Orkney
The ferry crossing was superb, flat seas even though we were in the Pentland Firth. We took the shorter, cheaper crossing from Gills Bay. The ferry looks a bit rusty and rotten but I like it’s olde worlde charm and the way it jolts when hitting a wave and the way it bounces around the sea without falling to bits or sinking! The alternative crossing is on the Thurso to Stromness luxury ferry, The Hamnavoe. It really is a lovely ship, ferry seems to be a bit of a misnomer for this one. It’s plush interior and dampened suspension all conspire to make me feel sea sick after about an hour. I liken the two boats to the difference in suspension of an old mini(suspension non existent) and a Rolls Royce.
We watched seals in the harbour at Gills Bay and kept a lookout for sea birds during the crossing. The bully of the bays has to be the Great Skua (Bonksy). It’s a massive bird, brown with white wing flashes and a flesh tearing bill. We saw one chasing a Great Black Back Gull, which is the bully boy of our cliffs in England, and the Gull was darting and twisting in the air to get away, all the time whimpering like a frightened Budgie. I suppose it’s pay back time.
We didn’t see the Old Man of Hoy this crossing because our ferry crosses the Firth to the East of Hoy keeping out of the Atlantic swell. The Old Man is a famous sea stack of Red Sandstone stood on a base of volcanic rock. It’s loved by rock climbers and we have a DVD of the news footage of the first time the top was reached. It makes fascinating viewing, the climb was transmitted live on BBC News and it also shows the vast effort needed to get huge BBC cameras down onto the beach as well as on top of the cliffs. No handheld video cameras in the 1960’s.
The sun was shining and all was well with our world and we could stay on the island for as long as we wanted. We’d had some weather reports from home and felt quite guilty, it seemed that we had deserted a sinking shire (literally) just in time.
Orkney is an archipelago (I’ve always wanted to use that word, another lifetime ambition achieved) of 68 islands. The underlying rock is called Red Sandstone and was laid down, I can’t remember how many millions of years ago, when the whole area was a fresh water lake, given the name Lake Orcadia by geologists. The different silt and mud deposits have all been compressed and you can see the coloured bands in the cliffs around the island.
We spent our first night at Skaill Bay. It’s a beautiful bay with car park and toilet block and all away from any meaningful area of conurbation. We also knew of a pull in away from the car park where we could be totally alone. So we parked about a yard away from the edge of the beach. The top of the beach here is where the most beautiful pebbles of all are found. They have been washed smooth and round and have clear rings, like the contour lines on maps running around them. Then there is a sandy area between high and low tide and both ends of the bay end in cliffs. At our end we have Eider Ducks and their young feeding in the shallows. When the young have their heads under water they look like brown rats swimming around and I always marvel at how they manage to survive the onslaught of waves, head goes down and the wave goes over them and they pop up the other side. Eider ducks are very good parents and often spend their time in groups all looking after all the babies like a creche. We have just watched a Bonksy fly low over the water and all the adult Eiders gathered the babies into a group and surrounded them. I’m pleased to say the Bonksy did not dine on Eider chick tonight.
It was a lovely evening, the sun didn’t finally go down over the horizon until after 10.30 pm, I’d forgotten just how weird it feels to be sitting in full daylight at 10 o’clock in the evening. I’ll get used to it.
Next day was still sunny but there was a cold wind. The tide was right for a trip to Birsay Brough. It can only reached by foot on a causeway at low tide or boat. Brough means ’easily defended’ in Pictish I think! Anyway it’s a small island that slopes upwards and westward into 150 feet high cliffs. Puffins, Cormorants, Gulls and Guillemots all nest on the cliffs and because of the way the sea has carved into the Red Sandstone you can get some fantastic views of the nests.
The earliest settlers on The Brough, in the 6th or 7th century, were Pictish and all that remains are the outlines of their dwellings and a carved stone. The original stone is in the museum but a replica has been put in it’s place. The carvings are excellent when you consider the tools that would have been used and I’ve made drawings of them, if you could call my efforts drawings, and I hope to be able to weave or knit or make a rug using them.
After the Picts the Vikings arrived and built over the Pictish settlement. The archaeologists have unearthed the footings of their houses and also a 12th century church. We managed to use the pole to get some photographs much to the amusement of other tourists.
At the top of the Brough there is a lighthouse which is now fully automated and is only visited occasionally for maintenance, some more pole shots of the glass lens. The pole is great for this type of work because you can place the camera exactly where you want it.
The sea has gouged inlets out of the cliff face which means that you can stand and watch the nesting seabirds across the gap in some cases getting close enough for some nice photo’s.
We were watching the Puffins when this woman suddenly came bounding over to us asking if we’d seen them. She was so excited, it’s been her life long dream to see Puffins and here there were 2 she could see. When we handed her the binoculars she thought she was in heaven. It was lovely to see the pleasure on her face especially when she got a close up view through the bins.
Next day it rained all day so I sat and finished a little black knitted bag which I ‘m not happy with, I’ll have to start another! Monday the cloud was broken at 0 feet and complete at 10 feet! I think we’re having a bit of the English weather now.
As it was so bad we visited Kirkwall, one of the three main areas of habitation on the Mainland. We decide to hand over my fairy liquid bottle of copper coins to the Lifeboat. Whilst still working, friends and colleagues would add there spare coins to my ‘Lifeboat Man Fund’ in the hope that I would get one before I retired. Anyway it wasn’t to be and the Grandchildren finally put the filling touch to the bottle. The chap in the lifeboat office was delighted but when Pat started to explain how I was after a Lifeboat man he started to slowly back away from me - did I imagine the look of fear that came to his eyes?
