Picture: The view across the Pentland Firth from old St Mary’s churchyard, Burwick. The beacon you can see across the bay (with a ship to its left) is on Lother Rock, and beyond it is mainland Scotland (Dunscansby Head and John O’Groats).
This page is under development and is expected to be completed by the end of August.
Old St Mary’s Church and the Listening Walk
For those who don’t know about Burwick, it is in the south of South Ronaldsay. If you are biking or coming by car all you do is follow the A961. The road ends at Burwick pier. As can be seen from the map above, it goes past the old church. If there is no space in the small car park just before the churchyard, there is plenty of space beyond the old farm by the pier. Walkers coming down the west coast will end up at the same place.
Old St Mary’s Church, aka Lady Kirk (click for map), was probably established at this spot in the 11th century. However, the first record of it on a map dates from 1654. Before the opening of the Lady Kirk, there was a chapel (St Colm’s), a few hundred metres to the east, dating from the ninth century or earlier [for more on this, visit our page on local churches and chapels].
Burwick’s coast is said to be where the earliest Christian missionaries landed in the Isles. Adomnan, the ninth Abbot of Iona and the writer of Life of Columba (Vita Columbae), reports that Cormac Ua Liatháin arrived around 580 AD. He had probably sailed around the mainland from Iona, where St Columba’s monastery was based.
The walk
There are thirteen stops on this short walk, which takes the form of three circles. While we start with stops 1-4, the subsequent stops become more random.
The project was part of the Creative Islands Network, Culture Collective programme funded by Creative Scotland and run by An Lanntair, Pier Arts Centre, Shetland Arts and Chearsabhagh.
To hear the story, you can either use your mobile device to read the QR code at the stopping point or just click the relevant title link on this page. These take you straight to each story. To hear the tale, just click the play button [a black triangle pointing right] at the bottom left of the story page.
The first circle
Stop 1: Bone Staff
Alexander Annal, Cyril Annal, Willie Budge
5min 55secs
Bone Staff tells the story of a former hunched-back resident of Burwick who appears to have never done any good for his neighbours and who walked around with a sour face. His disability required him to use a walking stick. It was made from a whale’s rib bone, and this led to his nickname – ‘Bone Staff’. In 1761, it is said that, as a young man, he lured a boat (the Johanna Maria) full of pickled salmon onto the rocks, with the loss of most of the crew. This was to prey on his mind and led him to commit suicide. He is said to be buried here outside this corner of the graveyard (by Stop 1). Suicides were not allowed space on consecrated ground.
We move on to stops 2 and 3. This entails walking up the path to the beach and turning left (east). It is a short distance to the post on your left, which has two links.
Stop 2: Children Playing
Maureen Anderson, Violet Flett
1min 51secs
Children Playing describes some of the experiences of playing on this spot, located between the church and the boat house, and of being in the sea. It also reports getting up to mischief in the church and the boat shed, and how a kind local man used to keep his eye on them. It is said that he lived at Broch, which is possibly a reference to a house on the eastern coastline to the left of the pole in the picture above.
Stop 3. Coastguard
Alexander Annal, Pattie Budge, Stephen Manson
4min 36secs
Coastguard discusses some of the experiences of local men in the Coastguard volunteers. At any one time, there could be just over 20 South Parish men involved with the Coastguards. They had a lookout station just beyond the end of Brough Road (which runs from the last turning before Burwick on the A961). In the photograph above, which is taken from close to Stop 3, you can see Brough Farm towards the tip of the coastline. The lookout station was a bit further south and just to the left. You can see it marked in the top left of the opening map. Below you can see a photograph of the Station.
The lookout was sited here as the Pentland Firth has tidal currents that are said to be among the fastest in the world. When combined with high winds, they create very challenging sea conditions. This has resulted in the loss of a significant number of boats and ships and their crew members. The station looks out to the Pentland Skerries – four uninhabited islands, the largest of which (Muckle Skerry) has two lighthouses.
Stop 4: Creels
John George Halcro, Stephen Manson
3min 10secs
You carry on for a short distance along the coast, and you will come across Stop 4 a few steps beyond the boat shed. The plate with the link on it was broken when last examined – so the only way to listen to Creels is to click on our link above.
A creel was a
Stop 9: The Skerry Boat
Mauren Anderson, John George Halcro
3 min 42secs
This shed was where the boat was kept to take people to and fro the Pentland Skerries – the four now uninhabited islands just south of South Ronaldsay. The key destination was the largest island, Muckle Skerry. Since 1794, there have been two lighthouses – a ‘double light’. It was established by Thomas Smith and Robert Stephenson. The aim was to enable ships to navigate the Pentland Firth with relative safety and avoid having to travel around Orkney. (Click to see their history on the Northern Lighthouse Board website). Also on the island was a ‘family station’ which housed their families. The Skerry boat was, therefore, needed to transport people and goods (and animals) to and from the island. The family station closed in the 1950s and relocated to Stromness along with lighthouse families from Stroma and Copinsay. (Click to read an interesting article on the Stromness Shore Station). In 1972, the lighthouse keepers began to be taken to and from the island by helicopter. The lighthouse became fully automated in 1994.
