Skaill House. Visitor Attraction And Self-Catering Apartments
About Skaill House. Visitor Attraction And Self-Catering Apartments
Skaill House is the finest mansion in Orkney steeped in 5000 years of history. The house is open to the public from April until October. .
Skaill House. Visitor Attraction And Self-Catering Apartments Description
Skaill House is the finest mansion in Orkney steeped in 5000 years of history. It stands imposingly on the Atlantic coast of Orkney and just 200m from the world famous Neolithic village of Skara Brae. The house is surrounded by spacious lawned gardens in a beautiful secluded spot between the sea and the Loch of Skaill.
Skaill House was built in 1620 and in its 400 year history all 12 of its Lairds have been related and all have contributed to the history and collection in the house. The first owner was Bishop George Graham (Bishop of Orkney 1615-1638) who built the house on the site of a farmstead thought to date to the Norse period. Also notable was the7th Laird William Graham Watt who discovered Skara Brae in 1850.
Visitors to Skaill House can explore the family home and the artefacts collected by the family since the 17th Century. The collection includes artefacts related to Skara Brae, an unusually Norse calendar stick and a dinner service used by the explorer Captain James Cook on his 3rd and final voyage. A visit to Skaill House and Skara Brae will give you a valuable insight into Orkney’s diverse and exciting past.
Today Skaill House is one of Orkney’s top tourist attractions and is included as a joint ticket with Skara Brae. Skaill House is open to the public from April to September. The house is also available all year for weddings and private functions.
In the North Wing of Skaill House there are also two apartments available as holiday accommodation. Skaill House is ideally situated on the stunning Orkney coastline and is an excellent base for exploring Orkney, 6 miles from Stromness and 16 miles from Kirkwall.
Reviews
Steve did a great job fixing the door bell today. It got our seal of approval
Best of luck to all my team tackling the first busy liner day of the season. I will be with you in spirit. Go Team!!!
Fancy a picnic????
It was such a privilege to welcome Mr Sasaki, the vice consul from the Japanese consulate in Edinburgh, to Skaill House. The connection between the house and Japan is incredibly interesting and one which we hope to unravel further with the help of our friends in Japan and the Orkney Japanese Association. Here's to exciting times ahead 😀
It was lovely to spend some time today with Yuka (The Orkney Japan Association) who was blown away by our Meiji Era sketch books, drawn by J J H Scharbau (Grandfather of the 11th Laird) during his time in Japan. This was a pivotal time in Japanese history where it moved away from Samurai society and into a new era of modernisation. We're looking forward to seeing where these new connections take us
Amazing photo by Bruce Flett of Skaill at Sunset
It's not every day that you recieve an item like this. We believe the dancing figurine dates from the 19th century. It bears the symbol of an eagle and the dates 1776 and 1876. This is possibly a commemorative piece from the centenary of Independance in the United States. It belonged to Elizabeth Scarth and was kindly donated to us this week by her step son (The Earl Temple of Stowe) what a treasure!
We have only 2 weeks left throughout the spring/summer season in our beautiful Peerieskaill apartment. 7 night stays from the 20th - 26th April and the 24th - 30th of August. Hope to see you soon 😀
Sun's out, ice cream's out
And we're off!!!! Fara wasn't around so I said I would do the ceremonial opening of the door this year. Hope to see you all soon
And we're done! The shop is ready to go. Thank you to all the Skaill House team and a special thanks to Fiona Firth for all her help with the finishing touches. See you all Monday
Hoo's this Owl fella that's nipped in for a chat?
Beautiful evening at Skaill! One week to go and the doors will open
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Opening Time! (Almost).
With only 2 weeks to go (eek!) we are all hard at work getting our beloved Skaill House looking as fresh and bonny as possible for our visitors.
We are revamping our loo to make it as accessible as possible and have smartened it up with gorgeous wood panelling, new flooring and porcelain.
... Stock is coming in thick and fast with deliveries arriving daily for the shop and the flats. (By the way, did you know that underneath the clean white shelving etc. of our shop hides a fully working kitchen which the Laird even uses in winter when he has guests to stay? See if you can spot the cooker and sinks next time you are in).
Our benches have had a bit of a livery change from maroon to green and are looking very smart indeed thanks to Steve’s hard work.
Of course, no update is complete without a mention of Fara (the REAL owner of Skaill House)! Here she is lending a hand in cleaning the till area:
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Due to a cancellation, we have the 1-8th June now available in our Langskaill apartment. Please check out our website for more details! This week in the height of season won't hand around long!
Spring cleaning is in full swing at Skaill House!! We will be gleaming for 1st April!!! ❇️🧹🧽🧼🧹
We are DELIGHTED to announce that following our assessment visit yesterday from 'Visit Scotland', we have maintained our high standard 4 star rating for both our wonderful self catering apartments - Langskaill and Peerieskaill!!
Thanks to all the team who worked so hard to prepare for this important visit, and also for maintaining the exceptionally high standards throughout the year.!!🎉🎊🎉🎊💓
https://skaillhouse.co.uk/stay-with-us/