Day 31 – Tuesday 21 June 2016

This morning we started with a short drive from Wick to John O’Groats, the northern most town in mainland Britain, then on to the rudimentary ferry wharf. We boarded the ferry Pentland Venture for the 8 miles voyage to the Orkney Islands, the forecast was for 13C maximum with a 90% chance of rain. We could see the rough white water from the convergence of the North Sea & the Atlantic Ocean just offshore in the Pentland Firth (channel separating Scotland from the Orkney Islands). Tereza finds a seat inside below & I stand out on the top deck (his own choice), a tad cold, but I get to see the seabirds & the various islands as we motor out to South Ronaldsay (old Norse for Ronald’s Island). Passing the island of Stroma the old abandoned stone houses stand out starkly on the treeless fields covered in sheep. The white lighthouse on the northern end of Stroma also stands out, with its two previous lighthouse towers in ruins. The South Ronaldsay wharf is also fairly rudimentary, however, we cross without incident & join our island bus with driver/guide for our tour of five of the Orkney Islands.

We stop at the Italian Chapel, built during the Second World War by Italian Prisoners of War interned on the Orkneys. The workmanship is very good, considering that what started as Nissen Huts have been converted with concrete, wood & paint into a very nice chapel. The front looks good but inside the work is amazing, the Italian that painted this was very talented. The Italian prisoners of war were working on making concrete blocks to seal 4 of the entrances to Scapa Flow, a huge anchorage in the middle of the Orkney Islands, by laying the concrete blocks across channels between some of the islands to seal them completely off. We drove across the 4 embankments created by the Italians, observing some sunken ships that were used to create a similar, though less effective, result by sinking some surplus ships across the channels. Big seas & strong winds shifted & broke up the sunken ships making them less effective, hence the need for concrete blocks.

The Ring of Brodgar was our next stop, it is a Neolithic Henge & Stone Circle, with only 27 of the original 60 stones standing. Some of the stones are huge, standing well over my height. The ring of stones is surrounded by a 3 metre deep ditch, 9 metres wide & 380 metres circumference that was carved out of the natural solid sandstone bedrock. Close nearby there are some burial mounds and some isolated standing stones. One of the standing up stones had broken from a lightening strike in the 1980s, a big piece was lying on the ground with a crack in it length wise.

While we were at the Ring of Brodgar a couple were getting married in what looked like some form of Celtic Ceremony inside the ring of stones. They were standing on one side of a fallen stone that had a crack lengthwise – this stone is called “Two Shall Be One” with the celebrants on the other side with some bits that were part of the ceremony laying on the fallen stone between them. When they were wed the bride & groom held hands & jumped across the stone & the two became one. A lot of tourists stopped & watched the ceremony on the day of the summer solstice.

Not that far away are the Standing Stones of Stenness, another smaller stone circle, as well as the Ness of Brodgar excavations, an archaeological dig that is investigating a small settlement in very close proximity. Within a 2 mile radius there is a cluster of significant ancient sites.

We stopped for lunch at the pub at Stenness on the Main Island of Orkney before travelling across to Skara Brae, a stone built Neolithic settlement occupied around 4,500 years ago. It was discovered when a severe storm uncovered part of it in the dunes on the edge of the Bay of Skaill. The excavated site is very interesting, with concreted pathways ensuring the site is preserved as well as possible. The stonework of the buildings has been very well fitted together. We then walk to nearby Skaill House, the home of the Laird whose land that Skara Brae was discovered on & the base for archaeological diggings at the site. Skaill House is furnished & laid out as the Laird had it, with original pieces. The south wing of the house is built over what is thought to be an old pre-Viking burial ground, thought to be Pictish.

Kirkwall, the main town of the Orkneys, was next on the agenda. We stopped next to the old red sandstone church, St Magnus Cathedral. Construction commenced in 1137 on the most northern cathedral in the British Isles. At the front entrance as you are walking in the pillars are so worn away from hundreds of years of erosion of the sandstone. In places you can see where the people were touching it (surprising that they haven’t put something around these pillars to protect them). Inside we noticed that there were a lot of inscribed sandstone pillars against the wall, these are headstones & some date back a long way. The stained glass is nice & there is a lot of carved woodwork, including a beautifully carved choir seating. While we were there rehearsals commenced for an international musical festival so we sat & listened to some beautiful classical music & some marvellous singing (fantastic acoustics in the church), a very pleasant way to spend time in a church. Across the road are the ruins of the Bishops & Earls Palaces, reminders of the extravagant lifestyles led by the people in power.

On the way back to the ferry the tide was out so it was easier to see the sunken block ships at the barricades between the islands. The weather was still kind so the water was still flat on the way back & on the top deck I managed to spot around a dozen Puffins, a small seabird with a funny flat yellow beak. There was also a small pod of killer whales on the surface as we left the Orkneys. Back to the Norseman Hotel & a nice dinner at 7.15pm. Another great day, but tiring.