A Quick Trip to Egilsay – St Magnus Way and Church, RSPB Onziebust Nature Reserve, and Eastside Beaches

On my last full day on Rousay I took a morning ferry to the nearby small island of Egilsay where I would have four hours on the island before the next return ferry. On Saturdays and Sundays, this ferry service is only available on prior request. I wasn’t willing to request an entire ferry just for me, but after enquiring I learned that the ferry had already been requested and so I was able to go. It was another beautiful morning – hurray! – and I headed down to the ferry terminal early to visit the Rousay Heritage Centre which has some displays about the history and flora and fauna of the island. Back outside I admired the sailboats at anchor off shore and the view of the hills from the far end of the pier.

Here comes the boat! Vehicles that take this ferry need to drive onto the deck in reverse, but there were no vehicles driving either off or on this morning.

Up in the passenger lounge I met Gerard, a Dutchman who had requested the ferry as he was starting his walk on the St Magnus Way which begins on Egilsay. We were the only two passengers! It felt odd to have the entire ferry operating just for the two of us, but I was grateful that Gerard had requested it or else I would have been unable to visit the island. Gerard led mountaineering trips in the Alps for thirty years, and he has walked many long distance trails, chiefly in Scotland and Spain, so we had lots to talk about. We landed at the Egilsay pier and this was the view over to Rousay (the tall lone windmill located at the Heart of Rousay Boardwalk is just visible on a hill on the left side of the photo).

This was the curving beach just north of the pier with an enticing-looking headland beyond.

I started up the road (a little ahead of Gerard as we both like walking alone), and this was an early view of St Magnus Church, seen from across a field full of tiny buttercups and daisies.

St Magnus’ Church was built in the late 12th century on the site of a much older church. The tall round tower is reminiscent of round towers found in Ireland except for the tapering of the shape. The tower is fifteen metres high but it was originally twenty metres and would have had five or six stories inside.

I walked all around the church and inside. I loved the colour of the stones and the irregularity of their shapes and placements.

Inside the sanctuary of the church there were two small recessed shelves. There was an old nest tucked into the back of one, and a new nest in the other with eggs in it! Sadly my photo did not turn out well. I had plenty of time on the island, and I wasn’t planning to walk far, so I sat for a while on a bench seat in a corner of the church yard, protected a bit from the wind by the high stone fence. I enjoyed my views of the church, the sea, sky, and Rousay in the distance.

I left the church via a track, with this view back. I was officially walking on St Magnus’ Way, a  58 mile pilgrimage route through Mainland Orkney, inspired by the life and death of Magnus, Orkney’s patron saint.

I turned onto another track which led to the crossroads of the island. At present, less than thirty people live on Egilsay.

Then a left turn led me due east towards the sea. The bird life here was amazing! I was walking through a part of the RSPB Onziebust Nature Reserve which covers more than 55 percent of the island, in cooperation with island farmers. Curlews and oyster catchers were rising into the air noisily as I walked, but not just because of me. There were gulls about, flying low over the fields likely looking for eggs or chicks, and I saw two small hawks that I think were Kestrels hovering and swooping as they hunted. I loved watching them. Small birds sang from somewhere out of sight or sometimes on fence posts, and I’m quite sure that I saw several Arctic terns fly in from the sea.

I stopped often to watch the birds, but I didn’t do any photography as I was eager to get to the beach while the sky was still blue because…..it looks like this!

What a beautiful beach! And here was the view to the south.

I headed north up the beach and didn’t get far before stopping to admire the angled rock formations, decorated with sea pinks and bright yellow lichen.

This was the next beach on, and then another after that. Wow!

The sky to the west was starting to darken so I headed back to the first beach to have my lunch and I met up with Gerard who kindly took my picture.

There he goes, off to explore the north beaches.

There is more walking to be had on the island, south down the main road, but I decided to spend my time here, sitting quietly and looking out to sea, waiting for the birds and other wildlife to say hello. A grey seal came by for a peek at me, and a small flock of shore birds landed on the beach for a few minutes to quickly scamper over the sand and seaweed before lifting off again. One stayed a minute or two longer than the rest.

The sky was just as mesmerizing as the waves and the shifting colours of the sea. While I watched rain fall in the distance, dark clouds approached from behind and surprised me with sudden rain and then an onslaught of hail. But, I had my trusty umbrella with me and sat huddled beneath it, quite happily dry as I watched the hail fall and bounce off of the beach rocks all around. Ten minutes later it was all done!

I said goodbye to the lovely beach and headed back up the track towards the centre of the island – the tallest hill on Rousay is centred in the distance.

I had attached my zoom lens onto my camera at the beach, but the birds were much quieter now at around noon. The hawks, terns, and gulls were no longer in sight but I did manage these two feeble photos of a curlew and an oyster catcher.

In a field near the track is a monument dedicated to St Magnus that marks the place where he was slain by order of his cousin Earl Hakon. Magnus shared the earldom of Orkney with Hakon and in 1117, at an Easter-time parlay here on Egilsay to resolve differences, Hakon arrived with an army of eight boatloads of men rather than the agreed-upon two boatloads of men each. Magnus – pious, peaceable, and well-liked – was slain by one of Hakon’s men who was forgiven by Magnus prior to the deed being done. The story is told in the Orkneying Saga. (You can hear a narration of the text in this YouTube video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C-bBXX8_AB0)

I returned to the crossroads and had some time remaining before the ferry so I spent a few minutes in the island’s wonderful little community centre which is always open for islanders or visitors to enter, make a cup of tea or coffee, use the computer, or maybe even play a game of ping pong. I perused some of the bird books, trying to identify the little bird I had seen on the sand.

Then it was time to return to the pier to catch the ferry. The sky was mostly blue but the wind was still strong and cold so Gerald and I sat and chatted in the small but nicely warm waiting room. I thanked him again for having requested the ferry, so glad that I had had the opportunity to visit wonderful Egilsay.

Here comes the ferry, again just for the two of us!

Back on Rousay, I had planned to hike up to the top of the moor but after four hours outside in the sun and the wind, and despite the small amount of walking I had done, I felt tired and decided to head to my accommodation for a rest, perhaps to do the hike in the early evening. Some rain moved in later in the day, not much, but it was enough to justify my laziness and decision to save that hike for, hopefully, another time. The next morning, I said goodbye to beautiful Rousay and its farms and hills,

and then looked forward out of the ferry window, towards Mainland Orkney and new sights to come.