Maureen Anderson discusses her experiences on the boat, including what it was like to go down the slipway on it (her father sailed the boat). She also describes the various people, such as engineers and farm workers, who had to go to the islands. There were, for example, sheep on Muckle Skerry, and the maintenance of the lighthouses required specialist skills.
If you turn back to the road and look a little to the east, Sant Colmis / St Colm’s, a medieval chapel, was just a few steps along, beside what was then the Loch of Burwick (click for map).
The second circle – around the churchyard
We enter the churchyard by the gate on the short path from the car park – and then turn seaward. On the wall to the left, you will find the intriguingly named Hang Geo (stop 5).
Stop 5: Hang Geo
Willie Budge
3min 48sec
This gravestone is said to mark the grave of a young man (James Thomas) who died in 1799. On the recording, Willie Budge describes the incident that led to his death at Hang Geo. A Geo is an inlet, a gully or a narrow and deep cleft in the face of a cliff (Wikipedia) – and Hang Geo is up the coast from Burwick and is east of Barswick. It seems he was at the helm of a boat, the Edinburgh of Leith, that ran into trouble here. James died hanging from his head on the cliff. Click to see Hang Geo on the map.
Willie also tells the story of an Orkney man who had a ‘brick’ of tobacco tied around his waist, who seemingly fell ill from this, but recovered after it was removed. A ‘brick’ was, basically, a large, compressed block of chewing tobacco that could also be used in a pipe.
From here, we take a few steps to the corner of the church and then walk along to Stop 11 at the middle of the chapel.
According to Scottish Church Heritage Research (SCHR), there was an earlier church (built before 1440) on the site, which replaced St Colm’s (see above). The current Old St Mary’s Church/ the Lady Kirk was built in 1788. Its interior was refurbished in 1896. From around 1959, it was only used for occasional services. In 2013, it was struck by lightning and suffered significant damage, and was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register. Orkney Island’s Council then issued a repair enforcement action on the Church of Scotland, and the building was made watertight and windproof and put up for sale in 1916 (details taken from Scotland’s Churches Trust). Thankfully, local people set up the St Mary’s Preservation Trust and were able to buy the church and keep it open.
Stop 11: Sunday School
Maureen Anderson, Violet Flett, Charlie Nicholson
3min 44sec
We now head to the west end of the church, the ‘back door’ and stop 6.
Stop 6: The Ladystone
Cyril Annal, Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon, John George Halcro, Marita Lück, Dr James Moore.
6min 44secs
The church houses a rounded grey whin stone, carved with two footprints, and believed to be a Pictish coronation stone.
Image from George Low’s book (1879) A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, page 27. Click to read.
The final bit of the second circle is concerned with two disasters.
Stop 7: Lightning Strike
Charlie Nicholson, Yvonne Nicholson
Stop 10: Smallpox
Alexander Annal, Cyril Annal
2min 11secs
From here, we return to the south of the churchyard and the final circle. This takes us out through the back gate and turning right. You then turn right again onto the path that runs parallel with the sea.
The final circle – Swona, Burwick Farm and back to St Mary’s
The island of Swona is not visible from here, but can be seen from the other side of the hill behind the old farmstead ahead of you. The second walk on this page, up to the Castle of Burwick, will give a good view of this uninhabited island, when it has been written!
Stop 12: Swona
Alexander Annal, Cyril Annal
2min 25secs
From Stop 12, you carry on along the track to the first turning, which takes you the right side of the farm buildings. Crossing the road to the track to the side of the farmstead, you will find stop 13 by the corner of the next-door field.
The farmstead is uninhabited and Grade B-listed. It has been derelict since the early to mid-1970s. Bought by a couple in 2015, restoring the farmhouse and barn was a big project. They installed a new roof, replaced windows, and worked on the barn. However, it appears that they lost interest in the project and the life it entailed for them. The house, along with the large barn opposite, has been on the market for some time. The outbuildings to the right of the house do not appear to be included in the offer.
Stop 13: Wells
Violet Flett, Charlie Nicholson
1min 30secs
From stop 13 you walk along the road towards the church. On your right, you will see what was a sheepfold (an enclosure/shelter for sheep). The first record we have of sheepfolds dates from the twelfth century.
Stop 8: Sheepfold
Alexander Annal, Cyril Annal, Charlie Nicholson
1min 53secs
Sheepfolds often had several pens within them. They were used where sheep from different farms have been on common grazing grounds. Within the sheepfold, animals could be separated into their farm flocks.
This concludes the Burwick listening walk. If you enjoyed the walk, you might want to try the sister walk in St Margaret’s Hope.
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Castle of Burwick
https://www.trove.scot/place/9561
updated: August 30, 2025