You, on the Ayre at high tide: who would you leave behind?

A tidal causeway forces a choice: on a high spring tide the Ayre will cut the village in two-who do you leave when the sea decides?

You, on the Ayre at high tide: who would you leave behind?

In this episode, we follow the landscape and lives of Hoy to show how geography, history and weather shape decisions in a small island community. Through ancient tombs, towering cliffs and wartime defenses, we ask what it means to live where the sea defines your routes-and your risks.

Person: Eight men who left Longhope
Location: Hoy and the Ayre causeway
Date: 17 March 1969
Feature: Dwarfie Stane; Old Man of Hoy; Ward Hill
Event: Passage across the Ayre restricted by high tide

- Eight men departed Longhope on 17 March 1969 while a community of four hundred watched them go.
- The Ayre is a natural tidal causeway linking Hoy to South Walls that was passable only at low tide for much of the island’s history.
- The island houses a five-thousand-year-old chambered tomb, the Dwarfie Stane, carved from a single block of sandstone.
- Hoy’s Ward Hill rises to 481 metres and the island’s cliffs, like St John’s Head, plunge hundreds of metres into the sea.
- Scapa Flow and military installations, including Martello towers at Longhope, transformed parts of Hoy into major wartime concentrations.

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