At Ortie in Sanday, there’s an entire abandoned village. I know little of its history, and can’t say why it was abandoned, but from the looks of it I can tell it’s 19th century. It is built in a similar way to Balfour Village in Shapinsay (still a thriving community), with a long row of small houses. This one has two rows, with a “close” between them.
Abandoned village at Ortie, Sanday
It was sad, I felt, to see the little remnants of a past community and life in there: Rhubarb still growing, a tea pot left on a windowsill, a sewing machine abandoned behind a little stone window.
