Old Man of Hoy, The Orkneys - Framed Picture 16" x 16"

The Old Man of Hoy is a 449-foot sea stack on the island of Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland.

Formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in Britain. The Old Man is popular with climbers, and was first climbed in 1966.

The Old Man is probably less than 250 years old, and may soon collapse. The stack is not mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga, written c.1230, and on the Blaeu map of 1600, a headland exists at the point where the Old Man is now. The McKenzie map of Hoy of 1750 similarly shows a headland but no stack, but by 1819 the Old Man had been separated from the mainland.