Orkney

Most of the new editions in Historic Scotland’s valuable series of historical guides have been but slightly revised from the originals: this is an exception, for it allows Orkney a whole volume to itself rather than combining it with Shetland as the first edition did.

A separate volume is well deserved, for Orkney is one of the richest areas in Scotland in this respect. It may seem remote to us, but when sea transport was easier than travel by land, Orkney was the crossroads of the Northern seas, and its successive occupiers, lacking much wood, had to build in stone,...