Hoxa Head

The route begins at the small car park where the public road ends on the Hoxa peninsula, to the west of the village of St Margaret’s Hope. The car park itself sits on the edge of a small area of heathery bog – keep an eye open for short-eared owl and curlew.

Set off along the vehicle track which leads southwest from the car park. Passing the house of The Bu on your right, keep straight on through a set of metal gates to continue gently uphill. After a further 400m or so you reach the highest point of the walk and the views open up; the Pentland Firth to the southwest, with Caithness in the distance; to the west is the island of Flotta, with Hoy and Longhope behind; north lies the vast anchorage of Scapa Flow.

You can see why this stretch of water was so strategically important during both world wars; sheltered waters with easy access to the North Atlantic and North Sea.

Pass through a wooden kissing gate (0.74km) before turning left to head roughly south along the stone track for approximately 200m. The buildings here are the remains of the Hoxa Battery – one of two gun batteries to be built on this headland during WW2.

The Hoxa Battery was constructed on the site of an earlier WW1 emplacement, and is in considerably poorer condition than the Balfour Battery, which is sited a little further north (do not enter any of the buildings on this walk, as they are extremely unsafe, indeed some have recently collapsed).

Look for the kissing gate which leads to the seaward side of the fence before turning right to head north along the coastal path, indented with numerous geos. Stick to the obvious path and keep well back from the cliff edge, as out-sloping layers of sedimentary rock can be deceptively dangerous. Sea pinks and bird’s-foot trefoil line the route in early summer.

To your right, various earthworks and remains of the significant wartime camp can be seen, while in the waters to your left seals can often be spotted in the deep, clear waters close inshore.