Orkney Explorations Day 3

August 6:  Today, our last full day on the Orkneys, was spent "mopping up" on the last few things to visit.  We first tried to attend the East Mainland Agricultural Show, which was supposed to be in Tankerness.  But after driving to the area, along a one-lane road for most of the way and not seeing a single sign advertising the show, we abandoned the attempt.  Instead, we drove back to Kirkwall, then went to Tingwall to visit the Iron Age site called the  Broch of Gurness.  It is a ruined village of pod-like homes around a central tower that had an interior stair case and room to accommodate a number of people.   The tower, which seemed defensive, and the surrounding moat or ditch suggest that the community had security issues.

We spent some additional time watching the birds in the estuary between the Mainland and Rousay Islands.   There were red or black-throated divers (known to us as loons) and Arctic terns.  On the drive back to our B&B, we spotted a hovering barn owl, at first thought to be a harrier since it was hovering, but later discounted due to head shape and coloring.  It is had a very blunt head, a large wingspan, and mostly white coloring.

A barn owl?

We had a 2:00 pm reservation for a guided tour of Maeshowe, a Neolithic chambered tomb - the best preserved one in Europe.  To see the inside of the tomb, one must have a time-specific reservation, which we arranged yesterday.  We met the ranger along with about 15 other people at the 'door' of the 30 foot high, conical, grass-covered mound.  There is a 4-foot high entry tunnel that runs about 30 feet into the chamber, which is about 15 feet square and constructed entirely of massive blocks of stone (weighing multiple tons).  There are four main standing stones in each corner that the ranger said mirrored the center of stone circles.  There are 3 raised chambers on three sides of the main square where we stood.  The side chambers were presumably where the remains of the dead were placed, although any remains have long since disappeared.

Maeshowe stands within  sight of several other sites we visited on previous days.  This particular structure was used in later eras by some Norsemen to overwinter, as evidenced by the runes scratched into a few of the interior rocks.  The runes have been translated as messages along the lines of "I was here" graffiti.  Also, there is a 'saga' (book) which tells of a band of men spending time in such a chamber on the Orkneys.  On the winter solstice (plus and minus 21 days), the setting sun shines into the entry tunnel and illuminates the inner chamber.

The interior chamber of Maeshowe with sun shining through the tunnel

We drove back to the B&B for tea and snacks, then drove back to Birsay to walk along the coast for the purpose of birdwatching.  It was a very pleasant walk along dramatic cliff sides.  We spotted lots of downy juvenile seagulls nestled on the cliff faces, two eiders in the water, a pair of redshanks, several shrieking oyster catchers, and many cormorants, standing and diving, but alas no puffins.

Juvenile seagull

More cormorants

Oyster catcher

We had dinner in the B&B's attached pub and prepared to depart early in the morning to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

Orkney Explorations Day 2

August 5:  What do you wear on a good summer day in the Orkneys?  Answer, only three layers.  The weather was actually quite good compared to the previous day.  We spent most of the day exploring contemporary Orkney - Kirkwall, St. Magnus Cathedral, Earl's Palace, Bishop's Palace, Churchill Barriers, Italian Chapel, and the village of St. Margaret's Hope.  We finished the day with a pub dinner in Kirkwall and a concert with Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham, traditional Scottish musicians, playing a fiddle and accordion respectively.

