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| Beautiful store stocking local product |
We learned that the buildings in Kirkwall are long and narrow because taxes were paid on the amount of harbour frontage. Reduce your frontage and less tax was owed. This has lead to Tardis-like shops with narrow entrances that keep going back and back.
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| Charming houses and alleyways |
We wandered the town before the rain and wind had us scurrying back to the shelter and warmth of
Chinook. We took the opportunity to install a wet exhaust temperature sensor, a handy little device that will give us an early warning if our engine is overheating. Then we organised and cleaned the boat in anticipation of guests - Anne-Marie and Chris!
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| Sean, I thought you said you were done pulling cables when you gave up IT work? |
Anne-Marie and Chris managed to find us! And thank goodness they did. The Harbour Master asked us to move
Chinook to make room for the new
electric hydrofoil ferry that was arriving to start sea trials. It was blowing over 25kn so we were delighted to have a few more hands on deck. We had just moved when in comes Spike, Annemarie and Rossi aboard the Garcia Exploration 52 -
Lava. What fun to see them!
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| The folks you meet! |
We headed into Kirkwall to explore the town. We poked in and out of the quaint shops and visited the cathedral. The cathedral is magnificent. Built of red sandstone from Kirkwall and yellow sandstone from Eday, an Orkney island to the north. It is 900 years old and has survived King James III, Queen Mary I, The Reformation, rebellions, witchcraft trials and lightening strikes. John Rae (of North West Passage and Franklin fame) has his tomb there.
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| St Magnus Cathedral is absolutely stunning |
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| Dr John Rae looks so peaceful, after all the crap Lady Franklin put him through. (Rae discovered what had happened to the Franklin Expedition but because there was mention of cannibalism, Lady Franklin totally discredited him. Time has proved him correct.) |
We checked out a couple of the craft markets before finding a pub and sampling the local brews.
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| Yes, he did buy the hat! |
We rented a car for two days to explore Mainland. It just tickled us that the largest island in Orkney is called Mainland. Hysterically, this is also the case in Shetland! Despite the rain, we had a big agenda. First stop were The Stones of Stenness. These are believed to be about 5000 years old. Only four stones remain. There was a fifth, the Odin Stone with a circular hole. By holding hand through the hole, couples could pledge their troth. Sadly, the stone was toppled and smashed by an irate farmer 1814 who was sick of ploughing around it.
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| Beautiful weather to be out and about |
We hate to confess that several other neolithic sites, The Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe Chamboured Stone were viewed from the warmth and dry of the car on our way to Stromness. We drove down the very narrow and cobbled Victoria Street and found shelter in the Stromness Museum.
From neolithic times through to the latest in tidal power, it covered archeology, ethnography, natural history, social history, maritime history and, much to our surprise, a great deal about The Hudson Bay Company. Little did we know that 80% of the Hudson Bay workforce in 1800 were from Orkney.
The next stop on our tour was Skara Brae, Europe's most complete neolithic village. For such a tiny place, Orkney certainly has an awful lot of history! Skara Brae was occupied between about 3180 BC and 2500 BC. It was discovered in 1850 after a big storm washed away the sand dunes and exposed the village.
It has 10 houses, all complete with beds, cupboards, a hearth and even a sewerage system. They have a reconstruction of a house you can walk around in and peer into all the nooks and crannies to save the 'real' houses from the masses of tourists the cruise ships produce.
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| One of the better preserved and more complete rooms. |
It was very cool, and fortunately, the weather had improved so we didn't get drenched as we wandered around the extraordinary ruins.
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| Room enough for extended family of twenty. |
Just next door is Skaill House, billed as the finest 17th Century mansion in Orkney. Skara Brae is on the property and entry to both is part of the ticket. It certainly is a beautiful home with the most stunning views across green paddocks and the ocean. And it yet another join-the-dots surprise, the dinner set Captain Cook used on his Third Voyage aboard the Resolution is now at Skaill House.
