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Orphir is a south Mainland parish and scattered village settlement on the shore of Scapa Flow, the great sheltered anchorage that runs between the Orkney Mainland and the islands of Hoy, South Ronaldsay and Burray. The round church of St Nicholas at Orphir — one of the very few round kirks in Scotland — and the adjacent earl's bu or residence date from the twelfth century and speak to the Norse heritage of the area. The parish runs south from the Mainland ridge down to the Scapa Flow shore, a landscape of medium-grade farming land, rough coastal grazing and the famous view across the Flow. The wreck of the scuttled German High Seas Fleet lies beneath the Flow; the area is a popular diving and walking destination.

White clover on the rich improved pastures of the Orkney Mainland is the defining honey flow, running through June and July and producing a light, mild honey characteristic of the islands. Oilseed rape is grown on the better arable ground around Kirkwall, Finstown and the Stenness basin and provides an important April-to-May spring flow. Phacelia, now widely sown as a bee-friendly cover crop by Orkney farmers, extends the arable season into summer. Heather on the moorland ridges of Hoy and the western Mainland fringes from mid-July through September gives late-season colonies a valuable top-up flow. Hawthorn in sheltered croft enclosures and gardens is an important May source, earlier than it opens on the Scottish mainland. Sycamore in the sheltered town gardens and school grounds of Kirkwall and Stromness drives the May urban flow. Gorse on rough grazing ground and cliff edges flowers from March and provides early pollen for spring build-up. Bramble on disturbed and fallow ground through July and August, and ivy on older stone buildings and dykes in October, close the season.