This linear out-and-back walk along quiet tarmac lanes links the village and harbour at Whitehall - the ferry port for Stronsay - to the very beautiful sandy beach at St Catherine's Bay.
Quiet minor roads, track, sandy beach.
Ferry to Stronsay from Kirkwall.
Ferry pier, Whitehall village, Stronsay.
Whitehall village consists of a long row of cottages mostly built during the herring boom in the nineteenth century, when up to 300 boats worked out of the village during peak season - hard to believe when in this tiny, sleepy place today. From the jetty, turn right to head along the road past the houses, hotel, shop and tiny bank.
Follow the main road when it swings left, and ignore turnings off to the right. The road soon passes a picnic bench overlooking a small sandy beach, the Ayre of Myres, a sheltered place by Stronsay standards. Common seals can sometimes be seen pupping here in June. Continue along the road, passing Hunton and eventually reaching a t-junction. Turn left here, signed for Rothiesholm.
Continue along the road for 500m, passing the telephone exchange, until a track signed for St Catherine's Bay turns off to the right. Follow this downhill to reach a parking area.
Go through a kissing gate on the right from the entrance to the parking area, then cross the grassy ground and low dunes to reach the beautiful sandy beach of St Catherine's Bay, a beautiful place to spend some time on a warm, calm day.
The return is to retrace your steps to Whitehall back the way you came.
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