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| The dining room was set as it would have been in the 1700's |
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| Captain Cook's dinner set from his Third Voyage. Surprisingly floral and pink for such a great adventurer. And the fact that it survived the wild raging seas aboard a tall ship is extraordinary. |
The day was not yet over and the next stop was the Barony Mill. The mill is a water mill and produces beremeal flour. Bere is a barley that is believed to be Britain's oldest cereal in continuous commercial production.
The mill describes bere as:
A rebellious ancient barley that thrives in Scotland's worst soils, laughs at bad weather and moonlights as the secret ingredient in bread ale and whisky - basically the overachiever of grains with an Orkney accent.
The tour was excellent (the highlight of the day for Anne-Marie and Kate) and we learnt a lot about the ancient grain and the process to produce flour from it. We were able to operate the water wheel - so simple but so effective. We bought some flour to try out and the most delicious biscuits!
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| The 'top-loading' waterwheels produce significantly more power than the 'bottom-feed' ones. 30hp compared to about 2hp. The 'new' mill is only 150 years old and is top-loading. |
With the sun now shining, it was off to the Borough of Birsay for some bird watching. Despite the remains of layers and layers of history - Christian missionary in the 6th century, The Picts in 7th and 8th, The Norse in the 9th century and a romanesque church from the 12th century, we were ruined out and skipped across the causeway (it was low tide) to see the birds.
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| Layers and layers of history spanning millennia |
A we hiked up to the lighthouse, birds soared overhead. Fulmars, guillemots and, the star of the show, puffins.
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| Fulmars nesting in the grass at the top of the cliffs |
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| A puffin contemplating if he needs another sandeel |
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| Busy, busy, busy |
By this stage we had jammed more things in than a cruise ship passenger and a couple of members of our party were hankering for a beer, so next stop, The Orkney Brewery.
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| The highlight of Chris and Sean's day! |
Sadly, the tour guides had misread the times and, instead of a meal, we arrived just before closing. Whoops, sorry lads! Very kindly, they allowed us a beer and we booked lunch and a tour for the next day.
Day two of our epic Tour of Mainland, Orkney started with a visit to The Churchill Barriers. During WWII, Scarpa Flow was used as an anchorage for the navy. To protect the fleet, block ships were sunk in the narrow channels entering Scarpa Flow to scarper any submarines with malevolent ideas.
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| The remains of the block ships outside the Barricade |
Unfortunately for the navy, the submarine U-47 wiggled her way through the block ships, booms and anti-sub nets at high tide on the night of 14 October 1939 and blew up the HMS Royal Oak and 835 of her sailors. So Churchill, then The First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered permanent barriers to be built. (In wartime, I guess the comprehensive Environmental Impact Study was waived).
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| One of the four barriers |
The barriers took most of the war to build and were officially opened four days after VE Day!! To build them took a lot of labour and to solve this issue, Italian prisoners-of-war were brought in. Which nicely segues to the next stop on our tour - the Italian Chapel.
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| The facade is made of concrete left over from the construction of the barricades |
Using two ATCO sheds (Nissan huts in UK) end on end, they used the materials they had, namely concrete, and created a chapel. The interior is painted with frescos and the main body of the chapel is painted to look like it is tiled. It really is most extraordinary.
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| The altar and altar rails are made of concrete |
It is consecrated and is part of the Roman Catholic Parish of Our lady and St Joseph in Orkney. Mass is held on the first Sunday of the summer months and you are able to get married there.
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| The detail is stunning |
As a bonus stop, the tour leaders took a small detour to The Gloup. The Gloup is a collapsed sea cave and it is rumoured that old, broken-down horses were once thrown in there as a cheap and easy way to get rid of them. Yikes!
Finally, finally, finally, it was off to the Brewery for lunch! And it was excellent. Back at the harbour we were treated to a tour of
and the electric hydrofoil. Both very cool.
Thanks so much for having us - loved exploring the Orkney Islands with you both! AM & Toots
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to next time - wherever that may be!
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