St. Magnus Cathedral

Earl's Palace

Bishop's Palace

Italian Chapel, built by WWII Italian POWs 

Interior - beautifully done faux painting

One of four Churchill Barriers to keep out German U-Boats

Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham performed in the Orkney Theatre, at the Kirkwall Grammar School.  It reminded us of the concerts that the Sisters Folk Festival holds during the winter months at Sisters High School - a local audience, a warmup performance by young fiddlers (age 10 to 16), and a raffle during the interval.  They even sold ice cream in paper cups during the interval, something not done in Sisters, though.  The concert was part of the guys' 30th anniversary tour.  Aly and Phil are consummate folk musicians and played amazingly - jigs and reels that start out at one tempo and then get faster and faster.  They also had some great remembrances to share with the audience.  For instance, they said they once dedicated a song to someone who had just turned 111 years old; they later corrected themselves by saying the gent was not 111, but ill.  Phil also told of his meeting of the Queen once, at Balmoral.  When she asked how it was to play an accordion, he recalled having an out-of-body experience and saying "why, are you thinking of taking it up?"  He then continued by saying "have you ever tried rubbing your stomach and patting your head?"  He said the Queen said "no."  They shared similar anecdotes that had the whole audience in stitches.   The venue staff gave them a 30th anniversary cake before the encore.

Orkney Explorations Day 1

August 4:  Wow, we thought the weather yesterday was normal for the Orkneys, at least for summer - a little cool, partly cloudy and a slight breeze.  We were so wrong.

Today we studied stones - stone ruins, to be specific - from the Neolithic to the Iron Age to the Viking era.  Our first stop was at the Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic circle of stone shards ranging from 1 meter to 3 meters high, surrounded by 20-foot deep moat.  The moat qualifies the site as a 'henge,' like Stonehenge.  This site is smaller than Stonehenge but older, and they don't know what it was used for either.  It is set on a narrow strip of land between two loch with views of hillsides in all directions.  We didn't linger to appreciate the grandeur or mystery of the Ring, because it was raining sidewise - chilly rain driven by a strong gale.

Ring of Brodgar, in horizontal rain

We did linger at the next site, the Ness of Brodgar, primarily because of the fascinating presentation by Roy Towers, a Glasgow archeologist and excavation expert.  The site was only discovered in 2003 when the property owners undertook a test dig before replanting a field with wildflowers.  The dig uncovered a stone first taken to be part of a Neolithic burial tomb and later concluded to be a wall segment that would have supported a roof.  As the archeologists worked, they discovered the site was far bigger and far older than they expected, and it has yielded artifacts that challenge previous theories about neolithic communities.  Mr. Towers told us this with enthusiasm - he was also impressed that 20-some tourists would stand around in the nasty weather while he talked.  Tidbits:

• The site is at least 6 acres, running across at least two fields and under several modern structures.  It will take years for the entire site to be excavated, if ever, since funding has always been scarce.  A team of young archeologists was working steadily and patiently in the rain while a camera man from BBC filmed them.
• It was in use from roughly 3,200 BC to 2,300 BC - older than the Pyramids.
• There is no sign of residential structures but there are at least 2 large ceremonial or community structures, one referred to as the 'Neolithic cathedral.'
• All the structures were built of sturdy stone walls with wide, shallow slate blocks and sophisticated roof structures, possibly of large, thinner slate tiles.
• They have found samples of pottery called "grooved pottery," reddish pots with decorative incisions of straight or curved lines.  This kind of pottery has been found at other early sites in England, but this site is much older, suggesting that the pottery style started here and then migrated south.  Prevailing theories said that culture moved northwards.
• They have also found tools and other artifacts of considerable sophistication, given that this culture had to create everything using stone or bone tools.

Ness of Brodgar, an active archeological dig

From the Ness, we drove west to Skara Brae on the coast, which was truly magical.  This site, found in the 1850s, when a storm blew away sea grass and sand, is the housing estate for the Ness, if you like.  Next to the museum is a replica constructed to show a typical layout and to give a sense of what it would have been like to live in one of these homes.  The buildings, which were generally oval or round, were constructed of thick flagstone walls, with roofs of wood beams covered with hides or the like.  At the center was a stone hearth or fire pit, and at the far end a stone cabinet with storage shelves.  Around the sides were several bedsteads outlined in slate slabs and probably lined with lambskins or deer hides for warmth.  There were also several small in-ground tanks, again outlined with slate slabs and possibly used as fish tanks or cold storage.  The dwellings were connected by stone tunnels and covered over with turf and moss, so they would have been cozy and comfortable even in foul weather.  (The weather had improved somewhat by now, so we could enjoy the scenery more.)

