Ward Hill is a hill on the island of

Hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the tw ...

in Orkney,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It lies at the north of the island between Moaness and

Rackwick Rackwick is a small coastal crofting township in the north west of the island of Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. As well as a handful of tourist amenities the township is largely made up of crofts and other small dwellings, however most now form seco ...

, and is the highest point in both Orkney and the Scottish Northern Isles at an elevation of . The hill forms a curved ridge, reminiscent of a 'J' in shape. The lower slopes are covered in heather and

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

, though the top of the ridge is covered in small stones with bare

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debri ...

. The highest summit is towards the northern end and is crowned by a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

. The ridge is well separated from the other hills of Hoy, and both the other Marilyns on the island have high

topographic prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

. Ward Hill is separated from Cuilags by the Glens of Kinnaird, and from Knap of Trowieglen by the glen carrying the road between Moaness and Rackwick, in which lies the

Dwarfie Stane The Dwarfie Stane is a megalithic chambered tomb carved out of a titanic block of Devonian Old Red Sandstone located in a steep-sided glaciated valley between the settlements of Quoys and Rackwick on Hoy, an island in Orkney, Scotland. The st ...

. Ward Hill may be climbed from a variety of starting points. The northern side, directly above Hoy Village is steep and craggy, and thus presents the least appealing ascent route. The existence of '' Anastrepta orcadensis'' (also known as Orkney Notchwort), a

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ...

found in the

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, and widely in

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, was first discovered on Ward Hill by William Jackson Hooker in 1808."Bryology (mosses, liverworts and hornworts)"
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 15 May 2008."West Highland Mosses And Problems They Suggest"
(January 1907) ''Annals Of Scottish Natural History'' 61 p. 46. Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 June 2008.

References

Marilyns of Scotland Mountains and hills of the Scottish islands Protected areas of Orkney Mountains and hills of Orkney Highest points of historic Scottish counties Hoy {{Orkney-geo-stub