Newark Bay
Bay · Salt water · in Orkney
A sandy bay on the east side of Deerness at the far east of the Orkney mainland, open to the North Sea with low rock at both ends and clean sand between. As exposed as Orkney's mainland gets.
Safety: cold water shock — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.
FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.
What you can catch here
Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.
From the shore · 5
What these strengths mean
- Established quarry
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Seasonal
- Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
- Places, accounts and sources are counted separately
- A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Newark Bay itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.
Also documented at neighbouring places
One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.
From the shore
- Atlantic mackerel — documented at Kirkwall harbour and the bay; Tingwall Pier
How people fish it
Practised here: Sea fishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- Surfcasting
Casting heavy baited tackle from a beach into surf — a method defined by distance, by tide, and by reading water that all looks the same.
- Ledgering
Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A sandy bay on the east side of Deerness at the far east of the Orkney mainland, open to the North Sea with low rock at both ends and clean sand between. As exposed as Orkney's mainland gets.
- Exposure
- Open east into the North Sea.
Through the year
Bass named for the summer; the rest through the year.
Safety
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.
Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death
Tidal streams among the strongest in the world produce races, overfalls and standing waves that form and disperse with the tide. Small craft caught in a race on the wrong state face conditions that no amount of paddling or small-engine power overcomes.
What reduces it: Plan against tidal timing rather than wind. Obtain local knowledge of the streams before going afloat. Do not attempt to cross or work a race on an unfamiliar state of tide, and treat the tidal atlas as primary rather than supplementary information.
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
The Atlantic-facing coast takes full ocean swell against high cliff and rock platform, and swell arrives from distant weather with no local warning.
What reduces it: Check the swell forecast rather than the wind forecast. Watch any exposed platform for a sustained period before committing. Never fish a mark you could not leave quickly, and accept that leaving is frequently the right answer.
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Who holds the answer:
- The Scottish Government Marine Directorate, for sea fisheries measures in Scottish waters.
- The harbour authority or land manager, for access to the structure or the ground.
- The local authority, for shellfish harvesting classification.
- The Scottish fisheries and marine authorities, for sea fisheries rules, minimum sizes and protected areas
- The relevant local authority environmental health service, for shellfish harvesting area classification and closures
- The harbour authority, for access to piers, harbours and moorings, which are working infrastructure rather than public amenity
- Local charter skippers and clubs, whose knowledge of the tidal streams is the operative safety information rather than a convenience
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- Kirkwall harbour and the bay — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Tingwall Pier — 10–25 km · Pier
- Scapa Flow — 10–25 km · Bay
- Duncansby Head and the Pentland Firth — 25–40 km · Tidal race
- The Brough of Birsay — 25–40 km · Island
Sources for this place
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- British Sea Fishing: Scottish shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named Scottish shore mark and how the fishing divides between the winter and the summer half of the year.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.