Hunda island from Burray village

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The small, uninhabited island of Hunda makes for a fine walk; it is linked to Burray by a causeway. The walk is described from Burray village to avoid access problems at Littlequoy.

Terrain

Minor road, track, rough and faint paths; boggy in places. Some gates may need to be climbed.

Public Transport

Bus to Burray village.

Start

Burray village. Open start point in Google Maps for directions.

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Currently 4.20/55

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Walk Description

Stage 1

Turn off the A961 in Burray village and there is a parking area almost immediately on the left. Begin the walk by taking the road that goes off opposite the parking area, with playing fields on your right; there is a pavement. Continue past the entrance to the primary school and ignore turnings on both sides. The road leads on through open countryside and eventually swings right. At the next junction, follow the main branch of the road which bends now left. Eventually the road ends - go though the left hand of the two gates ahead onto a faint grassy track. The track is boggy in places until it passes through another gate and below an isolated house. Pass through yet another gate and continue on the track as it curves to the right, towards the ruined Ourequoy Farm. Turn left before reaching the farm; you may need to climb a locked gate to follow a grassy track down towards the coastline. At the coast turn right alongside a fence. Continue along the field edge to another gate (again needs climbing). Beyond this cross the coastal fence at a convenient point (stile has been removed but easy to cross as no barbed wire, broken sections) and continue here by the coast, passing some old ruins.

Stage 2

Now follow the coastline, passing another ruin, to reach the Hunda causeway. The causeway - around 500m long - is known as Hunda Reef; it is thought locally that this causeway may have been a prototype for the Churchill Barriers, possibly built with the intention of storing ammunition for the many coastal batteries well away from the civilian population, although no ammunition store was built on Hunda.

Stage 3

The causeway leads to a building now used as a store - do not go through the gate, instead turning right across the grassy dip to begin the walk along the grassy coastline. The exposed strata in the short cliff shows where the sandstone bedrock is overlain with much more recent boulderclay, a glacial deposit from the last Ice Age consisting of fine clay dotted with pebbles. A faint path begins the walk around Hunda in an anti-clockwise direction. Soon the eastern end of the island - East Ayre - is reached; this flat grassy promontory - offers great views over the Churchill barriers that link Burray to the small island of Glimps Holm; further barriers link onwards to Lamb Holm and Mainland.

Stage 4

The barriers were built during WWII to protect the Navy fleet which was based in Scapa Flow. On the night of 13th October 1939 German U-boat U-47 managed to negotiate the blockships that had been sunk in WWI to protect the gap between Mainland and Lamb Holm and entered Scapa Flow. U-47 fired torpedoes at HMS Royal Oak, creating a huge hole in the hull and sinking her with the loss of 833 men and boys. Following this tragedy just a few months after the start of the war, further blockships were sunk to seal the entrances into Scapa Flow, before Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the construction of permanent barriers between the islands. These barriers, known as Churchill Barriers, are in use today as causeways.

Stage 5

Lamb Holm - which is just to the north of Glimps Holm - was used to house 550 Italian Prisoners of War put to work in constructing the barriers. They turned two disused Nissen huts into a makeshift chapel on the island, which - under the direction of prisoner Domenico Chiocchetti - was lined with plaster and painted to an incredibly high standard. A concrete facade was built and has transformed the corrugated iron hut into a work of art that really must be visited perhaps on the way to this walk. A narrow path through the heather continues around the west side of the island. Arctic terns nest on the island so it's important to stick to the path where possible to avoid disturbing their nests. This section offers superb views over the expanse of Scapa Flow, one of the the great natural harbours of the world with an average depth of 30m. After rounding Bar Taing, pass around the bay of The Hope to reach the Cairn Head - the southernmost tip of Burray, marked by cairns atop an old chambered cairn.

Stage 6

Now continue along the eastern coastline to return to the causeway. Unlike the concrete-block construction of the main Churchill Barriers the Hunda causeway is a solid stone embankment sealed with a concrete skin. Return along the causeway and retrace your steps all the way back to Burray village.

If you experience any problems with access on this walk, please inform the council access officer by email (ross.irvine@orkney.gov.uk) and copy in walkhighlands (editor@walkhighlands.co.uk).

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Hunda island from Burray village

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Terrain

Public Transport

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