I’VE been trying to make a trip to Sanday happen for over a decade. As soon as I arrive, my efforts are worth it as beaming islander Dave Walker warmly welcomes me to a day wrapped up in as welcoming a community as I’ve found on any of Scotland’s Northern Isles. And then there are the epic beaches, world-class wildlife and a sweep of prehistoric remnants.
Dave, of Orkney Retreats, is typical of the wave of welcomed new residents who have flocked to Sanday over the last couple of decades to bolster the traditional farming families. They’ve stabilised the population around the 500 mark, helped boost the school roll and brought fresh blood and dynamic ideas. Dave echoes what everyone I meet tells me the best thing about Sanday is: “There is a real sense of community. Sometimes people think you come to islands to escape. Not Sanday. In a city, you can be anonymous and alone. Here you are part of something bigger and people look out for you – you just cannot beat that feeling.”
The name Sanday of course derives from the white sand beaches that curl around the third largest of the Orkney Islands. More than a dozen of them. Even for Orkney, they are exceptional. Backaskaill Bay, Lopness Bay, Otterswick Bay, Doun Helzie and Whitemill Bay are the stand outs. I also loved Tresness, where the beach is backed up by hulking dunes. Sublime.
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There is always real depth in Sanday, a Tardis of an island. Take Lopness. Not content with being another cracking beach, we’ve got B98 too. This is the wreckage of a First World War German destroyer, which arrived in Scapa Flow in June 1919 – a day too late to join the scuttling. She wasn’t spared, though as she beached en route to Rosyth. The canny locals stripped the best metal, but her outline remains and she is the only German wreck you can view on the surface.
More history abounds at the Sanday Heritage Centre. Custodian Ruth Peace takes me time travelling with “Sanday Through The Ages”.
A quote on the walls sets the scene, claiming Sanday boasts Orkney’s most extensive prehistory. I’m amazed to discover how many sites there are and how many are at risk of coastal erosion. The burnt mound outside was saved from the savages of the sea and painstakingly reconstructed. There are tales too of more shipwrecks and wartime intrigue.
Another gloriously friendly local is Francis Edwards, who serves on the Sanday Business Forum. He yomps with me around a more rugged stretch of Sanday’s coast, back through the millennia to the Quoyness Chambered Cairn. Think Maeshowe with lots of cows and no people. It’s quite an experience crawling through the dark tunnel entrance into a burial chamber that dates back 4000 years. The peace. The beauty. The weight of history. In short, the polar opposite of a visit to Stonehenge.
I grab an e-bike from next to the well-stocked community shop and head out to be more present in the natural world. I’ve good company with Emma Neave Webb and Russell Neave, experienced naturalists who will have their Sanday Nature Tour business up and running in 2025. As they talk of the bountiful local otters, puffins, curlews and winter hen harriers, a short-eared owl swoops past.
Emma stresses Sanday’s year-round appeal. “There is always something to see with the migratory birds a huge winter attraction. It’s a great time too for cetaceans and we’ve seen 11 species this year. We once had a couple of orcas cruising around on Christmas Day. It’s that sort of island. We even had a wandering walrus in 2018, who stayed until a cheeky gull nipped him on the bum.”
The positive islanders keep coming. Tracy Ranger welcomes me to the dynamic Sanday Community Craft Hub. Here the eclectic works of 70 local artisans shine and make for unique souvenirs. “It really encourages people who may just have made things for themselves to share them with a wider audience,” she smiles. “And then of course it brings the community together in our popular café, where locals and visitors can meet.”
My last stop is a cracking one at 59 Degrees North. This bright, sparkling oasis is run by infectiously enthusiastic Jon Chapman, who moved to Sanday on the first day of the Covid lockdown. He combines his graphic design business with running a bijou motorhome site and a pizzeria that claims to serve the UK’s most northerly wood-fired pizza. They are proper Neapolitan-style too, alive with creative toppings like blue cheese and chilli honey.
Sanday is not a community to rest on its hard-won laurels. The local Men’s Shed has just opened and there is excitement at the Heritage Centre as they’ve just had a special tank built to preserve the wooden shipwreck that the sands revealed earlier this year. It’s thought to be a very rare Dutch vessel from the 1600s. There are rewilding efforts and a bird hide on the way at Boloquoy, plus the community has also acquired an old church and large former store.
Watch this thriving community space in an island I’m delighted I managed to get out to.
Northlink Ferries (www.northlinkferries.co.uk) sail to Orkney. Orkney Council Ferries then service Sanday from Kirkwall. More information www.visitscotland.com
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