Papa Westray, known locally as "Papay", is one of Orkney's smaller isles and lies some 20 miles north of Kirkwall and is roughly 7 kilometres long by 2 kilometres wide lying to the east of Westray. The population has been declining from the 69 households with 340 people in 1841 census to 85 in 1995. It can be reached from Westray by the shortest scheduled flight in the world, 2.4 kilometres in total, taking less than two minute actual flying time. Historic Scotland lists nearly 50 archaeological sites on Papay.
Papa Westray is claimed to be the fountainhead of Christianity in the Orkney. A small pre-Reformation Church of St Boniface on the west coast is built on the site of a much earlier building. The building has recently been restored and there is an excellent book available about the facility. Several stone Celtic crosses from the graveyard can be seen in the Tankerness Musuem at Kirkwall and the Royal Scottish Museum at Edinburgh. St Boniface stands in the middle of an Iron Age settlement called Monkerhoose about 10 acres in extent and some of this can be seen eroding from the cliff face just to the west of the kirk. In 1990 the section of a large broch was excavated and a sequence of buildings-dating from the 6th century BC until the Middle Ages. The name recalls a monastic settlement here.
The Knap of Howar, like Skara Brae on the West Mainland was covered by a protective layer of sand and exposed by a violent storm. The site consists of two remarkably well preserved stone built houses which lay side by side on the western shore of Papay. Radiocarbon dating of animal bones left by the inhabitants indicates that the houses were built at some time between 3700 and 2800 BC, some 5000 years ago. This makes the site the earliest known settlement in Orkney.
The Holm of Papay, a small island off the east coast of Papay is the site of one of Orkney's most impressive chambered cairns. The cairn is roughly 35 metres long and 17 metres wide, and contains 10 single and 2 double side chambers. The tomb contains a number of stones decorated by the builders, with one of the walls carved with a number of zig-zags and circular patterns. The cairn was first opened in 1849 but no human remains were found in it. It is contemporary with the houses at Knap of Howar and may be where their dead were buried.
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