An Orkney Ferries service, usually operated by MV Graemsay, links the island with Stromness and Moaness on Hoy.

[citation needed] As with many other Orkney Islands, there is a connection to the Celtic Church, possibly a pre-Norse one.

At the Point of Oxan in the far north west, in Burra Sound, are block ships, which were scuttled deliberately during World War II.

A Coastal Defence Battery also sits at the point of Oxan, built in 1944, and guarding the western entrance to Scapa Flow, until the end of World War II.

Today, the island's children travel daily by boat to school in Stromness on the ferry MV Graemsay.