The day dawned brighter than
yesterday and somewhat calmer and completely dry. We docked on time and we were up and
breakfasted in time to catch our tour at 0915 to Skara Brae, the Ring of
Brodgar and Scapa Flow. In other words some
history of the island both ancient and more modern.
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| typical Orkney landscape |
We boarded our coach, crossed
through the small capital town of Kirkwall and were
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| Ring of Brodgar |
soon out in the
countryside. It was immediately obvious
that this island is more fertile and greener than Shetland with more farming and
less moorland. It wasn’t long before we
arrived at our first stop the Ring of
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| Ring of Brodgar |
Brodgar – a magnificent, large megalithic
standing stone circle. When we emerged
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| primroses |
from the coach we were grateful for our fleeces, coats, hats and gloves as it
was pretty cool but we stayed warm. No
one at the moment knows the exact age of the circle but the huge ditch round
the
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| huge monolith in the ring |
perimeter ditch had some evidence of the excavation which is about 4000 to 4500
years old. The stones came from
different areas on Orkney mainland. Our
guide was very informative and jollied us through what could have been a very
staid subject. After a walk round
including some primroses growing on the spoil heap from the ditch digging we
made our way back to the coach for our next stop.
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| Skara Brae home |
We were soon at the major tour
highlight of the village of Skara Brae.
It is a prehistoric village which was uncovered by a huge storm in the
1920s. Excavations took place soon after
and the true significance of the site gradually was realised. It has been described as the stone age
Pompeii – an efficient, working
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| Skara Brae home with sideboard |
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| Another Skara brae home |
village which predates Stonehenge and the
Egyptian pyramids. The houses had
insulation, plumbing with running water and drainage, heating and defence
systems. We had a really good
explanation from our guide and enjoyed spending some time wandering around the
truly remarkable site. The photos do not
do it justice and it is well worth a visit.
After our time looking we went to the visitor centre for a welcome hot
chocolate and scone.
On our way back to Kirkwall we
passed the sea area in Orkney known as Scapa Flow which played a significant
part as an anchorage/port for the Royal Navy in both WW1 and WW2. It was from here the fleet set sail for the
Battle of Jutland in 1916 and it was here that the Royal Oak was sunk by a
U-boat in 1940 with the loss of over 800 lives.
We saw all the main features of the site and then were soon back to port
after a really good tour with an exceptional guide.
We had some lunch and then
took a shuttle bus into the town. We visited the interesting Cathedral and had
a look round the charming shopping centre with its many individual
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| leaving Orkney |
shops. Orkney was very welcoming and we were
impressed with the way that visitors were catered for. After returning to the Astoria we had some
relaxation before getting ready for dinner and an early night in preparation
for a long day in Stornaway tomorrow..
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