The world's shortest flight

By Norman Miller, Evening Standard

Last updated at 12:45 07 June 2004

"Strapped in?" Stewart enquires casually, cutting a mature Biggles figure as he swivels around to gaze at us from the front seat.

"Right, off we go!" Seconds later, with a roar like a souped-up lawnmower, we are in the air above Papa Westray on a recordbreaking journey.

Three hundred feet up, a succession of Orkney images flash by: a tiny graveyard pushed up against a sandy beach, ruined crofts, a turquoise sea punctuated by swimming seals and tiny seaweed strewn skerries.

Ninety seconds later, it's all over as our wheels hit gravel on the neighbouring island of Westray. Jumping out, while one lady pays Stewart for her flight, I gaze past plane spotting sheep to the sea and wished every trip could be like the world's shortest scheduled airline flight.

Only a dozen of the 70 or so Orkney islands are inhabited, linked by ferries ploughing through the Atlantic from tiny quay to tiny quay as well as the little eight-seater island-hoppers, whose brief, exhilarating flights pack the rush you imagine spurred on the Wright brothers.

Orkney retains the proud independence of the Vikings who left their legacy in placenames such as Egilsay, Flotta and Hamnavoe as well as the robust tales of the Orkneyinga Saga about men with sobriquets like "Skullsplitter" (now the name of one of the fine Orkney beers).

"Mainland" to an Orcadian means the largest Orkney island, not Scotland.

Mainland alone could satisfy the most jaded visitor. There's Europe's finest Neolithic tomb, Maes Howe, complete with evocative Viking runic graffiti, the stony lochside grandeur of the Ring of Brodgar and the poignant Italian Chapel created from old army huts by Second World War Italian prisoners beside the shipwreck-strewn channel between Mainland and Burray.

But the most famous spot is Skara Brae, a village hidden for six millennia beneath the sands of the magnificent Bay of Skaill until unearthed by a 19th-century storm.

Its breathtaking archaeology is perfectly complemented a stone's throw away by Skaill House, a ravishing laird's home filled with treasures from the 17th century to the 1950s.

Towns seem almost an affront beneath Orkney's big skies. While the main centre, Kirkwall, boasts the red stone vastness of the 12th century St Magnus Cathedral (and Orkney's only nightclub, Fusion).

We preferred the winding alleys and rugged working port charm of Stromness, whose town museum offers salty seafaring relics as a contrast to modern art at the Pier Arts Centre.

But it's a fool who ignores the other islands. Hoy, in particular, has Orkney's most dramatic landscape, glacial valleys slicing through hilly moorland to beautiful hideaways such as Rackwick Bay where a clifftop path leads to the towering red seastack called the Old Man of Hoy.

Hoy also has Orkney's most evocative museum, a former naval hangar at Lyness fronted by huge guns pointing over the vast natural harbour of Scapa Flow. Inside, the story is told of the defiant sinking here in 1919 of Germany's First World War fleet by its captive crew and, 20 years later, the torpedoeing of the battleship Royal Oak (killing more than 800 men).

Orkney also exerts a pull on artists and designers with many galleries and workshops dotted along roads meandering temptingly into the countryside.

We followed Vogue magazine by visiting sisters Jenna and Lizza Hume on the Westray shoreline. Against a backdrop of bobbing boats a chat with Jenna is interrupted as my partner Jess bursts from their workshop, draped in a stunning knit.

"I must have this," she insists, breathless at the beauty of her discovery. I recognised the feeling as a very Orkney thing.

Gourmet's guide

*The Creel Inn (01856 831 311, www.thecreel.co.uk), St Margaret's Hope, South Ronaldsay. The sea dominates the menu at this Rick Stein favourite.

Dishes such as ling with seawitch and seaweed-fed North Ronaldsay lamb served in relaxed style.

* Cleaton House Hotel, (01857 677 508) Westray. Tuck into roast venison with bitter chocolate sauce and pan-seared scallops with red pepper and Noilly Prat sauce in a period dining room.

* Julia's (01856 850 904), Ferry Road, Stromness. Superior brasserie menu, including crab soup and haddock-and-prawn pie in a modern quayside setting.

Way to go

Norman Miller flew to Inverness with easyJet (www.easyJet.com), returns from £54, then to Kirkwall with British Airways (www.ba.com), returns from £61. Inter-island flights bookable with Loganair (01856 872 494), returns from £12. Further information from Orkney Tourist Board (01856 872 856).