I took my rental car over to the island of Rousay for one
night.
Obstacle 1: the ferry is quite small, and cars have to be reversed
on-board. I am not ashamed (or maybe
only a little) to admit that this scenario was beyond me – I asked one of the
guys on the ferry to do it for me.
Rousay has
apparently been nicknamed 'The Egypt
of the North' due to its richness in archaeological sites: Mid Howe ‘The great
ship of death’ (A chambered tomb dating back about 5000 years), an iron-age
broch, Pict settlements, Viking (Norse) remains, and a smattering of more
recent ruins. It is also a relatively
small island, with a single ‘ring road’ – so I was able to spend a ‘leisurely’
day driving around. When I say
‘leisurely’… everyone says that Orkney is flat… but Rousay is not (my legs were
really sore from hiking up and down the sides of the hills all day)!
Compared to the Mainland, there are far fewer visitors on
Rousay. So it was, that at the end of
the day I was able to walk up to the ‘Knowe of Yarso’: a chambered tomb
(smaller than Mid Howe) and have the site all to myself. The location half-way up the hill had a
fabulous view over the bay below. From
the inside, the historical significance was doubtless very impressive… but the
thought of being locked inside a tomb (with a door that bolted on the outside)
was not very pleasant… I didn’t linger!
For a relatively small island, I was very amused by the lack
of any ‘central’ township… the ferry port, post office and shop (yes: one shop)
were essentially spaced at equidistant points around the ring road. Not the most efficient system for someone
trying to run errands (though I don’t suppose people on the island do this in
quite the same way we city folk do!) I
suppose it’s the result of small businesses being run out of people’s
homes.
I stayed the night in hostel-style accommodation at Trumland
organic farm, sharing a room with two French girls who were WWOOFing (Willing
Workers on Organic Farms). The other
room was being used by three Orkney builders who were renovating a house on
nearby Egilsay (they would take the ferry across each morning to start
work). When I enquired why they didn’t
stay on Egilsay they basically told me they would quit the job if forced to
stay there! (Apparently, the island
population of 28 and no shops or eateries was a little too small – even for
those accustomed to the relative quiet of Orkney). It was really interesting to talk to these
guys: I found that meeting Orcadians was really difficult: nearly everyone
associated with the tourist industry seemed to be an import (a lot of Brits,
who had tired of the bustle of UK mainland, and opted for a sea-change).
Hoy
The next day, I took my car over to the island of Hoy. The Hoy hills are a distinctive sight from
across the bay in Stromness, and Ward Hill is the highest point in Orkney. So, Hoy is where you go if you want to do
some good, healthy, uphill hiking (even if I did find some of that in Rousay!)
The first walk I did was a relatively easy, pleasant hike
around to see the Old man of Hoy (a rock stack formation, which appears on all
the postcards). Here is how my diary
records this experience:
Essential Scottish experiences: HAGGIS (tick), BAGPIPES (tick), WHISKY
(tick), INDIAN FOOD (tick), RAIN, WIND, FOG (tick)… AND NOW: MIDGES (tick tick
tick)…,
There was almost zero wind, which was novel for a short
period, until I discovered that midges were the side-effect. I wasn’t sure what a midge looked like until
I went to Hoy. After two days on the
island I was covered in bites, and had got to the point that I wouldn’t get out
the car in some places (I could see the clouds of the evil creatures, hovering
– just waiting to get a piece of me).
The main thing that I really wanted to do on Hoy was to
climb Ward Hill. Unfortunately, the top
was covered in cloud most of the day.
After dithering for a while, I decided that it was sufficiently ‘clear’
(the clouds were rolling in and out), so I set out… There is no track up the
hill, but the booklet I had purchased described a route that sounded fairly
straightforward (walk along for a bit – cut across the moor – then start
climbing until you can go no further: the top!) I don’t know if another route would have
been easier (the locals seemed to suggest that I should have started out from
the other side of the hill) – what I did was tough: parts of it were near
vertical, and the heather made finding my footing quite difficult (I’d place my
foot and sink through the scrub to about mid-calf). I was exhausted after just 20 minutes, and
got into a rhythm of: walk 10 steps, stop, swear (i.e. *$#@ this is tough!!),
then carry on! As I climbed the clouds
started to roll in. I thought I was
quite close to the summit when it became so dense that I couldn’t see more than
20 meters around me – and didn’t know which way was up anymore… I actually had
to sit down and wait for 10 minutes before I was able to see sufficiently to
carry on (at which point, I discovered that I was only 50 metres from the trig
point!) The view from the top would have
fantastic on a clearer day, but as it was the clouds were moving sufficiently
quickly so I got clear periods and could see down to the surrounding islands –
well worth the tough climb (although I still didn’t enjoy the downwards leg).
I felt I had to ‘share’ the experience of
being on top of Orkney with someone… so my lucky parents got a 3am text message
– (Sorry!)
Hoy also sits at the head of Scarpa Flow: the sheltered
harbour formed within the Orkney islands.
It is described as one of the
great natural harbours/anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a
number of navies. Viking ships anchored in Scapa Flow more than 1000 years ago,
but it is best known as the site of the United Kingdom's chief naval base
during World War I and World War II. The base was closed in 1956. There is quite a good museum in the old Pump
house (for refueling) – the images of war time Orkney were really striking:
there was a very large number of people stationed there, with the associated
services and facilities – it must have been a very different (busy) place at
that time.
Hoy was also the
site of my ELECTRONIC CRISIS!! - I arrived back on Mainland, and realized that
my NZ-UK power adaptor must still be plugged into the wall at the Hoy
hostel. Sadly, I didn’t believe that I
could function without (computer, phone, camera – everything seems to require
electricity!) This was the time to
believe in the generosity of people and ask for a few favours… I was really
lucky that one of the girls I’d met at the hostel was still there, and I was
able to ring Faye (the warden), she gave the adaptor to Emily, who carried it
across on the ferry back to Stromness – where I met her and was reunited J
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