Orkney is OK with us! Part 1

Early on Saturday, May 6, Bob and I traveled to Kirkwall, Scotland, the largest town (@ 10,000 residents) in the Orkney Islands via train, taxi, ferry. We traveled by train from Inverness to Thurso on the Scottish mainland where we caught an already scheduled cab to take us to the nearby community of Scrabster. There we boarded a Northlink ferry for an hour and a half trip to the town of Stromness on the Orkney Mainland and then caught a bus right outside the ferry area to go to Kirkwall. We left Inverness at 7:00 am and arrived at our bed and breakfast about 3:30 pm.

On the outside platform viewing the Orkney Isle of Hoy on the way to the Mainland Island

The Old Man of Hoy — a 449 ft sea stack of old red sandstone

Coming into Stromness (2nd largest town in Orkney)

We had wanted to see more of Scotland after our housesit. Orkney was recommended to us by our Thornhill home owners. The Orkney Islands is a set of 70 islands (about 20 of which are occupied) off the northeastern coast of Scotland. They are renowned for World Heritage Neolithic sites, war history, craftsmanship and wind (maybe not in that order). The people and whisky are pretty great too! We had a lovely, relaxing (though BRISK) holiday on the mainland island.

For our first full day, we splurged on a tour of some of the major Neolithic sites on the western mainland. It was well worth it. Clive, our tour guide was great. He made what could have been just an exceptionally chilly day (see how we are all bundled up below) pondering the meaning of old stone formations really educational. We learned as much about the area as we did about the sites.

NOTE: There is old and then there is crazy old. This was a crazy old day. The Neolithic Age though it means the “New Stone Age,” ended when metal tools were becoming mainstream — somewhere between 4000 and 2500 BC!

Our first stop was the Unstan Chambered Cairn (tomb).

We had to bend in half and look at our toes to enter, but it was fairly spacious once inside.

A chamber inside the cairn for the storage of bones once the flesh of the deceased had been picked off by animals or otherwise rotted away.

Our second stop was the former community of Skara Brae

Some of the 8 houses in the settlement that was occupied from roughly 3180-2500BC.

Skaill House, a 17th century (old not crazy old) manor house. Home of William Watt who discovered Skara Brae in 1850 after a storm.

Next on the itinerary were a couple of henge (circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch) and standing stone structures.

Ring of Brodgar, fencing is for work being done on the trail around the stones

The alliterative Standing Stones of Stennes — maybe the oldest henge in the British Isles

Appropriately enough, we end with another cairn (tomb). This one was built around 2800 BC and has some impressive examples of runic inscriptions. No photos were allowed inside.

Maeshowe, named for the type of cairn limited to Orkney

Orkney is a cruise destination and unbeknownst to us when we were making our plans two cruise ships were due into port while we would be there. Monday was to be the first ship (@ 3,500 passengers), so we planned to keep away from the main tourist sites by hiking up a nearby hill and then to a cairn. The ship ended up not being able to dock due to technical issues, but we went ahead with our plans anyway. Later in the afternoon, we met some friends of our home owners who had tea for us and then gave us a tour of the Eastern mainland.