Place · island

Orkney

Also known as Orkney Islands

Orkney is an archipelago of some seventy islands off the north-east coast of Scotland, across the Pentland Firth from Caithness. It holds Neolithic monuments such as Skara Brae and Maeshowe, and was a Pictish land before Norse settlers made it the seat of the earldom of Orkney in the 9th century. Pledged by the Danish-Norwegian crown to Scotland in 1468, it passed to the Scottish crown in 1472.

Orkney
Image: Rab Knight from en.wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 profiles

Kingdom of the PictsMilitaryDal RiataMilitaryKingdom of ScotlandFoundationKingdom of NorwayMilitary, Impact, DeclineOld NorseSpeakers

Mentioned in 7 state histories

LugiCornavii (Caithness)CaereniCaitEarldom of MøreEarldom of OrkneyKingdom of Moray

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Orkney. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/orkney
MLA
“Orkney.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/orkney. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Orkney.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/orkney.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Orkney’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/orkney (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