Continuing our look at Tourism this week with the future plans for the development of sites in Stenness and Brodgar, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Heart of Neolithic Orkney.
This is the Orkney World Heritage Gateway with funding support from the Islands Growth Deal. The public engagements and any future consultations are not to be confused with Orkney Islands Council current consultation on its Visitor Management Plan.
That consultation closes on 16 October.
The Orkney World Heritage Gateway is a very ambitious plan to create a modern Visitor Centre at Stenness, with a string of other road management and accessibility features suggested.
It is backed by joint investment of up to £6.5 million from the Scottish Government and UK Government (SG £5.5 million/UKG £1 million). The project is led by a partnership of Historic Environment Scotland, Orkney Islands Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Others identified as key stakeholders in the project by the consortium are: NatureScot, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), landowners, farmers, and the local community, tourism businesses, and University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Archaeology Institute.
Although it is separate from the council’s Visitor Management Plan, clearly there are cross-overs but also tensions between the two.
There are two sites proposed for the Visitor Centre: Barnhouse Farm, already purchased by OIC; and land adjacent to the old Stenness School, currently housing the Maeshowe Visitor Centre run by Historic Environment Scotland. This land has not been purchased.
Readers who know the area will have grasped that the Visitor Centre, whichever site is chosen is not on the same side of the road as the Stones of Stenness, Maeshowe Neolithic Tomb, and the Ring of Brodgar. Traffic would be turning off the Main Kirkwall/Stromness road to access the Visitor Centre.
The Orkney News talked to some of the planning team at the recent public event held at the Sandwick Hall on 24 September. There were display boards on view of some of the artist impressions and images of other Visitor Centres already established to give people some idea of what is planned.
A spokesperson for the project said:
“We are working with the communications team to get the boards on the new Council website as soon as possible. Any feedback can be sent to this email address before 16th October. This email address is always available for any programme queries. (orkneywhs@orkney.gov.uk)
“The engagement sessions held last week presented very early concepts and should not be viewed as proposals or formal proposals. The purpose of this engagement was to seek views at the earliest possible stage, based on the consultancy team’s initial work, so that local knowledge and community feedback can help shape the development of options from the outset.
“The Programme Team is now reviewing all responses received and considering the issues raised before determining the next stages of work. There will be further opportunities for engagement and consultation as the project develops, including any future statutory consultation requirements.”
The Visitor Centre would have all the facilities expected of a world class building, and will include ticketing (for Maeshowe), information, exhibitions, café, retail, toilets, etc. There would also be substantial parking for cars, buses, and mobile homes. It is proposed that a bus shuttle system would transport visitors from the centre to the standing stones at both Brodgar and Stenness, and another shuttle service running to Maeshowe.
There is a lot of parking for buses – and one of the suggestions is that tour buses would park at the centre, disembark their passengers, and then those visitors get onto a shuttle bus. The aim is to reduce the number of buses on the Brodgar Road and ease parking at the sites there, however, it is very difficult to imagine people getting off and on buses in this way in the numbers we get in Orkney. The shuttle buses would require to be constantly running (certainly in summer) so there would still be large volumes of traffic using the Brodgar Road.
The Orkney News was told that there would be no charge for parking at the Ring of Brodgar car park which locals and visitors would still be quite free to use. This is one of the tensions between this project plan and that of OIC’s Visitor Management Plan where car parking charges are suggested.
An alternative route is suggested for visiting Maeshowe, where people currently take a shuttle bus from the Stenness Visitor Centre to Tormiston Mill, cross the road and walk up to the site. The proposal is for the shuttle bus from the new visitor centre instead turning down the Stoneyhill Road and park up there at a widened parking place. They would then approach the Neolithic Tomb from that direction. This would mean there would be no one crossing the main Kirkwall/ Stromness road.
All of these plans, of course, would result in vehicles of a variety of sizes turning off/into the main Kirkwall/Stromness road for the Visitor Centre. Currently the speed limit on this road is 60mph and this would be reduced, possibly from Stenness village up to the junction with Stoneyhill Road.
There are also lots of suggestions for pathways and wheeling/cycling routes from Stenness village round the World Heritage Site area. Some of those include a pathway on the Brodgar Road, however, at the Watch Stone causeway pedestrians would still require to walk on the road.
Orkney very much needs this Visitor Centre for its UNESCO World Heritage Site. Improved safety for walkers and wheelers/cyclists accessing the area would allow more people to enjoy moving around this iconic area and leaving the car behind.
The Islands Growth Deal is a significant investment of £100million set up in 2020 by the Scottish and UK Governments for Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides. The Full Deal was agreed in 2023. The Orkney World Heritage Gateway is just one part of what is a ten year plan and it is hoped that soon more information will be available of what is actually planned with opportunities for people to respond to them.
Fiona Grahame