Is that not the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen?
If you say no, then you’ve obviously never caught the overnight ferry from Kirkwall to Aberdeen.
Aberdeen is grey.
Later
Orkney Day 9: Westray
Pierowall, the largest town, of a morning.
Bank!
The Lady Kirk was built in the 13th century, but most of the building is from the 17th century, what’s left of it.
Orkney Day 8: Papa Westray
There’s a lot of photos here but we have a whole island to explore! So hop aboard and do up your seatbelt for a short flight. And I mean short.
So this is Papa Westray, a smaller island east of Westray. Population about 70.
Orkney Day 6: Skara Brae and Skaill House
So Skara Brae is the main tourist attraction but it’s a bit hard to get to by bus. It’s on the far side of the main island and, at this time of year, there are three buses each week (Saturday, Monday morning and Thursday afternoon.) Well, six if you count the return bus. So it became the last thing I did while staying in Kirkwall.
On the way there, I took some photos from the bus because I wanted to show you how beautiful the loch was when it’s calm, and maybe some other things.
🙂
Orkney Day 4: A rather wet Kirkwall
Today was a quiet day, catching up on work and waiting for it to stop raining. So some photos of a slightly soggy Kirkwall, the largest town in Orkney.
Harbour.
Harbourside hotel.
Orkney Day 3: Some really cool stuff and lots of rain
Have you ever played Geoguessr? It’s a game using Google Street View, where you’re dropped into a random location and have to work out where it is. A few years ago, I found myself looking at this place
and I turned around to find a field bordered by stone walls and thought “I need to go here.” Here turned out to be Birsay on Orkney. It took a few years but here I am on Orkney (which is beautiful and wonderful and I love it) but getting to Birsay seemed a little less likely.
You see, Birsay is at the far east of Mainland (the big central island) and buses are like 4 hours apart, and the main people come for is the Brough. It’s a tidal island, so it can only be visited around low tide and when I checked the tides times for this week, it was about 3.30 pm on Monday and quickly getting later each day after, which meant if I was going to get there, it had to be on Monday except… Well, let’s go back to Monday morning.
The two big tourist attractions on Orkney are Skare Brae and Maeshowe, or the area around Maeshow really. When I arrived I booked a ticket to Maeshow on Monday morning, before I’d checked the tide times but on checking distances and buses, if I was careful, I could do this area and get to the only bus that would get me to Birsay on time.
So that’s Maeshowe behind the cows.
Orkney Day 1: Kirkwall
As I was tired after much travelling the day before, this was to be a quiet day looking around Kirkwall.
I went first to St Magnus Cathedral, to fill in time until the other things open.
Magnus pops up a lot, so I’ll just put his story in here.
Some Towns of Unst
The largest settlement is on Unst (the northernmost island of Shetland) is Baltasound. It used to be a major herring port. Then the island’s population could reach something like 10,000 people. Now the population of the is 600.
That’s Baltasound Hotel, a semi-circle of wooden cabins facing the main building. (Warm, quiet and quite comfortable cabins, they are.)
The “shopping centre”
A Morning on Unst
Muness Castle (it’s actually a tower house but it is fortified, possibly to protect him form the locals). Construction started in 1598 for a guy who was half-brother to Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, whose son had Scalloway Castle built. (I mention them because they’ll probably come up again.)
The bottom level has a wine cellar, storage rooms & kitchen. The first floor has the great hall (shown here). Although less tony then, and more plastered or timber. The private rooms/chambers are in the turrets, and there was another floor above.
A Visit to Lots of Times All At Once
Today we’re visiting a place that calls itself one of the most important prehistoric sites in Shetland. Right there, on the first line of the guidebook. But first a little deour.
Past a cow.
To look at a croft, a small tenant farm. There are two rooms on the left, and a barn and byre on the right. Grass roof.