It was dryer in town, the cloud base must have been about 200 feet so we had a look around the shops. There were two cruise ships in the bay and passengers were being ferried back to the ship. The water is not deep enough for the ships to dock in the harbour. A fleet of buses ferry the cruise passengers around the island on whistle stop tours of the main sights, The Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe to name a few. We’re going to visit them all over the next few weeks.
We watched seals in the harbour at Gills Bay and kept a lookout for sea birds during the crossing. The bully of the bays has to be the Great Skua (Bonksy). It’s a massive bird, brown with white wing flashes and a flesh tearing bill. We saw one chasing a Great Black Back Gull, which is the bully boy of our cliffs in England, and the Gull was darting and twisting in the air to get away, all the time whimpering like a frightened Budgie. I suppose it’s pay back time.
We didn’t see the Old Man of Hoy this crossing because our ferry crosses the Firth to the East of Hoy keeping out of the Atlantic swell. The Old Man is a famous sea stack of Red Sandstone stood on a base of volcanic rock. It’s loved by rock climbers and we have a DVD of the news footage of the first time the top was reached. It makes fascinating viewing, the climb was transmitted live on BBC News and it also shows the vast effort needed to get huge BBC cameras down onto the beach as well as on top of the cliffs. No handheld video cameras in the 1960’s.
The sun was shining and all was well with our world and we could stay on the island for as long as we wanted. We’d had some weather reports from home and felt quite guilty, it seemed that we had deserted a sinking shire (literally) just in time.
Orkney is an archipelago (I’ve always wanted to use that word, another lifetime ambition achieved) of 68 islands. The underlying rock is called Red Sandstone and was laid down, I can’t remember how many millions of years ago, when the whole area was a fresh water lake, given the name Lake Orcadia by geologists. The different silt and mud deposits have all been compressed and you can see the coloured bands in the cliffs around the island.
We spent our first night at Skaill Bay. It’s a beautiful bay with car park and toilet block and all away from any meaningful area of conurbation. We also knew of a pull in away from the car park where we could be totally alone. So we parked about a yard away from the edge of the beach. The top of the beach here is where the most beautiful pebbles of all are found. They have been washed smooth and round and have clear rings, like the contour lines on maps running around them. Then there is a sandy area between high and low tide and both ends of the bay end in cliffs. At our end we have Eider Ducks and their young feeding in the shallows. When the young have their heads under water they look like brown rats swimming around and I always marvel at how they manage to survive the onslaught of waves, head goes down and the wave goes over them and they pop up the other side. Eider ducks are very good parents and often spend their time in groups all looking after all the babies like a creche. We have just watched a Bonksy fly low over the water and all the adult Eiders gathered the babies into a group and surrounded them. I’m pleased to say the Bonksy did not dine on Eider chick tonight.
It was a lovely evening, the sun didn’t finally go down over the horizon until after 10.30 pm, I’d forgotten just how weird it feels to be sitting in full daylight at 10 o’clock in the evening. I’ll get used to it.
Next day was still sunny but there was a cold wind. The tide was right for a trip to Birsay Brough. It can only reached by foot on a causeway at low tide or boat. Brough means ’easily defended’ in Pictish I think! Anyway it’s a small island that slopes upwards and westward into 150 feet high cliffs. Puffins, Cormorants, Gulls and Guillemots all nest on the cliffs and because of the way the sea has carved into the Red Sandstone you can get some fantastic views of the nests.
The earliest settlers on The Brough, in the 6th or 7th century, were Pictish and all that remains are the outlines of their dwellings and a carved stone. The original stone is in the museum but a replica has been put in it’s place. The carvings are excellent when you consider the tools that would have been used and I’ve made drawings of them, if you could call my efforts drawings, and I hope to be able to weave or knit or make a rug using them.
After the Picts the Vikings arrived and built over the Pictish settlement. The archaeologists have unearthed the footings of their houses and also a 12th century church. We managed to use the pole to get some photographs much to the amusement of other tourists.
At the top of the Brough there is a lighthouse which is now fully automated and is only visited occasionally for maintenance, some more pole shots of the glass lens. The pole is great for this type of work because you can place the camera exactly where you want it.
The sea has gouged inlets out of the cliff face which means that you can stand and watch the nesting seabirds across the gap in some cases getting close enough for some nice photo’s.
We were watching the Puffins when this woman suddenly came bounding over to us asking if we’d seen them. She was so excited, it’s been her life long dream to see Puffins and here there were 2 she could see. When we handed her the binoculars she thought she was in heaven. It was lovely to see the pleasure on her face especially when she got a close up view through the bins.
Next day it rained all day so I sat and finished a little black knitted bag which I ‘m not happy with, I’ll have to start another! Monday the cloud was broken at 0 feet and complete at 10 feet! I think we’re having a bit of the English weather now.
As it was so bad we visited Kirkwall, one of the three main areas of habitation on the Mainland. We decide to hand over my fairy liquid bottle of copper coins to the Lifeboat. Whilst still working, friends and colleagues would add there spare coins to my ‘Lifeboat Man Fund’ in the hope that I would get one before I retired. Anyway it wasn’t to be and the Grandchildren finally put the filling touch to the bottle. The chap in the lifeboat office was delighted but when Pat started to explain how I was after a Lifeboat man he started to slowly back away from me - did I imagine the look of fear that came to his eyes?
It was dryer in town, the cloud base must have been about 200 feet so we had a look around the shops. There were two cruise ships in the bay and passengers were being ferried back to the ship. The water is not deep enough for the ships to dock in the harbour. A fleet of buses ferry the cruise passengers around the island on whistle stop tours of the main sights, The Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe to name a few. We’re going to visit them all over the next few weeks.
posted by Marilyn | 20.7.07
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