We have arrived at Kirkwall on the island of Mainland in the Orkneys. We are almost as far north as Anchorage, Alaska, but unlike Anchorage there are no trees here. It's quite chilly! By the time we got from the ferry to our hotel, found a place to park and got checked-in it was too late to do anything but walk around here in Kirkwall. Most things close at 5 and businesses that stay open after 5 usually open later in the morning.
On our wanderings around the various islands we stopped to see the Viking Totem Pole, on Burray Island. There were no signs or anything so we don't know when this was put here, or why. But it is sort of cute and off the regular tourist beat. Also, it is incredibly windy here. The wind NEVER stops. Never. Not for a second. If you are concerned about your hair being out of place, we would advise not visiting here.
We also went to see the Millennium Stone. It was put there in 2000 to celebrate the new millennium. It is decorated with Pictish symbols and it sits close to the shore on South Ronaldsay Island behind Saint Peter's Kirk.
We have seen a lot of shipwrecks here. These were wrecked intentionally during WWII to keep enemy subs/ships from getting to Allied ships that were anchored in the nearby Scapa Flow. There are now causeways between some of the islands, built by POWs...more on that later. Even though it is incredibly windy we aren't letting that stop us from seeing the sights.
One of the biggest tourist draws of these islands is The Italian Chapel. It is located on a tiny island called Lamb Holm. It was built by Italian POWs in WWII as a place to worship. This is the last standing structure of the POW camp. The POWs housed here also constructed the causeways between some of the islands to prevent enemy ships from attacking Allied ships docked in the harbors of surrounding islands. The inside of the Chapel has been restored but the walls & ceiling are very fragile. It was interesting to learn that the ceiling & walls of the Chapel were hand painted to look as they do. Most of the Italian POWs that were here came from the same small region of Italy. A couple of decades ago artisans in Italy hand carved the wooden Twelve Stations of the Cross (the last picture) and gifted them to the Chapel. Some of the surviving POWs have held reunions here, though there haven't been any for a few years.
After visiting the Italian Chapel, we decided to stop in at the nearby J. Gow Distillery for a wine & rum tasting. Everything there is made from produce found in the Orkneys (they use molasses instead of sugar cane because they said they have a hard time getting sugar cane to grow here. :) ) Anyway. They have a delightful Elderberry wine that I ended up buying a bottle of before I realized I'll have to drink it all before I fly back home.
Another of our wanderings took us to The Gloup. It was part of the Mull Head Walk. There we were near some very high cliffs and saw a lot of sea birds chillin' (quite literally) on the ledges. After we finished this walk, I decided to take a turn behind the wheel of our rental car.
Once we arrived safely back into Kirkwall, we received notice that the AirBNB we've rented for the next 3 nights was ready. We arrived and got settled in. We decided to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things for dinner tonight & breakfast the next couple of mornings.This is a really nice place and quite roomy for Scotland. It also has a washer & dryer so we can get some laundry done.
Our last stop for the day was to go see the Bishop's and Earl's Palaces which are across the street from St Magnus Cathedral. All of these are a very short walk from where we are staying. These pictures are of the Bishop's Palace. It was completed in 1137 and was renovated in the 1500s. Not much is left of it now, but the government is working to preserve what is left.
These photos are of the Earl's Palace. It is the "newest" building and was completed on 1607 (if you remember your US history, that was the year Jamestown was founded). The Earl only got to live in it one year before he made King James VI mad so the king took it away from him. Again, there isn't a lot of this magnificent building left but the Scots are working diligently to preserve what is still here. Several sections were blocked off with fencing so stones could be re-set and secured.
Our travels today have taken us back in time to 3000BC and 100BC; however, the absolute highlight of my day was one of our hikes where We got to see a puffin up close in the wild. I named her Petunia.
We tried to get ferry tickets to Hoy today but we're unable to do so without being on standby...so we declined as we didn't want to get stuck there overnight. So, we stayed on Mainland today and explored the northern part of the island. Our first stop was to see the Unstan Chambered Cairn. It is a burial chamber which dates back 5,300 years to the Neolithic period. The entrance was so low that we had to almost crawl to get in it.
Another stop in our time travel tour was to see the Stones of Stenness. Similar in nature to its more famous cousin to the south, Stonehenge, these stone were laid out in a circular fashion. These date to around 3,000 BC.
Another trip was to see the Ring of Brodgar and the Salt Knowe. The Ring is similar to the Stones of Stenness and have been dated to the same period, but unlike the Stones of Stenness, these have been less disturbed over the years and more are still standing. However, human activity and excessive rainfall have started to cause some damage to the soil surrounding the Stones, so they have blocked off close access to them. The Salt Knowe was originally believed to have been a burial chamber, but subsequent archeological digs and other testing has failed to turn up anything of significance in the mound. So, Jeff and I took a selfie standing in front of a big mound of dirt called Salt Knowe.
Our next stop was to Skara Brae, a Neolithic settlement that dates back to 3,000BC. It was interesting to learn that they used Midden (basically, trash) at the base of their structures to support the stone houses. This site was discovered in 1850, when the owner of the land it sits on walked his property after a bad storm and discovered stacked stones the storm had exposed. Like the other sites, we were unable to walk through the site as they have blocked it off, we were able to walk around the site and had a very interesting conversation with one of the staff.
After Skara Brea we had the adventure of trespassing on a farm to get to the Borwick Castle Sea Stack. We had heard that it was acceptable to walk through someone's fields as long as gates were closed and all we do is cross their field. I guess this is true as we did it. The cows, goats & sheep didn't much care for our presence and voiced their displeasure quite loudly...then ran away from us. Once we arrived at the beach we didn't immediately see the sea stack and it turns out that the best view of it was from atop the cliff it stands near. As an added bonus we found an abandoned circular building. We have no idea how old it is or who it belonged to, but it was pretty cool. We didn't get arrested and our car wasn't towed.
Next we visited Longaglebe Geo, in Birsay. This was an interesting trek in that we had several steep hills to climb. This is a popular place to visit because they have added steps and handrails in some places. This was where we saw my buddy Petunia the puffin, which more than made up for the trek in the misty rain to get there! As an added bonus we saw the sign of the wavy line with the cross. We speculated that this meant that if one gets too close to the cliff edge, one will fall in the water, die, and then meet Jesus. We were only slightly disappointed to learn that it is actually a sign for long hike called St Magnus' Way. This walk is supposed to take one along the same path around the perimeter of the island that St Magnus walked.
We took the ferry for a short 3 hour tour of the small island of Shapinsay. There are only about 300 permanent human residents on the island; the livestock outnumber the humans at least 5:1. Today was the coldest & windiest day we've encountered. Our first stop was to Burroughston Beach.
This spot, on Burroughston Beach, was the least windy place we have encountered while being in the Orkneys. Gina stood here for several minutes savoring the gentle (but frigid) breeze, and anticipating stepping back into the dreaded gale force winds encountered up on the bank.
After returning to Kirkwall from Shapinsay we were pretty exhausted from the cold, high winds, and rain. We went back to the AirBNB to drop some stuff off and decided to make an early night of it. We walked to the grocery store and grabbed some stuff to eat in, plus some snacks for hitting the road again tomorrow as we leave on the ferry to go back to the main part of Scotland at 6am. Even though it's been a bit on the chilly side we've enjoyed our time here in the Orkneys.
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