Hall of Clestrain
Orkney
Join us as we celebrate Doors Open Days 2025 with FREE guided tours at Hall of Clestrain and learn about this unique building and arctic adventurer John Rae. You can also learn about and contribute to our plans to save the Hall for future generations and engage people in the wider landscape of the Hoy and West Mainland National Scenic Area.
Built around 1769, Category A listed Hall of Clestrain is an incredibly rare surviving Georgian villa, recognised as ‘of exceptional quality in an exceptional setting’. Built by the Honeyman family from the proceeds of Orkney’s burgeoning kelp industry, this Laird’s house, or mansion, was designed and decorated in the new Palladian style, becoming fashionable in London and Edinburgh. The Hall was at the centre of an expanding estate experimenting with the latest agricultural technologies and crops, under the guidance of its factor, John Rae Snr. It’s walled garden which survives is still used for agriculture but once protected an orchard of imported trees.
Photo credit: Andrew Appleby, James Grieve, Jeffery Nerenberg.
Facilities
Additional Access Information
Access is via a working farm. Please be careful and leave the gates as you find them.
Parking is on grassland.
The Hall is derelict. There is currently no access to the interior. Please do not enter closed areas. Please mind slippery stone surfaces outside the building. Sturdy boots and outerwear are recommended.
Gallery
Key Information
Booking not required.
Where to find us
Address
- Hall of Clestrain
- Orphir
- Stromness
- KW16 3HB