Stromness
Orkney

A town on the Mainland of Orkney, Stromness is the terminal for the ferry from Scrabster on the mainland of Scotland. Once a busy port servicing the herring fleets and ships on the northern sailing routes, Stromness was a base for the Hudson Bay Company from 1670 to 1891. The explorer Dr John Rae (1813-93) sailed for North America from Stromness in 1833 and the ships of Captain Cook and Sir John Franklin were serviced here. Stromness, which has a natural history museum, was the home of the writer George Mackay Brown (1929-96).

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©2013 The Editors of The Gazetteer for Scotland
Supported by: The Robertson Trust,  The Royal Scottish Geographical Society,
  School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh.