Links of Notland
The Links of Notland is a remarkable area of coastal grassland and ancient archaeology located on the western side of Westray, one of the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland. This stretch of links — the traditional Orcadian and Scottish term for the low-lying, sandy grassland found behind coastal dunes — sits along a sweeping bay and is notable above all for containing a Neolithic chambered cairn known as the Cairn of Notland, sometimes simply called the Links of Notland cairn. The site forms part of the extraordinarily rich prehistoric landscape of Westray, an island that has become one of the most archaeologically significant places in the British Isles, home to sites that rival even the famous monuments of mainland Orkney.
The cairn at the Links of Notland is a stalled cairn of Neolithic origin, dating to roughly 3500–3000 BCE, making it contemporary with the great tomb-building period that produced Maeshowe, Quoyness, and the many other chambered cairns scattered across Orkney. Stalled cairns, characteristic of Orkney's Neolithic tradition, feature a long central passage divided into compartments by pairs of upright stone slabs, like the stalls of a barn. These structures were not simply burial monuments but appear to have served complex ritual and communal functions, with bones rearranged and revisited over generations. The Notland cairn, though less famous than Maeshowe, is a genuine remnant of this extraordinary early farming civilisation that flourished in Orkney thousands of years before the Egyptian pyramids were constructed.
The surrounding landscape is quintessentially Orcadian in character. The links themselves are a wide, grassy plain edged by sandy beaches and low dunes, with the restless grey-green waters of Noup Bay or the broader sounds of western Westray visible beyond. The turf underfoot is close-cropped by generations of grazing animals, springy and salt-scented, studded in summer with wildflowers such as sea pinks and bird's-foot trefoil. The wind is almost ever-present here — Westray sits exposed to Atlantic weather systems, and even on calm days there is usually a steady breeze carrying the smell of the sea and the calls of seabirds. Skylarks ascend overhead in warmer months, their song threading through the air above the ancient stones.
Westray itself is an island of striking natural beauty and historic depth. Within a short distance of the Links of Notland lies Noltland Castle, a dramatically ruined sixteenth-century tower house built by Gilbert Balfour, a figure connected to the murder of Cardinal Beaton and implicated in the death of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots. The castle is one of the most haunting ruins in Orkney, its walls studded with gunloops in extraordinary numbers. Also nearby, to the north of the island, is the RSPB reserve at Noup Head, where towering sandstone cliffs host one of the most spectacular seabird colonies in Britain, with puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars present in enormous numbers from spring through summer.
Westray is accessible by ferry from Kirkwall, the Orkney capital, with crossings operated by Orkney Ferries taking approximately one and a half hours. There is also a small passenger air service connecting Westray to Kirkwall on what is famously the world's shortest scheduled airline route — a flight lasting around two minutes between Westray and the adjacent island of Papa Westray, though the Kirkwall service is somewhat longer. Once on Westray, the Links of Notland is reachable by road; the island has a small network of single-track roads and the site lies on the western coast near the settlement of Pierowall, Westray's main village. Visitors should be prepared for open, exposed conditions and are advised to wear layers and waterproof clothing regardless of the season.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the broader Westray archaeological record is the discovery at the Links of Westray (a related site on the same island) of the "Westray Wife" or "Orkney Venus," a tiny Neolithic figurine considered one of the earliest representations of a human face ever found in Scotland. While this figurine came from a slightly different location than the Notland cairn specifically, it speaks to the astonishing density of prehistoric human activity along Westray's coastal links and dunes, where erosion and excavation continue to yield remarkable finds. The Links of Notland thus sits within a living archaeological landscape, one that is still giving up its secrets and that connects modern visitors directly to the deep Neolithic past of northern Britain.