COMING UP AT HOY KIRK
At Hoy Kirk Heritage Centre this year we have plans for an exhibition tracing the life of Rackwick man William Sinclair Ritch, from Hoy to Hudson Bay and back. We are very grateful to William’s granddaughter Vera Sclater for the donations of photographs and written material for this exhibition.
We will also be launching an online exhibition of the Inverlane before she slipped from view – this will be a public call for images of the blockship in Burra Sound over the years.
All this and more including several events, workshops and walks. Keep informed by signing up to email updates.
WE ARE ALWAYS OPEN come in and make yourself a cup of tea and browse our archives.
ABOUT US
Celebrating and sharing Hoy heritage
Hoy is the name of the island as well as the parish. The focus of this project is the parish of Hoy, Orkney. The current population of the Hoy area is approximately 40. The islands of Hoy & Walls have a population of around 390 with most people living in the south areas such as Lyness and Longhope. The Hoy Heritage Archive covers the area that the kirk used to serve – from the top of the island of Hoy to the parish line near Betty Corrigall’s grave, covering Rackwick and Braebuster.
The Friends of Hoy Kirk community heritage project Creels & Crofts was started in 2011. Since then we have amassed Hoy heritage through photographs and documents, books and films, interviews and newspaper clippings . This collection of Hoy heritage is housed at the Hoy Kirk – now a community venue.
As well as the permanent collection, we put on exhibitions and events. Hoy Kirk can also be hired as a venue for concerts or weddings. Contact us here.
The photographs, oral histories, newspaper cuttings, artefacts, maps and anything else we receive are copied or scanned and documented and handed back. At the Hoy Kirk there are folders of the information so that visitors and locals can enjoy flicking through the photographs and documents. We hope people will be able to use the resource for research and for recreation. The work is ongoing to create a digital archive so that people will be able to access catalogued images on the internet
PATRONS Sally Beamish DMus, FRSE and Dame Evelyn Glennie CH, DBE
HOW TO FIND US
Hoy Kirk sits at the foot of Ward Hill, beside Hoy Centre, a hostel and outdoor centre (formerly Hoy School). We are close to Moaness Pier, where the passenger ferry runs the half hour trip between there and Stromness. When you get off the ferry, look up the hill and you will see Hoy Kirk.
Ferry information (look for North Hoy & Graemsay timetable) can be found here.
We are open all the time except for extreme weather when we may have to lock the front door to high winds – but the back door is always open. We have accessible toilets and we house a defibrillator.
For further information about Hoy & Walls you can visit the Island of Hoy Development Trust website here.
Thank you to the community of Hoy and to our funders listed here.
My family, Omand, farmed at White Glen.
Do you know where this would have been?
Many thanks.
White Glen is a house about half a mile out along the road from Hoy to Rackwick.
At present, it’s a holiday house and owned by people from Stromness