This spectacular reserve on the north of Hoy includes: Ward Hill at 479m the highest hill on Orkney; St John’s Head with some of the highest cliffs in Britain; and the world famous rock-stack, the Old Man of Hoy.

The reserve is a mixture of moorland and cliffs. Over 2,000 pairs of great skuas breed on the moor along with red grouse, dunlins and golden plovers. Mountain hares are numerous. In spring and summer the cliffs are crowded with guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and puffins. Orkney’s only native woodland of birch, aspen, rowan and willow is in the sheltered valley of Berriedale.