English: Rackwick Rackwick is the only settlement of any sort on Hoy's west coast. Its history was as a crofting and fishing community but nowadays most of the well scattered cottages are holiday homes. The reality is that few people are prepared to live in such an isolated place, far from most modern services and very bleak in winter. Hoy is geologically different from the rest of Orkney, being mostly composed of resistant upper old red sandstone know as the Hoy sandstone; this gives the island mountainous scenery - although in reality the hills are not especially high.