnishings found in Orkney's other Neolithic homes. One larger structure, set apart, seems to have been used for gatherings.
Built around five thousand years ago, it sits open and free to wander, ringed by loch, standing stones and low green hills.
Kitchener Memorial
Photo: Rude Health via Geograph.org.uk
Kitchener Memorial is a stone tower standing on the cliffs of Marwick Head, raised by the people of Orkney in memory of Lord Kitchener. He was lost with almost all the crew when the cruiser HMS Hampshire struck a mine and sank off this headland in 1916, on its way to Russia.
A curved wall added a century later carries the names of the hundreds of men who died with him. An RSPB seabird reserve crowds the cliffs nearby, so the walk out doubles as a chance to watch the birds.
It is a sombre, wind-scoured spot that few outside Orkney think to seek out.
Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn
Photo: Colin Park via Geograph.org.uk
Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn is a Neolithic tomb built into a hilltop above Finstown, around five thousand years old and easy to pass by without knowing it is there. You reach the chamber by crawling through a low passage into a stone room where you can finally stand, with small side cells opening off it.
It is pitch dark inside, so a torch is essential. When it was dug out, the bones of two dozen dogs were found on the floor alongside human remains, a detail that lingers long after you leave.
For anyone willing to crawl and bring a light, it is a quietly extraordinary place to seek out.
Hoxa Head
Photo: J M Briscoe via Geograph.org.uk
Hoxa Head is a clifftop headland on South Ronaldsay, guarding the southern way into the great naval anchorage of Scapa Flow. A waymarked coastal walk leads out to well-preserved gun batteries, mostly from the Second World War, with concrete emplacements, magazines, searchlight positions and the shells of barracks.
The buildings stand weathered and roofless above the cliffs, and warnings make clear you should not enter them. From the head the view runs out over the sound and the Flow, a reminder of how much history passed through these quiet waters.
It is a bracing, little-visited walk well worth seeking out.
Noup Head Lighthouse
Photo: Des Colhoun via Geograph.org.uk
Noup Head Lighthouse Guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills and fulmars pack the sheer Atlantic cliffs here, one of the largest seabird colonies in Orkney and an RSPB reserve, with puffins arriving in summer and gannets nesting on the lower ledges. Above them stands a white tower on the exposed north-west tip of Westray, built in 1898 by David Alan Stevenson and automated in 1964, its light reaching about twenty-two miles out to sea.
A rough track ends at a small car park, and a clifftop walk takes in stacks, arches and inlets. The ferry crossing to Westray keeps the crowds thin.
Sanday Heritage Centre
Photo: Peter Amsden via Geograph.org.uk
Sanday Heritage Centre is a small community museum on the island of Sanday, telling the story of island life, wildlife and history. Alongside the main exhibits stands a restored traditional croft house, showing how families once lived and worked the land, and nearby is a rebuilt Bronze Age burnt mound, uncovered on a beach after a storm and moved here to save it.
Entry is free, with parking on site, and it is open through the main season. It makes a good stop for a sense of the island's past, and one more reason to seek out the quieter northern isles.
FAQs
Which of these Orkney hidden gems are free to visit?
Several are free and open all year, including Unstan Chambered Cairn and Barnhouse Settlement, both a short drive from Stromness. Sanday Heritage Centre is also free to enter, with parking on site, though it opens through the main season rather than year round.
Do I need to island-hop to see them?
Not all of them. Many sit on the Orkney Mainland, such as Cuween Hill, Marwick Head and the St Magnus Way, but Noup Head is on Westray and Sanday Heritage Centre is on Sanday, so those two call for a ferry hop to the northern isles.
What should I bring for these sites?
For Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn a torch is essential, since the chamber is pitch dark inside. For the clifftop walks at Hoxa Head and Noup Head, sturdy footwear and a waterproof make sense, and at Hoxa Head take note of the warnings not to enter the old battery buildings.
Conclusion
Orkney rewards the visitor who is willing to look past the guidebook headlines. The islands are full of quiet places like these, tombs you crawl into, villages worn down to their foundations, clifftop walks that end at old gun batteries or a lonely lighthouse, and small free museums keeping island memory alive.
Some sit open all year within a short drive of Kirkwall or Stromness, others ask for a torch, a longer walk or a ferry out to Westray or Sanday. None of them draw the crowds of the well-known sights, and that is much of their charm.
Pack a waterproof, check the ferry times, and give them the day they deserve, because these are the underrated hidden gems to seek out in Orkney.
