Kirkwall
When I arrived in Kirkwall it felt like arriving in the big
city (it has a population of 10,000 – but has more of a ‘city’ feel compared to
Lerwick – pop 7,000). It did score
immediate points however, on the basis that the leisure centre runs Les Mills
aerobics classes (I managed to squeeze in three Combat sessions over my time there!)
Arriving in a new place without a clear plan can be a good
way to ensure I am open to all possibilities, but it is also a recipe for being
overwhelmed by options (which is how I was feeling on day 1 in Orkney). I hadn’t realised how many islands there are,
or how many historic sites there are to visit.
I also established that the bus service is fairly limited (it doesn’t really
service the tourist sites… and in fact, it doesn’t even service some of the
towns very well). I subsequently found
that even hiring a car wasn’t straightforward (I wanted a car for one week, and
spent a frustrating few hours trying to arrange one – in the end, of the four
rental companies, only one had something available).
The centre of Kirkwall is quite attractive, with the
impressive St Magnus Cathedral (built in the 12th century by his
nephew to honour Earl Magnus’s martyrdom), opposite are the ruins of the Earl’s
palace and the Bishop’s palace – the former being the construction of the same
mad Earl who built Scalloway castle in Shetland.
I did manage to meet another New Zealander on day one… on a
tour of the cathedral (she was just visiting, but her daughter is currently
living in Orkney). It was quite funny to
find the NZ connection so quickly – but I actually didn’t meet another Kiwi in
the following 2 ½ weeks (although, based on visitor books in various places, it
would appear that I ‘just’ kept missing them!)
On day 1 I managed to establish my favourite shop and coffee
provider: Judith Glue (the shop sells a range of local gifts, crafts, and
produce, and the café uses a lot of Orkney food products
On day 2 … I got a haircut (I figured it needed it after
roughly six months). It was very nice to
be pampered for an hour!
The hostel that I stayed at in Kirkwall (the Orcades) was
previously a guest house, but when the owner decided that she needed to
down-size, her son and daughter took over and converted it to a hostel. It has been redecorated throughout, but still
has more of a ‘modern guest house / hotel’ feel: it is all new and fresh, with
ensuite bathrooms, and a TV and hairdryer in every room!!! I had one night in a room on my own – it was
fabulous to blob out in my own space – watching Grand Designs, followed by
Twilight on TV (quality stuff!)
It was lucky that I had that nice hostel memory to cling to:
the next night I headed down to St Margaret’s Hope (a really pretty little
village, with a lovely harbour). The
hostel was run by the same people who ran the café next door and the shop next
door to that; so I picked up my key from the shop (from that point on, I didn’t
deal with any staff: it seems the hostel basically runs itself! There was no-one else staying in the place
that night, and the short hallway with all the doors open to empty rooms was
vaguely eerie (I was glad I was in Orkney; in most other places in the world
this would have felt unsafe… then again. In most other places in the world I
guess they couldn’t leave things open in this way!)
St Margaret’s Hope is near to the Italian Chapel at Lamb
Holm. The chapel was built by Italian
POWs in WWII – From the outside it doesn’t look much: a façade stuck on the end
of a Nissen Hut (cylindrical corrugated iron prefab building), but the inside
is fabulous: it has been very cleverly painted to look like the walls are made
of bricks, with a beautiful altar scene made from concrete.
Stromness
Stromness is the other ‘major’ town on Orkney mainland (~
2,000 people), it is smaller and prettier than Kirkwall, and appealed to me
immediately. The main street is narrow
and paved, and is shared by pedestrians and cars; this makes driving slow
going, (which wouldn’t be a problem except when you want to get off the street
- it seems to keep going and going, without any space to turn around, or
alternative roads to turn up… I thought I would never escape!)
Stromness is built around Hamnavoe (safe harbour), a very
pretty harbour with a outlook across to the hills of Hoy; one of the most
picturesque views from the Orkney mainland.
Initially, I spent just a few days in Stromness, and then
took my rental car on a ‘road trip’ around Mainland and a couple of the
neighbouring islands. But I spent my
final week in Orkney back there. From a
facilities and logistics point of view, Kirkwall would have been the more
obvious choice (all the bus transport originates from Kirkwall, it has more
shops, bigger supermarket for catering, the gym…) But: I loved staying in Stromness: it was
smaller and friendlier, and by the end of the week I couldn’t walk down the
street without seeing someone I recognised!
The Brown’s hostel where I stayed was a really homely place (actually 3
separate parts, but all really comfortable).
Sylvia Brown was a wonderful host, and I spent many happy hours
preparing meals in the well-equipped kitchen, or curled up in front of the TV
on the green leather sofa in front of the (fake) glowing fireplace (sounds a
bit kitsch; but was actually lovely).
