Holm (pronounced ), also spelled Ham, is a parish on

Mainland, Orkney The Mainland, also known as Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of Orkney's popu ...

.Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer of Scotland'' (Edinburgh, 1882) Published by W. & A.K. Johnstone An adjacent Sound, running between Mainland, and Burray, is named after Holm. It has since been blocked up by the Churchill Barriers. The parish flanks the north side of the Sound and extends to within of

Kirkwall Kirkwall (, , or ; ) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub wi ...

, and contains the village of

St Mary's Holm St Mary's (also known as St. Mary's Holm) is a small village in the parish of Holm, Orkney, Holm on Mainland, Orkney, Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It was originally a fishing port. Orkney F.C., the island group's main football club, plays its h ...

, as well as the island of Lamb Holm. The Mainland section is by . The shores are mostly rocky, and the interior consists of light thin,

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

y land. Orkney F.C., the island group's main football club, played its home games at The Rockworks Community ground near St. Mary's Holm until the pitch was wrecked in 2023. The pitch has just been replaced ahead of the 2025 Island Games.

Church and manse

Holm church and

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

are both of unusual design. The church has no spire or turret, and the manse is constructed so that all chimneys appear through the centre of a pyramidal roof.

World War II

Netherbutton Radar Station, which was part of the

Chain Home Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...

system, was situated on both sides of the A961 road, although little now remains except four concrete mast bases.The location is . Se
"Raf Netherbutton, Chain Home Radar Station"
scotlandsplaces.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2009. Its construction was supervised by Leonard Chapman, who then held the rank of corporal.Leonard George Chapman, Resume. Page 1 2Jim MacDonald, v2.2

Notable people

* F. Marian McNeill, folklorist, suffragist and a founder of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

. Her father was Free Church minister of Holm for nearly fifty years, and her brother Duncan was also a writer. * m. Liam Finn, writer of Idiots Guide to HR and professional Casting Agent.

References

Parishes of Orkney Mainland, Orkney {{Orkney-geo-stub