Circumnavigating the UK - Day 4: Kirkwall of the Orkneys

Day 4 of the cruise was possibly the place I was most eagerly and excitedly anticipating. I have longed to visit the Orkneys for over 15 years now and yet it has taken me that long to visit.

We arrived early in the morning and we headed outside the ship onto the harbour to pick up a coach on an excursion entitled 'Scenic Orkney'. 

Our tour-guide had the most beautiful Orkney-accent. It is a really gentle, interesting variant on the Scottish accent- it sounded a bit Welsh!!

As we began the journey, we began to realise just how many Neolithic sites Kirkwall has- they seem to be discovering them all the time. I think this was the Ring of Brodger (which sadly we didn't get to stop at)

Our first official stop was at some majestic cliff-tops.  We had 20minutes to explore and take pictures. That was far too insufficient. I could have spent DAYS here.  The stones really did seem like stacked plates as this cairn demonstrates.

They were remarkably easy to walk along and the wind was cool and welcome.

You can see all the Strata really clearly in the image below.

There were cliff-pieces jutting out frequently so I was able to capture my Mum afar.

I was utterly engrossed in analysing the different colours.

The waves crashed quite ferociously against the rocky-bases although I believe this beach below would still have been pleasant to sit on.

I was intrigued by the ground here as it looks like the waves have ebbed and flowed here, leaving their mark imprinted.

These pockholes intrigued me too.

I found this miniature growth really attractive and a welcome patch of green amongst the many hues of grey and brown.

Rock lasagna for 20.

Further along, I saw more of this species of rock flower.

Vast clefts in the cliffs intrigued me and captured my imagination. I imagined that the Orkneys were the islands Enid Blyton was picturing when she wrote about the Adventurous Four and their first adventure.

Soon I spied some bird on the rocks below. My camera was inadequate to capture a closer image.

If you look closely at the image below (and zoom in, if you can), you will see this Seagull family has a young chick. Look at the white ball of fluff at the back.

Reluctantly, we traipsed back to the coach. I trailed behind with a lady called Mary who also didn't want to go back.  My Mum had gone ahead and tutted at me saying, "You don't want to me the one who gets a reputation for always being last!". I pointed out some people who came back after.

Our next stop was this pretty little beach overlooking a nearby small island which is connected by a causeway at certain times of day. The causeway was covered when we were there and some people were on the island. We discovered later, they had to be shipped off!

We only had 5 minutes here so I scampered down to the beach whilst the less-sprightly of our party stayed on the path above.

Again, this was another place where I longed to linger. The waters were so clear and mesmerising as they lapped gently at the shore.

The sky was startling.

The rocks sitting here reminded me of seals or animals enchanted. You can actually see Seals here although we saw none at this time.

My mind's eye sees me visiting here in years to come and clambering over these rocks, exploring. 5 minutes is a paltry amount of time for such splendour.

I spied this lobster cage on the shore. At least, that's what I think it was.

I met Mary again and we both realised we were kindred spirits with our choice of photographic subject matter.

Back to the coach, the scenic journey around the island continued with fascinating commentary I wish I had retained and could thus share with you.

Our next stop was the Standing Stones of Standnis, a stone circle.  Only a few stones remain as a farmer, around about 100 years ago was so sick of  people coming to his field to photograph them that he took dynamic and blew several up before he was stopped.

 Our journey continued and we stopped at the Standing Stones hotel for a hot scone with cream and jam with a welcome cup of tea. I found myself next to a lovely couple, one of whom was number 7 for G4 security!

It was with a heavy heart that I returned to the boat. The tour was really great in the sense that you gained a real sense of the size and of the different sites but I felt the whole time, that I wanted to stop for longer and see the places I saw for longer.
Some of our fellow table dwellers back on the ship told us later that they had caught a local bus tour around the island (for £8.20 rather than our £50tour) and they got to go to many of the places we went but stopped for 30minutes there and also visited the town/village of Stromness which we didn't see.  It was really wonderful to see so much of the island but the frustration of being in an organised tour, rather than driving on your own steam is that feeling of not being able to discover much for yourself. Or being able to walk. I felt like I wanted to be out there walking in it rather than driving around. But at the same time, we were only there for one day so time was precious.   If you were to come to Kirkwall on a cruise, go and find the local buses. There is excellent Public Transport on the Orkneys. Don't bother with the organised tour unless you don't fancy finding out about it yourself.

As we reached the main town of Kirkwall, they gave us a quick tour around the town and mentioned that the cathedral was shutting in 2 hours for a wedding. (Anyone who lives in the Orkneys can get married at St Magnus Cathedral.

