Friday

Arrived on the evening ferry from Kirkwall to a warm welcome, a hot kettle and fresh cakes. After a long journey, and a quick dog walk along an endless beach featuring a surprise shipwreck (the remains of a german destroyer) we sunk into mattresses like clouds and we all crashed.

Saturday

First stop shopping to stock up for the week – there are two shops and it will amaze you how well stocked they are for a small island. Turns out they’re addictive and we ended up in one or other most days picking up bits and pieces and chatting to the friendly staff. Adam came to the house and took us on a pre-arranged wildlife tour. His knowledge of the island’s natural and social history was superb, and he really engaged the children. We were lucky enough to get a couple of rare sightings too.

Sunday

After a morning clambering up the massive dunes at Cata Sand – the most spectacular place with sea on both sides, we over-indulged in a vast Sunday Carvery at the Kettletoft Hotel - we didn’t need dinner after that, so we snacked on local oatcakes and cheeses and had a lazy evening of family games around the kitchen table.

Monday

After a fantastic craft session at Sanday Community Craft hub we explored the surprisingly diverse range of local crafts, purchasing a few souvenirs. We stayed for soup and toasties for lunch and MORE homemade cakes in their cozy café and chatted to friendly locals. As we left, we stayed for a while to watch the lazy seals basking on the rocks right outside.

To walk off our lunch we headed to the Quoyness Chambered cairn. You can actually crawl inside this 5,000-year-old megalithic tomb. Eerie and fascinating in equal measure – where else can you get so close to ancient archaeology?

Tuesday

A long and varied walk from Saville to Whitemill bay where we tried rockpooling with some nets we picked up in the local shop. That took me back to my childhood. When we got back to the house we were super lucky to spot an otter hunting along the foreshore from the window in the sitting room. We cooked the fresh lobster we’d pre-ordered and ate these with our locally grown vegetables and some Orkney beers from the local shop.

Wednesday

We hired e-bikes from the Sanday Community Shop in Lady village. We covered much more ground than we’d expected. Having completed a circular route around the north- east leg of the island looking at the wartime archaeology and exploring the “hearsie hoose” with the island’s old horse-drawn hearse still inside, we stopped at Cata Sand for a picnic. We still had plenty of time to explore another road towards the Burness area, taking in views of farms, crofts and historic settlements including the deserted grand estate mansion of Scar House.

We’d worked-up quite an appetite, so we headed back to the Kettletoft Hotel for the best takeaway fish & chips I’ve had in a long time. We ate them on the end of Kettletoft pier imagining the harbour bustling with traders and fishermen in days gone by whilst the kids dangled crab lines in the crystal clear water. Shortly after we got back to the house Jackie sent us a text saying “the merry dancers are out”. So, huddled in blankets we sat outside watching the northern sky and the northern lights put on their show for us.

Thursday

We spent quite a while at Sanday Heritage Centre asking the knowledgeable custodian about the places we’d seen on our cycle. The restored croft house in the grounds is like stepping back in time. There is also a bronze-age burnt mound and the recently found 18th century shipwreck of the Earl of Chatham which was still awaiting conservation when we visited. On the way back we stopped at some honesty boxes, collecting goose eggs and homebakes. In a hut near Lady village we found homemade chutney, home grown vegetables, and fresh bread and pastries for lunch.

Jackie had recommended an isolated beach in the south end of the island called Dounhelzie, so we spent the afternoon there with our honesty-box picnic exploring the caves and photographing the seapink on the colourful rock faces. We all braved a swim in the sea – once we were in it was just fine. Our eldest got her paddleboard out and the younger children had brought snorkels and masks. Then we headed back to the house where the grownups warmed up with a lovely relaxing sauna.

Friday

The vertical stripes of Start Point lighthouse had been fascinating us all week so after taking local advice on tide times, we headed out to this tidal island and spent a couple of fascinating hours exploring the deserted farm and lighthouse complex. It felt very intrepid and we were glad to be back on the main island before the tide turned. Very slippery underfoot, it’s a trip for the adventurous. As a last night treat we went for truly authentic pizza at 59 Degrees North (and some cheeky Sundaes to finish) – a really quirky and unexpected find on a small island!

We have to mention the beaches

Sanday, as its name suggests, has miles and miles of clean, deserted white beaches. We used the complementary visitor guide map to visit a different one each day (and there were plenty we didn’t get to). Each had something different to see and do. The dog was in heaven, the children made sandcastles, collected shells and all exhausted themselves running in the fresh clean air and splashing in the crystal clear water.

At the end of each (mostly device-free) day the children crashed with exhaustion, and we enjoyed some grownup time with a glass of wine around the kitchen table. We didn’t put the TV on once!

We’d thoroughly recommend Orkney Retreats for your Sanday stay, Dave and Jackie’s hospitality is unparalleled: the warm welcome on arrival, the stunning interiors, cozy beds and all the tiny details which all made us feel really special.

We left vowing to return.