Loch of Harray
The Loch of Harray is the largest freshwater loch in Orkney, sitting in the heart of Mainland, the principal island of the Orkney archipelago. It covers roughly 960 acres and is celebrated as one of the finest wild brown trout fisheries in the British Isles, drawing anglers from across the world who come in pursuit of the exceptional wild trout that thrive in its fertile, alkaline waters. Unlike many Scottish lochs, Harray is a relatively shallow, machair-fringed body of water enriched by lime-rich soils derived from underlying Old Red Sandstone, which gives the water its characteristic clarity and supports the dense invertebrate life on which the trout feed. The loch holds no outlet to the sea, which means it contains no sea trout or salmon, only wild brown trout of outstanding quality — fish renowned for their golden flanks, powerful build and willingness to rise to a dry fly on calm summer evenings.
The history of the surrounding landscape is perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Loch of Harray, because it sits at the very centre of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The loch's eastern shore is almost within sight of the Ring of Brodgar, a magnificent stone circle dating to approximately 2500 BCE that stands on the narrow strip of land between Harray and its tidal neighbour the Loch of Stenness. Just to the south lies the Standing Stones of Stenness, among the oldest stone circles in Britain at around 3100 BCE, and a few kilometres to the northeast sits Maeshowe, a superbly engineered Neolithic chambered cairn aligned to the winter solstice sunset. The loch itself would have been a central feature of the ritual landscape used by the Neolithic farming communities who built these extraordinary monuments over five thousand years ago, and it is thought that the waterway held spiritual significance in linking the stone monuments on either shore.
In physical character, Harray is a quiet, wide and luminously beautiful expanse of water set low in a gently rolling agricultural landscape. The loch reflects the vast Orcadian skies with extraordinary fidelity, shifting from silver-grey under overcast Atlantic weather to vivid blues and greens when the sun breaks through. The shores are largely low and grassy, with stretches of reed bed and sedge at the margins, and the surrounding farmland comes right down to the water's edge in many places. On a calm evening, the surface may be dimpled by rising trout for hundreds of metres in every direction, creating a scene that has inspired generations of fly fishers. The light in Orkney is famous among artists and photographers for its quality — the northerly latitude means long summer twilights and a low, slanting winter sun that gives everything an unusual luminosity.
The loch sits within a landscape of extraordinary archaeological and natural richness. The B9055 road runs along the narrow neck of land between Harray and Stenness, passing right beside the Ring of Brodgar and offering one of the most dramatic roadside views of any prehistoric monument in Europe. The nearby village of Stenness provides basic amenities, and the town of Stromness is roughly ten kilometres to the southwest, offering a full range of accommodation, restaurants and ferry connections. Kirkwall, the Orcadian capital, lies about ten kilometres to the northeast and has a cathedral, museum, airport and all visitor facilities. The whole area is dense with Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age monuments, making the Harray shores a logical base for anyone wishing to explore the concentration of prehistoric sites.
Fishing on the Loch of Harray is managed primarily through the Orkney Trout Fishing Association, which sells permits by the day or week and also offers boat hire. The season typically runs from late March to October, with June and September often considered the best months for consistent sport with large wild brownies, though conditions vary considerably with the notoriously changeable Orcadian weather. Wade fishing from the shore is possible along much of the perimeter, and the loch's shallow wading margins are well suited to this approach. Non-fishing visitors will find the shoreline rewarding for birdwatching, with curlew, lapwing, oystercatcher and various wildfowl common around the margins, and the views across the water to the ancient monuments are available freely to anyone who pulls off the road and walks the shore.
One of the more quietly remarkable facts about the Loch of Harray is its geological and ecological contrast with its near neighbour, the Loch of Stenness, which lies just to the south separated by only a narrow causeway. Stenness is a brackish, tidal loch connected to the sea at the Bay of Ireland, while Harray is entirely freshwater — yet the two lochs are so close together that standing on the isthmus between them you can see both at once. This juxtaposition of saltwater and freshwater within metres of one another, both overlooked by prehistoric standing stones of astonishing antiquity, gives the whole area a sense of layered time and strangeness that is difficult to find anywhere else in Britain. Harray also played a minor role in the Norse saga world, as Orkney's Norse settlers would certainly have known the loch well; the name Harray itself is thought to derive from the Old Norse word meaning "army" or possibly a personal name, though the etymology is debated among scholars of Norn, the now extinct Norse-derived language once spoken throughout Orkney and Shetland.