A reconstructed dwelling - interior showing the central hearth and "dresser"

The outside of the reconstructed dwelling

The actual dwelling at the historic site

The historic site, closer to the shore, looks like a green hobbit village, with partial stonewalls outlining each unit and its hearth.  One structure was probably a communal workshop since it contained stone chippings but no bedsteads.  The grass growing over the walls softens the outlines and adds to the magic.  The inhabitants probably raised sheep or cattle, fished, and grew basic crops.  They had the resources and the technology to build sophisticated sites such as the Ness and the stone circles.

A typical view of the ruins 

Our tickets to Skara Brae also gave us access to Skaill House, owned by the family that discovered the prehistoric site.  The house and its surrounding gardens is a good example of how a wealthy family lived on the islands between the 18th and 20th centuries.

Skaill House

Our last sightseeing stop of the day was Brough Head on the northwest end of Mainland.  This site is essentially an island, but for several hours before and after low tide,  a causeway provides foot access.  It is a humpy, grassy island with a lighthouse on the highest point (toward the center), steep cliffs on the seaside,  and, on the causeway side, the Brough of Birsay, a Norse-era ruin.  The construction technique was basically the same as the Neolithic sites - rings of stone walls creating snug houses but included a church and iron-age relics.  As we walked across the causeway, we investigated the tide pools and looked for shells.  We spotted seabirds and rabbits on the island.

We drove south to the port of Stromness for supper, finding relatively few choices.  We settled on the Stromness Hotel, which was OK.

Brough Head Causeway

A few of the sea shells we found

The Brough of Birsay

A view of the Brough of Birsay

Brough Head cliff side

Cormorant 

Muir of Ord to Dounby, Orkneys

August 3:  Today we got up early for a 3-hour drive to Thurso and the port town next door,  Scrabster, so we could catch the 1:15 pm ferry to the Orkneys.  We gave ourselves four hours to complete the drive, but it took a little less than three, so we had time to walk around Thurso and pick up lunch supplies.  Thurso is perched at the top of Scotland on one side of large harbor with a great 'dog walking' beach.  Scrabster is on the other side of this harbor, sheltered from the wind.

Thurso main square

Thurso beach front

We had purchased ferry tickets - one for the vehicle and 3 for us passengers, on-line, so we just had to check in at the ferry gate and get assigned a place in line to wait for the ferry.  We had about 45 minutes to kill so we wandered up to a nearby lighthouse and  around the docks.  There were rare blue butterflies, a rare species of bumblebee, and a very common jellyfish (in the water). 

A rare blue butterfly

A unique bumblebee

We boarded the medium-large ferry with a single vehicle layer and two passenger levels.  We departed in clear weather, hit fog midway, and broke out the fog as we arrived into Stromness Harbor, on the West Mainland Island of the Orkneys.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch on board.

Island of Hoy before completely fogged in

Stromness

We debarked with everyone else and drove about 20 minutes from Stromness to Dounby and checked into the Smithfield Hotel.  It is located at the intersection of two roads at the north end of Loch of Harray, on West Mainland.  As I write this, Elaine and Betsy are reading up on what to do and see on the Orkneys, which include 70 islands in the archipelago, with a total population of 24,500.  There are only 4 islands with roads that we can drive to without a ferry, a couple more that are connected by ferry and may have vehicles (i.e., roads), and lots have little airports.  Hoy and the famous cliff side pillar known as Old Man of Hoy were covered in fog as we sailed past.  Hoy can be reached only by passenger ferry.

Pitlochry to Muir of Ord

August 2:  Today involved a drive northward through the western edge of Cairngorms National Park to just west of Inverness at Muir of Ord, with a stop in Aviemore.  We had a nice breakfast in probably the best equipped and furnished hotel we have seen on this trip (The Westlands).  It was spacious and modern - the plumbing had proper mixing taps.  We drove through the park which has very broad valleys and rounded hilltop vistas.  The tops of the largest 'munros' or mountains were in the clouds, though the weather did clear as we arrived in Aviemore.

