Rackwick

Rackwick
View of Rackwick from Moor Fea
Rackwick is located in Orkney Islands
Rackwick
Rackwick
Location within Orkney
OS grid referenceND201992
Civil parish
Council area
Lieutenancy area
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSTROMNESS
Postcode districtKW16
Dialling code01856
PoliceScotland
FireScottish
AmbulanceScottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
58°52′23″N 3°23′10″W / 58.873°N 3.386°W / 58.873; -3.386

Rackwick is a small coastal crofting township in the north west of the island of Hoy in Orkney, Scotland.

As well as a handful of tourist amenities the township is largely made up of crofts and other small dwellings, however most now form second homes with Rackwick having very few full time residents.[1][2] In 2016 there were only three dwellings occupied year round.[3]

The Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown's poem Rackwick describes the township as "the hidden valley of light" and "Orkney's last enchantment".

The name Rackwick may derive from the Old Norse reka-vík, meaning bay of jetsam.[4]

Geography

Rackwick is surrounded on three sides by the hills Moor Fea, Mel Fea, and Red Glen, with two glacial U-shaped valleys (glens) leading into Rackwick containing two burns (streams), Rackwick Burn and South Burn. The Township lies overlooks Rackwick Beach and Rackwick Bay, with the adjacent coastline dominated by imposing cliffs. Rackwick also borders the RSPB Hoy nature reserve. There is only one minor road to Rackwick, leading from Linksness 4 miles (6.4 km) away, passing by the Dwarfie Stane megalithic tomb. The township is the main starting point for people walking to the Old Man of Hoy, a notable sea stack 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away.[5]

Amenities

Rackwick has a series of small unstaffed community-run museum buildings and an archive centre, including an old schoolhouse and the restored 18th century Cra'as Nest croft and farmstead.[6] The township also contains a bothy, Burnmouth, run by the Hoy Trust, and the Rackwick Outdoor Centre – a hostel by the Orkney Islands Council in a former school building. There is also public toilets and a small car park.

History

The is little evidence of prehistoric activity in Rackwick, while the older farm buildings date from the 18th century.[7] The first known reference to Rackwick was in Lord Sinclair's 1492 rental of Orkney, and the first detailed map dates from 1791.[8] In 1718 the first schoolhouse (now a museum) was opened by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, although this was short lived as the school closed in 1724.[9] In 1879 a new school building was built (now the hostel), closing in 1953 as there were no longer any children left in Rackwick to teach.[10]

Rackwick was home in WWII to a light anti-aircraft battery, two search light batteries, and various small ancillary buildings and structures. There is also a crash site overlooking the township where in 1942 a Fairey Albacore (BF592) hit Mal Fea, killing the pilot.[11][12]

The township was almost deserted in the 1970s, but has seen a small "resurgence" in part because of George Mackay Brown.[3] The landscape artist Sylvia Wishart, a friend of Brown's, rented a house and painted the township throughout the 1960s, while the composer Peter Maxwell Davies, another of Brown's friends, lived in Rackwick from 1970 until 1998.[13][5]

Rackwick was the site of early telegraph cables, while the two subsea power cables connecting Orkney to mainland Scotland land at Rackwick Beach.[14][15]

  • The old schoolhouse built 1718, now a small museum
    The old schoolhouse built 1718, now a small museum
  • The bothy, Burnmouth
    The bothy, Burnmouth
  • Cra'as Nest Museum, formerly a croft and homestead
    Cra'as Nest Museum, formerly a croft and homestead
  • Rackwick Beach
    Rackwick Beach
  • The Old Man of Hoy
    The Old Man of Hoy

References

  1. ^ Lee, Daniel (December 2016). Hoy and Walls Landscape Project: Rackwick Survey 2014-2015 (PDF) (Report). Kirkwall: Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology. p. 22. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Hoy Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b Lee 2016, p. 39.
  4. ^ "Cover". Scottish Place-Name News. No. 29. Scottish Place-Name Society. Autumn 2010. p. 1.
  5. ^ a b "Rackwick". The Gazetteer for Scotland. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Cra'as Nest Museum". Orkney.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  7. ^ Lee 2016, p. 18.
  8. ^ Lee 2016, p. 12.
  9. ^ Lee 2016, p. 20.
  10. ^ Lee 2016, p. 22.
  11. ^ Lee 2016, p. 29.
  12. ^ Clark, Alan (3 August 2016). "Fairey Albacore Mk.I BF592 of No.871 Sqn, RN, crashed above the cliffs at Rackwick on Mel Fea on the Isle of Hoy, Orkney, on the 26th June 1942". Peak District Air Accident Research. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  13. ^ Boak, Rachel (19 November 2020). "Sylvia Wishart". Between Islands. Orkney Arts, Museums and Heritage. Archived from the original on 9 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  14. ^ "New electricity cable hopes suffer huge blow as Ofgem rule out funding". The Orcadian Online. 18 October 2019. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  15. ^ Lee 2016, p. 30.