 The Mainland part is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south and southeast by Hoy Sound, and on the northeast by the Loch of Stenness.Antiquities include Breckness House, erected in 1633 by George Graham, Bishop of Orkney, at the west entrance of Hoy Sound; and an ancient cemetery, with a ruined church, and the remains of a monastery, between Breckness House and Stromness town.Stromness plays host to the Pier Arts Centre, an outstanding collection of twentieth-century British art given to the people of Orkney by Margaret Gardiner

The Stromness branch of the Orkney library is housed in a building given to the library service in 1905 by Marjory Skea (later Corrigall).