The most photographed feature in Orkney, the Old Man of Hoy is a 137-metre stack of old red sandstone standing in the surf off the west coast of Hoy. The stack split from the cliffs perhaps 250 years ago and is gradually being eaten back into the sea — every few years a fall of rock reshapes it.
The classic view is from the cliff path on the mainland of Hoy, a 90-minute walk from Rackwick. The route also gives some of the best seabird cliffs in Britain — guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, puffins in season. From May to August a small ferry from Stromness lands at Moaness, from where local minibuses run to Rackwick.