Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys, though heavily disliked by Orcadians, is also sometimes used. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 336–403.Wickham-Jones (2007) p. 1 states there are 67 islands. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of , making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles.Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 334, 502. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall.Lamb, Raymond "Kirkwall" in Omand (2003) p. 184.
Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and an historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council.
The islands have been inhabited likely for at least 10,000 years, occupied by terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and subsequently by Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers and later by Picts during the Iron Age. Orkney was colonised and later annexed by the Kingdom of Norway in 875 and settled by the Norsemen. In 1472, the Parliament of Scotland absorbed the Earldom of Orkney into the Kingdom of Scotland, following failure to pay a dowry promised to James III of Scotland by the family of his bride, Margaret of Denmark.Thompson, W.P.L. (2008). The New History of Orkney. Origin. p. 220.
In addition to the Mainland, most of the remaining islands are divided into two groups: the North Isles and the South Isles. The local climate is relatively mild and the soils are extremely fertile; most of the land is farmed, and agriculture is the most important sector of the economy. The significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance; the amount of electricity that Orkney generates annually from renewable energy sources exceeds its demand. Temperatures average in winter and in summer.
The local people are known as Orcadians; they speak a distinctive dialect of the Scots language and have a rich body of folklore. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe; the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Orkney also has an abundance of marine and avian wildlife.
Etymology Pytheas of Massalia visited Britain – probably sometime between 322 and 285 BC – and described it as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas.Breeze, David J. "The ancient geography of Scotland" in Smith and Banks (2002) pp. 11–13. This may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible."Early Historical References to Orkney" Orkneyjar.com. Retrieved 27 June 2009. Writing in the 1st century AD, the Roman geographers Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela called the islands (Ancient Greek: Όρκάδες), as did Tacitus in AD 98, claiming that his father-in-law Agricola had "discovered and subjugated the Orcades hitherto unknown" (although both Mela and Pliny had previously referred to the islands). The Byzantine John Tzetzes in his work Chiliades called the islands Orcades.
Etymologists usually interpret the element as a Pictish tribal name meaning "young pig" or "young boar".Waugh, Doreen J. "Orkney Place-names" in Omand (2003) p. 116. Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as "islands of the young pigs".Pokorny, Julius (1959) . Retrieved 3 July 2009."The Origin of Orkney" Orkneyjar.com. Retrieved 27 June 2009. The archipelago is known as in modern Welsh and in modern Scottish Gaelic, the representing a fossilized prepositional case ending. Some earlier sources alternatively hypothesise that Orkney comes from the Latin , whale. The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede refers to the islands as in Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Norwegian settlers arriving from the late ninth century reinterpreted orc as the Old Norse "seal" and added "islands" to the end,Thompson (2008) p. 42. so the name became "Seal Islands". The plural suffix was later removed in English leaving the modern name Orkney. According to the , Orkney was named after an earl called Orkan."A History of Norway", vol. XIII Translated by Devra Kunin pp. 7–8
The Norse knew Mainland, Orkney as "Mainland" or as "Horse Island".Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 354. The island is sometimes referred to as Pomona (or Pomonia), a name that stems from a 16th-century mistranslation by George Buchanan, which has rarely been used locally.Buchanan, George (1582) Rerum Scoticarum Historia: The First Book The University of California, Irvine. Revised 8 March 2003. Retrieved 4 October 2007."Pomona or Mainland?" Orkneyjar.com. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
Usage of the plural "Orkneys" dates from the 18th century or earlier and was used by for example Sir Walter Scott. From the mid-19th century onwards this plural form has fallen out of use in the local area although it is still often used, particularly by publications based outside Scotland.Anderson, Peter "Is 'The Orkneys' Ever Right?" Orkneyjar. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
History
Prehistory
Late Upper Palaeolithic stone tools of the Ahrensburgian culture have been found in Stronsay and Brodgar on mainland Orkney, suggesting the islands have been inhabited around or prior to 8000 BC.
A charred hazelnut shell, recovered in 2007 during excavations in Tankerness on the Mainland, has been dated to 6820–6660 BC, indicating the presence of Mesolithic nomadic tribes."Hazelnut shell pushes back date of Orcadian site" (3 November 2007) Stone Pages Archaeo News. Retrieved 6 September 2009. The earliest known permanent settlement is at Knap of Howar, a Neolithic farmstead on the island of Papa Westray, which dates from 3500 BC. The village of Skara Brae, Europe's best-preserved Neolithic settlement, is believed to have been inhabited from around 3100 BC."Skara Brae Prehistoric Village" Historic Scotland. Retrieved 3 February 2010. Other remains from that era include the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Maeshowe passage grave, the Ring of Brodgar and other standing stones. Many of the Neolithic settlements were abandoned around 2500 BC, possibly due to changes in the climate.Moffat (2005) p. 154."Scotland: 2200–800 BC Bronze Age" worldtimelines.org.uk Retrieved 23 August 2008.Ritchie, Graham "The Early Peoples" in Omand (2003) pp. 32, 34.
