Orkney Islands

We had a very early start today to get ready for the ferry crossing. At 7:45am we were up and getting ready for the day ahead of us. By 9 o’clock the ferry was well underway and Julie and I were outside, sitting on the upper level. Needless to say, we got pretty cold and gave up after 30 minutes. The only reason we wanted to be outside was to see any sign of wildlife. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see any on the way to the Orkney Islands, hopefully our luck will change. The crossing took all of 45 minutes and was pretty smooth going. We also met another traveling Canadian onboard. Once we docked in Burwick we met our tour guide/bus driver and climbed onboard. The bus driver then took us towards Stromness, all the while following Scapa Flow on our left. Along the way we also crossed a few Churchill barriers. Apparently during the First World War ships were floated up and sunk at key areas around the Orkney islands to prevent the enemy from passing through and gaining a huge staging point. It worked, but over the years the ships moved apart and during the Second World War a submarine managed to navigate past the ships into Scapa Flow and destroy The Royal Oak, the largest ship in Britains fleet. Churchill then decided to construct solid barriers to prevent any further access. As a result, the fishing villages located in Scapa Flow couldn’t fish any more and had to turn to other means of income. Of all things, they decided to become Chicken farmers and they did an extremely good job of it for a many years. Until one day a storm came in and blew all the chickens away, so now they tend to cattle and sheep. The winds are so strong in the Orkney Islands that very few trees grow, most are found in towns being sheltered by buildings or in valleys. TV antennas are built on the inside of roofs. We had a 1 hour break in Stromness and Julie and I decided to use the time to get some lunch. We ended up eating at The Ferry Inn. Julie had potato wedges and sticky toffee pudding while I had a plate of local cheeses with hand made oak cakes and ½ pint of the local brew. The next stop was probably what Julie and I were looking forward to the most, Skara Brae. Skara Brae is a 5000 year old Stone Age village; it is older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. Skara Brae was found by a farmer after a huge storm. Apparently he thought nothing of it but one day mentioned it over dinner to a visiting friend (who happened to be an archeologist). Needless to say when the friend had a look at what the farmer had found he didn’t return home for quite some time afterwards. Thankfully, admission for us was 50% off again as we are EH members, so it was only £6.70 to get in. It was pretty cool to see the replica stone house they had constructed, however, the village itself is very small and we didn’t get the chance to walk in it, but around and above it. The Skara house was not worth visiting though. It was included in the admission for Skara Brae so Julie and I decided to check out the mansion. Afterwards we made our way back to the main entrance to Skara Brae and I had a coffee while we waited for the tour to start again. We boarded the bus again, stopping for two short stops. The first being the Standing Stones of Stenness and the second being the Ring of Brodgar. Like Stonehenge but less in tact, these stone circles were nice enough to see. Apparently a farmer that owned the land that the Ring of Brodgar was located on was fed up with all the people showing up to view the stones that he started to destroy them. He was stopped but managed to destroy a few of them, including the Odin stone. Along the tour the guide provided us with many stories of the Orkney Islands, one of which was of Odin’s stone. This stone had a whole in it and it was said that all binding agreements were made through the circle (marriage, business etc). The stone went missing though and apparently a farmer was using it for farming, but he no longer needed it so he left it in his shed. His son was doing some clean up and found the stone, since he couldn’t move it in one piece, he smashed it into smaller pieces to carry out. Then we had a two hour stop off in the Orkney Islands capital, Kirkwall. We visited a few stores, bought some local cheese and made our way to a pub for some dinner. Our options were pretty limited though, as most of the restaurants weren’t open until 6pm (it was 5pm). Up to this point Julie and I have been able to get back to the bus with plenty of time to spare, so it’s fitting that on our second to last stop for the day we were late. On our way back to the Burwick, we stopped at the Italian chapel. The barriers I mentioned before were built by Italian POW’s and while they were here they also built an Italain chapel and a statue (the statue was made of barbed wire and cement, and represented goods triumph over evil).
The ferry ride on the way back was very similar to the way there, only this time Julie managed to spot a lone seal swimming near the ferry. The tour was worth it and I really enjoyed not worrying about driving or parking for one whole day (Julie was also thankful that she didn’t have to navigate for a whole day).