Castle Burrian, Bay of Tafts and between.

[thepigguy]

This walk starts about two miles from my house and is as straightforward as the WH route suggests, particularly after this long dry spell which has eliminated some of the tricky, wet patches at around the halfway point.

I walked down to Rapness Mill with the dogs, so we were nicely warmed up/a bit tired already by the time we reached the start. We stuck to the regulation route which is easy enough in dry weather and the 15-minutes up to the rock stack at Castle Burrian itself is no more than a stroll.

The rock and the cliffs surrounding it are the best place to see puffins at close quarters in Orkney, if not in the UK, with several hundred nesting this year. They normally leave at the start of August, but seem to be hanging around a little longer this year as there was massive activity, especially when a bonxie flew in to patrol the cliffs.

Having stayed for 15 minutes, we headed along the cliff - dogs firmly under control - towards Stanger Head. Puffins gave way to the ubiquitous (in Orkney) fulmars, while there were also guillemots (Westray's bird) and shags. Sadly the kittiwake population here has crashed in the last ten years. All this part of the walk is usually quite wet, so unless you're going right now, get suitably booted.

After Stanger Head there is some new stock fencing, but it's easy enough to divert around that, dropping back down towards the cliff edge, before heading south towards the Geo of Rustling Stones where one of Westray's gigantic stiles marks the place to turn inland. I ended up lifting the dogs over the fence before jumping over myself and heading up the track. Again, this part of the walk is usually very wet, but no so today. If you wanted, you could extend the walk south along the coast, past Gentleman's Ha' and around Wetherness, before heading north to rejoin the WH circuit by Sangar or dropping down to the ferry terminal at Rapness.

We stuck to the plan, crossing the island to the Bay of Tafts, where it's also possible to take a detour to the left around the Ness and back to the ferry terminal. The dogs were happy to be off the lead and jumping in the sea and we stayed at the beach for about 30 minutes before heading back past Rapness Cemetery and turning left onto the main road for the couple of miles back home.

The start of the walk around the cliffs to Castle Burrian.

Nice easy going

The rock stack itself

Puffins on the cliffs by Castle Burrian

Stanger Head

Geo of Rustling Stones, Eday and Sanday in the background.

Massive stile - must be a Tump at least

Nice, unusually dry track across the island

Looking out over the Westray Firth and Rousay.

Bay of Tafts with Fitty Hill in the distance

After five miles on the lead. . . time to cool off