“My wife likes to swim in the sea,” said our AirBnB host.

We’d hired a house for the week next to the ocean.

“Is there any good spots for a swim nearby?” I asked.

“She likes to go the small beach at the end of the road,” he said.

“Excellent,” I thought. It’s only a couple of hundred metres away and it would be great to have a swim spot so close to the house.

However, when I checked it out the next day it had a large sewage pipe coming from the shore and straight into the sea. Not sure what his wife is swimming in, but I didn’t want to take the chance!

Instead, after checking a few websites, I found that Inganess Bay, only a few minutes from Kirkwall is a nice sheltered spot and is popular with locals for swimming. In fact, when I arrived, two were already swimming. I say “two”. I mean one. The second was their dog! A woman and her dog were paddling back and forth across the bay.

When I was researching it, I didn’t know that Inganess Bay is also famous for having a wrecked boat. The Julietta was scuttled in WW2 to block the nearby Scapa Flow bay, but, when they tried to refloat it after the war, it could only be moved as far as Inganess before it sunk again. Various attempts were made to dismantle it but all failed and it’s been left to rust ever since.

REVIEW

Ease of Access: There’s a small car park next to the beach with room for 8 – 10 cars. I can imagine it hard to get a spot on a sunny day, but it was fine for late August.

Water quality: Very clear. There’s also plenty of room to swim before the beach starts to drop away.

Swim Quality: Excellent. The bay was noticeably calmer than other spots around the island that day.

Other People: Along with the other swimmer the beach seemed popular with dog walkers too.

Would I go back: Yes.