A Beginner's Guide to Orkney's Coastal Wildlife

By Packing for Changeable Orkney Weather: A Helpful Checklist
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2 Jul 2026

A Beginner's Guide to Orkney's Coastal Wildlife

Why Orkney Is So Good for Wildlife

Orkney sits exactly where the North Sea meets the Atlantic, and that geography does most of the work. Cold, nutrient-rich water feeds huge shoals of sandeels and small fish, which in turn pull in everything from puffins to orcas. Add open, almost treeless landscapes, miles of sea cliff, and a scatter of uninhabited islands with quiet shores, and you get a place where wildlife is not tucked away in a reserve but happening all around you.

The best part for a beginner is how close it feels. You do not need expensive kit or years of practice. Sit on a clifftop at Marwick Head or the Brough of Birsay with a decent pair of binoculars and the show starts by itself: great skuas bullying kittiwakes, guillemots packed shoulder to shoulder on ledges, fulmars gliding past at eye level. Orkney also holds an unusually high density of otters, and it is one of the few places in Britain where a hen harrier quartering low over rough grass is a realistic sighting on almost any spring or winter walk.

A Year in Brief: What to See When

Orkney's seasons are sharp, and knowing what is around saves a lot of disappointment.

Spring (late March to May): seabirds return to the cliffs. Puffins are back from late March, Arctic terns arrive in May, and hen harriers perform their sky-dancing display over moorland. It is also the start of the best orca season, particularly in May and June.
Summer (June to early August): peak seabird cities. This is the time for minke whales, basking sharks, harbour porpoise, Risso's and white-beaked dolphins. Puffin numbers drop sharply after mid-August as birds head back to sea.
Autumn (August to October): grey seals start pupping on beaches from September, and migrant waders and geese pass through. Great skuas and Arctic skuas depart, and the cliffs empty out.
Winter (November to March): short days but excellent birding. Look for hen harriers coming in to communal roosts at dusk, whooper swans, purple sandpipers on rocky shores, long-tailed ducks and red-throated divers in sheltered bays. Otters are active all year.

Where to Point Your Binoculars

You do not need to travel far. The main island, often called the Mainland, offers cliffs at Marwick and Yesnaby, wetlands around Loch of Harray and Loch of Stenness, and easy coastal walks near Stromness. Hoy delivers the biggest cliffs and the most dramatic seabird colonies, while Westray's Noup Head is one of the finest seabird headlands in Scotland. For seals, almost any sandy beach or rocky skerry will do, though the quieter islands of Sanday and Stronsay are especially reliable.

A simple rule: look for edges. The meeting point between two habitats — cliff and sea, mudflat and grassland, freshwater loch and saltwater shore — is where the birds and mammals concentrate.

What to Pack

Orkney weather turns quickly, and wind is the constant. Comfortable, correctly dressed people see more wildlife simply because they stay out longer.

Binoculars: 8x42 or 10x42 are the sweet spot. A spotting scope helps for seals and cliff colonies but is not essential.
Waterproofs and windproof layers: jacket, overtrousers, hat, gloves. Even in July.
Footwear: wellington boots for shorelines and muddy paths, grippy walking boots for cliff tops.
Extras: tide table, flask, sun cream, midge head net for calm summer evenings, spare batteries, a cloth for your lenses, and a dry bag for your camera.

Watching Well: Ethics on Cliffs and Shore

Orkney's wildlife is tolerant, but that tolerance has limits, and the busiest months are exactly when animals are most vulnerable.

Give seals space. Stay at least 100 metres from hauled-out animals, and never get between a seal and the sea. Avoid pupping beaches entirely from September to November.
Keep dogs on leads near cliffs, colonies and shorelines, and away from pupping beaches altogether.
Do not linger on the skyline. Birds nesting on cliff edges flush when a human silhouette appears above them. Sit or crouch to watch, and keep back from the edge — the sandstone crumbles.
Leave the drone at home. Drones cause serious disturbance to colonies and are not welcome near nesting seabirds.
Stay on paths across moorland in spring and summer, when curlews, lapwings and hen harriers are nesting in the grass.
Never feed or bait wildlife to engineer a photograph, and take all litter home, including tangled fishing line.

If your presence changes an animal's behaviour, you are too close. Back off quietly and watch through binoculars instead — you will usually see more, not less.

Practical Notes on Tides, Weather and Timing

Check tide tables before walking any causeway, particularly at the Brough of Birsay, where the crossing is only dry for a few hours either side of low water. Sea watching is often best in a brisk onshore wind, when cetaceans and skuas are pushed closer to land, but cliff paths become genuinely dangerous in high wind and rain, so have an inland plan as backup.

Early morning and the two hours before dusk are consistently the most productive times, and they are also the quietest on the coast. Give yourself several days rather than one. Orkney rarely delivers everything at once, but over a long weekend in late spring or early autumn it comes remarkably close.

Wildlife

Understanding Tides and Weather Before Island Trips

Local pubs often host informal folk sessions with fiddle, accordion and guitar. Listen respectfully, buy a drink and enjoy the atmosphere.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

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Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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