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We have linked to a number of webcams at locations all over Orkney, providing live streams of Maeshowe, Sandy Ranger seal cam and the views onto Kirkwall harbour. We will be adding additional webcams so please check back again soon.

Orkney Nature Webcams

This is the RSPB’s ‘Divercam’ – showing live footage from a moorland pool in Orkney where Red-throated Divers spend their summer.  The birds have not bread this year at the pool but two pairs have visited regularly daily and can be seen resting, preening and displaying.

The camera is one of several planned for special wildlife sites and spectacles in Orkney.  There’s already a camera at RSPB’s Mill Dam wetland reserve on Shapinsay and coming soon are an underwater camera and a seal pupping beach.

Only one camera can be streamed online at any one time, but definition images are shown on screens at the VisitScotland Information Centre in Kirkwall, Kirkwall Airport, Shapinsay Heritage Centre and Highland Park Visitor Centre.

Kirkwall Harbour

The webcam looking north over Kirkwall Harbour is located on the front of the Kirkwall Hotel, a stunning Victorian building located right on Kirkwall’s harbour front. The webcam image refreshes every 20 seconds and shows the comings and goings of this busy harbour. The webcam is provided courtesy of the Kirkwall Hotel.

Maeshowe

Maeshowe is the finest chambered tomb in north-west Europe and more than 5000 years old. There are three cameras recoding images inside and out. We know that this time of year was particularly special for the people who used Maeshowe. The gently sloping passage is carefully aligned so that at sunset during the three weeks before and after the shortest day of the year (21 December) the light of the setting sun shines straight down the passage and illuminates the back of the central chamber. The sun’s rays align with a standing stone, the Barnhouse Stone, standing 800m SSW of Maeshowe.

Seal Cam

This remotely-operated camera was re-established this year overlooking two small grey seal breeding beaches on Sanday, one of the north isles of Orkney.