Aye, that's us: Sept 1998 Orkney

Weekend in Orkney

The weekend of 19th and 20th of September was an Edinburgh long weekend. Morag had Fri and Mon off so Mal booked a few days off too. We wnet to Orkney for the weekend. On Thursday afternnon we drove up to Wick, very scenic route along the coast after Inverness. We stayed at a local B&B for the night, then caught the noon ferry to Orkney on Friday. Great scenery as you approach Orkney - huge cliffs on the island of Hoy and the ‘old man of Hoy’, a huge pinnacle that’s become separated from the cliffs. The ferry berthed at Stromness and our B&B wasn’t far from there, an old converted grain mill - The Mill of Eyrland, run by Ken and Morag. We checked in and then headed back to Stromness to look around. Stromness is described as a genuine medi-eval harbour village but it’s a bit hard to see this as all the houses are covered in pebble-mix. A few are still bare stone and if you use your imagination you can see what it would have been like. Lots of little twisty alleyways and quite a picturesque harbour. On the Saturday we drove around the West of the Orkney ‘mainland’ (the main island), visiting lots of historic sites. We started with a couple of groups of neolithic standing stones, then went to Skara brae. This is a little village on a sea-cliff that was inhabited 5000 years ago (before the pyramids were built). It was revealed in the 1920s when a severe storm blew away the covering soil. Another highlight was Maes Howe, a 5000 year old burial chamber. A few thousand years ago some vikings broke into the tomb looking for treasure and scratched some graffiti on the walls. The graffiti is now one of the finest examples of Runes in the world. On the Sunday we drove down to the South-East of the island, across the barriers built during the second world war to prevent German submarines from entering Scapa Flow where the British fleet often took shelter in the calm waters. Even from the barricades you can see some shipwrecks. There’s also an Italian chapel with a WW2 connection, as it was built by Italian prisoners-of-war who had been sent to Orkney to build the barricades. Way down south we visited the ‘tomb of the eagles’. Another 5000 year old buirial chamber discovered many years ago by the farmer who owns the land it’s on. The name comes from the fact that there were many eagles talons in the tomb - and the farmer has also been able to keep hold of many fo the artifacts found there and allows visitors to hold them. They are mainly tools, jugs etc, but also a human skull. We returned home on the Monday, starting with our 8:45 ferry past those spectacula cliffs. We took a couple of scenic detaours on the way home and finally got home about 8pm. And the weather - fine and sunny from Thursday to Monday. Back to work Tuesday in the fog and mist. A perfectly timed weekend.

The End


Top of page