Back at the ship, there was a big queue for getting back onward ship as two excursion coaches had arrived back simultaneously. Remembering what they'd mentioned about St Magnus Cathedral, I urged Mum to not board the ship for lunch but for us to take the shuttle bus straight to town and make the most of our remaining afternoon. She concurred so we turned on our tails and waited to board the shuttle to town.

In town, we headed instantly to St Magnus Cathedral.

Inside, we saw some beautiful stone carvings,

This magnificent example of Romanesque architecture took over 300 years to complete.  It reminds me very much of Durham Cathedral.

We found all these Skulls and Crossbones most intriguing and most unusual for a church!

Stained glass is often my favourite part of any cathedral.

This bell came from the only ship sunk in the Orkneys during WWII.  As a result of this, Winston Churchill came to the Orkneys and they began building the Churchill barriers which mean you can only enter the Orkneys via one way, no matter which island you wish to reach. The Orkneys were of such key strategic importance during WWII.

And here is a book with all the names of those who died.

As we left the cathedral, an almighty ruckus and din reached our ears. An open truck full of lairy young men and later one full of young women drove past covered in what looked like tar.  Apparently, it is an Orkadian tradition for Hen and Stags to go around covered in treacle and drive around the town.
As we passed the cathedral later, the Stag had been clingfilmed to the Martyr's cross in the grounds and left there for an hour.  This was bizarre but apparently everyone does it.  I was slightly concerned about how the couple who were due to wed there in an hour were going to react to tar-covered hooligans...

After this, we went to look at the local shops.  In Kirkwall, only independent shops were allowed so there were a real stream of interesting places to look in.  I ended up buying an 'Isle of Skye tartan beret' and a fish necklace from another shop.

Mum and I had ice-creams.

After we'd looked around, Mum decided she was exhausted and headed back to the ship.  She went to the Bus stop to catch the Shuttle Bus back.

I still had an unresolved need to walk here, so I decided to head off to explore.
I walked to the Marina where a dolphin had been swimming all morning (I missed it) and saw a map of a walk you could take from here.
My accompaniment to my walk was my elder-sister's voice. I really wanted to speak to her and share my Orkney experience with her. So much of my life was spent living with just her and my Mum and in some ways I wished she was with the two of us so we could be our trio of girls again.

When I reached the end of the main Marina, I saw this beautiful patch of daisies which I headed down into.

There was also a huge amount of these yellow flowers much beloved of bumblebees.

Soon after, the road emptied out and I found myself heading more out of town along a more deserted sea road.   It was a pity it was rather overcast now otherwise I might have liked a paddle. As it was, the shingled sand looked much less inviting and rather grubby compared to the findings of earlier that day around the island.

It was here that I stopped and spent time looking for Seaglass which I posted about here in this post with nostalgic reminiscences.  

What I didn't mention was that at this point, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a call of nature and had to make a painful mile and half, if not two mile hike back to the marina.

After this, I mooched around town a little more and went back at 4.50pm to catch the final shuttle bus. The last one was at 5.15ish so Mum was phoning me in a panic to check I was getting it.

As it was, my bus driver decided to sit there waiting till 5.15 as it was just me waiting.  He said that sometimes you get about 100 Americans turning up for the last bus so he was staying with the other bus driver just in case there wasn't enough room for them all.  No one else came. 

You can imagine what my Mum thought when I still hadn't arrived at 5.30pm when the ship was due to leave.  My driver assured me that they would not go until he was back. We had a very pleasant chat about life in the Orkneys. Apparently, many people have multiple jobs. He was a carpet fitter and he did the shuttle bus driving as a hobby.

Back on the Magellan, I met Mum and needed to rapidly go and change in time for our dinner sitting at 6.15pm.

Today, I wore my charity-shopped Laura Ashley dress (Mum said the neckline wasn't right for her) and my new fish necklace from Kirkwall.

My camera battery had died and so Mum took this picture. She has not sent me pictures of her so I cannot share them (Mum please send a few more!) 

The Orkneys were definitely a wonderful place to visit and I left there with an overwhelming urge to return as soon as possible. These islands have an unusual climate compared to the rest of Scotland since they are within a Gulf stream so they have relatively stable temperatures- nothing too extreme-neither hot nor cold. There is SO much history and so much beauty to enjoy here, one day cannot possibly do it justice but simply served to give Mum and I an urge to return as soon as we could.

The next day, we were due to head to the Isle of Skye, but there was a storm at sea, so what would happen?

xx

If you have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy my posts about this cruise, you can take a similar cruise with Cruise and Maritime during 2018 (itinerary here- currently buy one get one free on passengers). This is, of course, not a sponsored post but several of you have shown particular interest in the idea of this cruise.  You can also view all of Cruise and Maritime's British-Isles based cruises here.