Of all our 8 top things to see and do while in the Orkney Islands visiting the Old Man of Hoy is for us probably the standout. Frankly, the 137m sandstone tower is the craziest things we’ve ever seen along Britain’s coast.

The Old Man of Hoy is a needle-thin sea stack that looks seconds away from just toppling into the sea. It’s popular with climbers, but we’re talking here about walking out to see it – from the cliff that’s actually directly above it.

Getting to the Old Man of Hoy involves catching a ferry from Mainland Orkney (confusingly itself an island) to Hoy, driving across the island to a road’s end carpark and walking out for 4km to the sea stack on a beautiful little path along the cliff.

It’s lovely, weird and awe-inspiring so you really must do it. Here’s how:

How to get out to the Old Man of Hoy, Orkney

Start: Rackwick Bay carpark

Finish: The Old Man of Hoy

Distance: 8km (out-and-back)

Start with a ferry from Houton, Mainland Orkney to the island of Hoy, docking at Lyness. If you’re a foot passenger and it’s the summer, you can catch the ferry from Stromness to Linksness instead. You can find the ferry timetable between Orkney and Hoy here.

Once you’re there, we think you’ll find Hoy quite a different place to Mainland Orkney. In fact it makes the Mainland look like a heaving metropolis in comparison. It’s almost deserted (and we had a frankly spooky experience getting stranded there one night) but beautiful.

Drive west along the amazing coast road from Lyness to Linksness. Then cross over to the south to reach the beautiful Rackwick Bay, a beautiful enclosed beach.

You can park here and set off walking. There’s a clear path up over the headland through a nature reserve managed by the RSPB (that’s the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). It’s lush maritime habitat with a bit of uphill as you rise up above the bay.

Eventually you’ll reach the cliff edge, with great views of Rackwick Bay and cliffs to the south and on a clear day, mainland Scotland.

From here you follow the old path straight across the moorland clifftop, flat and strewn with rocks. Keep a lookout for the tip of The Old Man of Hoy ahead, signalling like a weird giant thumb.

Then just as you’re getting a teeny bit impatient you’ll come abruptly to the viewing point – and it’s worth the slow there and back.

Directly below is the Old Man of Hoy, every centimetre of its 137m visible above the crashing waves.

Off to the right are of towering St. Johns Head – the highest vertical sea cliff in UK rising to 335m above sea level.

Look out for climbers summitting The Old Man – we saw a guy do it at sunset. It left lots of unanswered questions, tbh. How did he make it down? Did he make it down? Can you camp on the top? Is he still there?

It’s also a good puffin-watching place so the RSPB tell us – and we do love puffins.

Leave us a comment with your thoughts about the crazy Old Man of Hoy.

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And finally, where did we stay?

We’ve been lucky to visit Orkney several times over the years and we keep going back to the Merkister Hotel which is on the “Mainland” – that’s what the main island of the Orkney Islands is known as!

It’s right on the shores of Loch Harray, and is well known as an angler’s hotel which really adds to the character. There are often little fishing boats hauled up on the shore of the loch just outside the hotel, which makes for a fantastic scene. We’ve always had a lovely welcome at the hotel, the rooms are clean and comfortable, and the hotel bar is a gem serving great, hearty meals. It’s perfect after long days out exploring on foot.

The hotel is well placed to access ferry ports at Stromness, Kirkwall, Tingwall and Houton (where we hopped on a boat to Hoy). Also, the Merkister Hotel is only a walk away from the Ring of Brodgar, Stenness Standing Stones and the magnificent west coast featured in this blog.