Aviemore and the Spey Valley

Aviemore is a skier/mountain community that caters to visitors, rather like a smaller Jackson Hole, WY.  We went to Visitor Info and asked for a local hike suggestion.  We were pointed to one in a nearby nature park that wound up about 800 feet to a viewpoint overlooking the town and across the valley to the mountains.  The park was also billed as a place to see nesting Peregrine falcons.  The three of us started up, but Elaine begged off (wisely, she would not have enjoyed the slightly steep, rocky and potentially slippery trail).  Betsy and I climbed to a high viewpoint just short of the top.  The views were good but were impossible to photograph because they were so broad.  The hillsides were tundra-like with lots of heather in differing forms and shades of purple, ferns, lichen, and, a little lower down, huckleberry bushes, with ripe, tart berries.  We wondered why they weren't being picked by the locals.

We walked down and met up with Elaine, then drove north to Inverness.  We did a short Rick Steve's suggested walk in the town, which isn't much.

River Ness

We next drove to Muir of Ord and, after some bumbling around, found our accommodation for the night - Ord House Hotel.  We drove 3/4 of a mile down an potholed, one-lane driveway to a 17th century country house, with a black lab and free-range chickens out front.  The owner, Johnny, showed us our rooms, served as bartender, and regaled us with a variety of topics - training USCG cadets in San Francisco, skiing in the French Alps, being a lawyer in the City of London, weather, National Health Care, lotteries,and US politics.  While these topics don't sound humorous, we laughed a lot.  The hotel, though old and full of odd spaces, seems to have been updated effectively and is very comfortable.  Our pub supper was also fine.

The Bar at Ord House Hotel, 'Johnny's haunt'

Ord House Hotel in Muir of Ord

One of two watchdogs, unknown name; the other Poppy, was older, quieter and liked laying by the fire

N. Queensferry to Pitlochry

August 1:  Our first destination today was St. Andrews, on the east coast, and then we drove to Pitlochry, the gateway to the Cairngorms National Park.  We had an easy time getting away from Edinburgh and arrived in St Andrews, which we had never visited, by mid-morning.  We parked the car in a long-term lot next to the University of St. Andrews Physics Building and walked to the 18th hole of the "Old Course."  St Andrews is where golf was invented and played since the 17th century.  The 18th hole is parallel to the 1st hole, and we watched foursomes 'tee off,' complete with photographs, as well as people putting out the last hole.  The guide books say that if you want a tee time, book ahead by at least a year.  The fairways were as immaculate and closely cropped as the greens, and it was only by finding a flag did we know where the green was.  Interestingly, there are five different courses woven together in a triangle of land just back from the beach called West Sands.  The West Sands is where the running scene in The Chariots of Fire was filmed.

The 18th Hole, Old Course

We walked up along the famous golf-related buildings on the bluff overlooking the courses and by the museum of golf.  We then passed a war memorial, bandstand, and a pool; the views of the coast line were spectacular.  The town of St Andrews was founded as a religious site sometime around about 600 AD.  The relics of Saint Andrew were being brought from the Holy Land when the ship wrecked just off the coast of Scotland, so the priests said "we have arrived" and built an abbey and cathedral.  We followed a Rick Steve's walking tour into town, passing the University of St. Andrews (the original, historic, quad and chapel buildings), stopped briefly in the Museum of St. Andrews, went by the ruins of the Castle (founded about the same time as the monastery as home for the bishop) and finally reached the point of the peninsula where the the cathedral was.  It is a major ruin with only a few walls and two towers still standing (castle, abbey, and cathedral were gradually dismantled during the Scottish Reformation).  The cathedral was historically a pilgrim destination comparable to Santiago de Compostela and is still a tourist mecca.  We walked back through town with its old, historic buildings and shops.  The university is intermingled with much of this downtown area.  By the way, Prince William and wife Kate were both members of the class of 2005.