In September 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of two polished stone balls in a 5500-year-old Neolithic burial tomb in Sanday. According to Dr Hugo Anderson, the second object was as the "size of a cricket ball, perfectly spherical and beautifully finished".
During the Bronze Age, fewer large stone structures were built (although the great ceremonial circles continued in useWickham-Jones (2007) p. 73.) as metalworking was slowly introduced to Britain from Europe over a lengthy period.Moffat (2005) pp. 154, 158, 161.Whittington, Graeme and Edwards, Kevin J. (1994) "Palynology as a predictive tool in archaeology" (pdf) Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 124 pp. 55–65. There are relatively few Orcadian sites dating from this era although there is the impressive Plumcake Mound near the Ring of Brodgar, and various island sites such as Tofts Ness on Sanday and the remains of two houses on Holm of Faray.Wickham-Jones (2007) pp. 74–76.Ritchie, Graham "The Early Peoples" in Omand (2003) p. 33. Ancient DNA evidence indicates that the Bronze Age was accompanied by large-scale immigration of Bell Beaker-related populations, resulting in a major replacement of the Neolithic Orcadian gene pool, although some indigenous Neolithic male lineages persisted for at least another millennium.
Iron Age
Excavations at Quanterness on the Mainland have revealed an Atlantic roundhouse built about 700 BC and similar finds have been made at Bu on the Mainland and Pierowall Quarry on Westray.Wickham-Jones (2007) pp. 81–84. The most impressive Iron Age structures of Orkney are the ruins of later round towers called "brochs" and their associated settlements such as the Broch of BurroughstonHogan, C. Michael (2007) Burroughston Broch . The Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 4 October 2009. and Broch of Gurness. The nature and origin of these buildings is a subject of debate. Other structures from this period include underground storehouses and aisled roundhouses, the latter usually in association with earlier broch sites.Ritchie, Graham "The Early Peoples" in Omand (2003) pp. 35–37.Crawford, Iain "The wheelhouse" in Smith and Banks (2002) pp. 118–22.
During the Roman invasion of Britain the "King of Orkney" was one of 11 British leaders who is said to have submitted to the Emperor Claudius in AD 43 at Camulodunum (modern Colchester).Moffat (2005) pp. 173–75. After the Agricolan fleet had come and gone, possibly anchoring at Shapinsay, direct Roman influence seems to have been limited to trade rather than conquest.Thomson (2005) pp. 4–6. Polemius Silvius wrote a list of Late Roman provinces, which Seeck appended to his edition of the Notitia Dignitatum. The list names six provinces in Roman Britannia: the sixth is the dubious "Orcades provincia", the possible existence of which recent researches re-evaluate.
By the late Iron Age, Orkney was part of the Pictish kingdom, and although the archaeological remains from this period are less impressive, the fertile soils and rich seas of Orkney probably provided the Picts with a comfortable living. The Dalriadic Gaels began to influence the islands towards the close of the Pictish era, perhaps principally through the role of Celtic missionaries, as evidenced by several islands bearing the epithet "Papa" in commemoration of these monks and preachers.Ritchie, Anna "The Picts" in Omand (2003) pp. 42–46. The Papar brought with them improved manuring practices that enriched and deepened local soils to support the cultivation of barley and oats.Oram, Richard D. (2025), A Land Won from Waste: Scotland AD 400 - 1400, John Donald, Edinburgh, pp. 126 - 129, The Picts were gradually dispossessed by the North Germanic peoples from the late 8th century onwards. The nature of this transition is controversial, and theories range from peaceful integration to enslavement and genocide.Thompson (2008) pp. 43–50. It has been suggested that an assault by forces from Fortriu in 681 in which Orkney was "annihilated" may have led to a weakening of the local power base and helped the Norse come to prominence.Fraser (2009) p. 345
Norwegian rule
Both Orkney and Shetland saw a significant influx of Norwegian settlers during the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Vikings made the islands the headquarters of their pirate expeditions carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland. In response, Norwegian king Harald Fairhair (Harald Hårfagre) annexed the Northern Isles, comprising Orkney and Shetland, in 875 (it is clear that this story, which appears in the Orkneyinga Saga, is based on the later voyages of Magnus Barelegs and some scholars believe it to be apocryphal).Thompson (2008) pp. 24–27. Rognvald Eysteinsson received Orkney and Shetland from Harald as an earldom as reparation for the death of his son in battle in Scotland, and then passed the earldom on to his brother Sigurd the Mighty.Thompson (2008) p. 24. Sigurd went on to conquer northern parts of mainland Britain in the late 9th century, including Caithness and Sutherland.