I joined a guided walking tour of Stromness with John (an
Irishman) – I think it took us about 2 hours to walk a mile (down the main
street, up some of the closes, and down to some of the small piers). Some famous people were born in Stromness:
George Mackay Brown (poet and author), John Rae (arctic explorer and discoverer
of the fate of the Franklin expedition), and Dr John Clouston (my great-great
grandfather)?! John’s partner Lynn does
storytelling evenings: I went, and it was fantastic – more like a one-man play;
very theatrical.
Talking with several of the locals it seems that some of the
businesses in Stromness are struggling (especially over the winter
period). There is great concern that the
Stromness – Scrabster (mainland Scotland) ferry might be cut, (currently, the
ferry companies bid for the routes as a bundle – taking the less profitable
Stromness route with the other more popular crossings – however, there is talk
about unbundling, which may mean they opt not to continue this service). Cutting the Stromness-Scrabster route would
have implications for tourism and also supplies that are currently brought on
this route. I really hope this doesn’t
happen: as I say, I love Stromness, and it would be a pity if less people were
able to enjoy it.
Historical Orkney
Western Mainland is where the concentration of the main
archaeological sites are located, and with a car I was able to get around
easily (I love driving on the islands: there are very few cars to contend
with!)
I managed to time my visits to the Standing Stones of
Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, and Maeshowe with guided ranger talks (with
Maeshowe you have to go in with a guide).
These places are incredible – the earliest parts date back 5400 years –
I found it just mind boggling to think of all that history! The guides were invaluable; as without them,
the sites are ‘just stones to me’ (albeit, the standing ones are still
impressive in sheer size). To hear the
rangers talk about how these places were constructed, and what they might have
been used for was far more interesting.
For instance: the Ring of Brodgar (which looks to me like a
ring of giant stones in a really pretty location between two lochs) may have
been built by people from villages all around the island – they have traced the
stones as coming from multiple different locations. The stones may have been erected as a memorial
to their dead, and it appears that the intent was to continue to add stones
(there are empty ‘slots’ in which no stone has ever stood).
Maeshowe is a burial tomb, but was later found by the
Vikings and used as a shelter – during which they carved graffiti runes on the
ways (a lot seemed to be about treasure, a few referred to women, and one;
carved high up about the entry tunnel, read “I am a Viking, writing up high” - that
got a few laughs).
Skara Brae is described as Orkney’s ‘finest’ neolithic settlement. The buildings are the best preserved, but I
actually liked it less than the other sites I went to. The settlement is right on the coast, and it
was a rather miserable windy and rainy day – so that didn’t help. I also found it hard to visualise how all
the structures would have appeared (I didn’t have a guide in this instance).
I was also lucky enough to time my visit with an open day at
the ‘new’ dig at the Ness of Brodgar (I think they’ve been working on it for
about six years). The archaeologists are
all really excited about what they are finding: there are several very large
structures, and all are ‘never-before-seen’ configurations. Taking a tour with one of the rangers was
fascinating, and her enthusiasm for the discoveries was infectious. However, I did conclude that I might not be
‘cut out’ for archaeology: it’s all deduction and speculation; and I would find
it highly frustrating not to know anything for certain!
Around mainland
With a hire car, it was very simple to explore the surrounding
countryside (distances in Orkney, as in Shetland are not far).
·
I visited several of the places from where my
family originated (Stomness, Orphir and Dounby in particular)
·
The cliffs at Yesnaby: I thought they were a
little less impressive than some of the places I’d been in Shetland, but the
rock stacks were still interesting, and I had a nice day to sit and enjoy it
(It is supposed to be even more spectacular during a storm – but I think it
would be significantly less fun being there under those conditions!)
·
In addition to the well-preserved Neolithic
sites, Orkney was also the site of much Viking activity (they settled there,
and Orkney was under Scandinavian rule until the 15th century). After wandering around sites from 3-5000
years ago, I’d almost forgotten that the (comparably) recent 9/10th
century Viking settlements are also ancient ruins in themselves.
·
At one point, I was killing time (before being
due at the ferry terminal), do I drove up the road and diverted to see a
‘Doocot’ – marked on my tourist map. I
had no idea what this was… Turns out it is a ‘Dovecote’; a Broch-like circular
tower, with an opening at the top, and nesting spots inside to encourage
pigeons – the people use to eat the pigeons, use their droppings as fertiliser
etc. The structure was still being used
by the birds: with several inside, feathers and droppings all over the floor
(and one dead pigeon) – I definitely didn’t venture fully inside: the chances
of being dive bombed or fertilised seemed far too high!
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