Burray - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

Orkney Fossil & Heritage Centre was housed in converted farm buildings on the island of Burray, the Centre has an intriguing collection of fossils from Orkney and around the world, including some rare and beautifully preserved specimens. The exhibitions downstairs showcase the extensive fossil and rock collection, with detailed information and illustrations of 380 million year old fish! Ernest Firth was also a collector of heritage objects

Glimps Holm in Orkney is a long, lazy beach with beautiful blue water, golden sand and a nearby Churchill Barrier. Scapa Flow had many entrances, making it difficult to protect the anchorages in this natural harbour. Blockships had been sunk to close the narrow passages, but these proved inadequate. Glimps Holm is connected to Lamb Holm, to the northeast, by Barrier number 2, and to Burray by Barrier number 3.

A beautiful uninhabited island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is 100 hectares in extent and rises to 42 metres above sea level. It is situated in the Scapa Flow and connected to the nearby island of Burray by a causeway built in 1941 to stop passage of small surface craft as part of the boom defences, and thence to the Orkney Mainland via the Churchill Barriers.

Lamb Holm is a small uninhabited island in Orkney, Scotland. The Italian Chapel, constructed during the Second World War, is the island's main attraction. It is classified by the National Records of Scotland as an uninhabited island that "had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses. On the northwest of the island, on the shore of St Mary's Bay, are the remains of a prehistoric settlement which have been designated as a scheduled monument.

The Italian Chapel is one of Orkney's more unusual attractions but is certainly one of its most visited. It was built during World War II by Italian prisoners of war, who were housed on the previously uninhabited island while they constructed the Churchill Barriers to the east of Scapa Flow. The chapel was not completed until after the end of the war, and was restored in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. It is a popular tourist attraction, and a category A listed building.

The Churchill Barriers are a series of four causeways linking the Orkney Mainland to the islands of Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm, Burray and South Ronaldsay with a total length of 1.5 miles. The barriers were built between May 1940 and September 1944, primarily as naval defences to protect the anchorage at Scapa Flow, but since 12 May 1945, serve as road links between the islands.