Orkney is one of the smaller vice counties, but it is made up of a large number of islands, 16 of them inhabited, with populations from 2 to 20,000, and many more smaller, uninhabited ones. Included are Sule Skerry and Sule Stack, 40 miles westwards into the north Atlantic.

Kirkwall on ‘Mainland’ Orkney is the Islands’ capital (with a Norse cathedral); it has plenty of places to stay and is a convenient centre for exploring the islands, especially those to the north. There are daily ferries to most of the larger ones of these, also an inter-island plane service. Stromness is the second-biggest town, an attractive place and more convenient for visiting the island of Hoy and others in Scapa Flow. For full details of where to stay, travel, and more, try VisitOrkney.

There is much of interest for the botanist. Highlights include arctic-alpines at unusually low altitude on the ridges of the Hoy hills, maritime heaths and grasslands with Primula scotica and Euphrasias, dunes and machair on the island of Sanday and a multitude of small lochs, most of them naturally eutrophic or mesotrophic and rich in aquatic  plants.

Field meetings

Some of these focus on finding rare plants to include in a County Rare Plant Register (CRPR), some on tetrad recording, while others are just good botanical outings. There are several local members who usually attend: some of them have specialised in particular groups of plants, which means that there is often a lot of expertise on hand. Visiting members are most welcome to join these outings. Please contact John Crossley in advance. All events are to some extent weather-dependent and dates and venues may be changed accordingly.

[Programme to be announced.]

Recording

The most recent vice-county checklist, compiled by the former vice-county recorder, (Bullard, E.R. 1995. Wildflowers in Orkney A New Checklist. Kirkwall) is out of print. Work on producing a new list and County Rare Plant Register is progressing well, and it is hoped that both will be linked to this web page in a few months time.

Records of plants are welcome, at 1 km or 2 km square resolution, and higher, preferably 8-figure GR, for uncommon species, also notes, images and queries regarding these.

Checklist of Orkney

>> Introduction (Word document)

>> Checklist (Excel spreadsheet)