University of St. Andrew, main quad

St. Andrew Castle 

St. Andrew Cathedral

We left St. Andrews and drove first north over the Firth of Tay to Dundee (4th largest city in Scotland), then west to Perth and then north to Pitlochry, just outside of the Cairngorms National Park.  We checked in to a very nice "large B&B" and decided to walk up and around to the Edradour Distillery.  We arrived 15 minutes after the last tour, but I already knew what I was going to buy.  The shop was still open, of course.  When we were in Ft. William after the WHW hike, we sampled a cream liqueur made with Edradour scotch and milk.

 It was lovely then, so we bought a bottle for evening nightcaps.  I also got a small bottle of their standard 10-year old single malt scotch.  However, we won't be bringing any of it home since there is no room in the luggage.  We'll have to drink it here - so sad.

We walked back to town by way of a scenic waterfall and stopped for beer and cider before returning to the B&B.  We went for dinner, saw a pipe band parade through town to a park ground near the Tay River for an evening show of Scottish music, and then we walked up to the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder.  The dam and ladder are part of a huge hydroelectric power 'scheme' in this section of the Highlands owned by Scottish Power.  This dam was built in 1951, and there are over 70 more dams, 54 powerhouses, and lots of underground tunnels and diversions moving water around, consolidating it, thereby maximizing generation.

Sunday in Edinburgh

July 31:  We had a thorough day in Edinburgh.  We took the local train from North Queensferry to Edinburgh-Waverly, the main train station, arriving about 10:30 am.  We walk through a close to the Royal Mile and up to the Castle to collect Elaine's pre-paid ticket.  The scaffolding for the Military Tattoo was in place, which starts on August 2nd for a month.

We walked partway downhill to St. Giles Cathedral to attend the 11:30 am church service - choir and sermon.  It started with prelude by Tallis and ended with a Fugue by Mendelssohn, played on a magnificent organ.  In between, we sung a few hymns and heard a sermon by a newly hired American paster from Florida.  The choir was quite good, too.

St. Giles Cathedral

Organ inside St. Giles

After church, Elaine went to tour the Castle.  Betsy and I explored the neighborhood south of the Royal Mile.  We walked through Grass Market to Greyfriars Abbey/Cemetery.  The neighborhood is were JK Rowlings first began writing Harry Potter stories, we saw a tour group being escorted around complete with wands, and noticed a grave marker to a McGonagal (inspiration for JK Rowling).  We next explored the first floor of the National Museum of Scotland (Smithsonian-like) with an eclectic collection of Scottish artifacts and recognizing famous people.  One interesting aside for those of you who were in Glasgow, we saw this clock in the Museum and it might of been made by the same guy who did all the crazy whirligigs in the Kinetic Museum, Glasgow.

We were meeting Elaine at Deacon Brodie Pub, supposedly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  On the way the went quickly through a Scotland National Library exhibit on Maps.

After drinks in the pub, we walked down the rest of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace, the royal residence in Scotland.  No one was at home from the royal family (probably on the way to Balmoral instead), so we paid for entry and toured the palace, with audioguides.  The layout of rooms resembles the standard procession for a royal visit in historic times.  One starts in large public spaces and works to increasing intimate spaces, culminating in the bedroom, though the king (or queen) never slept in this room.  We saw a few more rooms used by Mary, Queen of Scots, located in the oldest tower of the palace.  We next visited a special exhibit of Queen Elizabeth's ceremonial dresses.  We exited through the ruins of the abbey, which was the original structure on the site.

Abbey Ruin at Holyrood Palace

We walked to New Town, tried to view the Queens Garden, but it is evidently private and ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant for dinner.  We each ordered three mezze plates and shared all around.  Our dinner included dessert, and we all chose profiteroles.

We walked along Princes Street to the Haymarket Train station for the ride back to North Queensferry.

Edinburgh Castle