June 16
We arrived at the bus station bleary eyed and half awake but on time. Happily there was a catering lady on board who sold coffee, tea and pastries so we didn’t starve to death on the drive to John O’Groats where we would catch the ferry to the main island.
The countryside through Caithness is very bleak and barren, at least what I could see from the window of the bus was so we all nodded off and caught up on some of the sleep we missed by getting up so early.
There is a small visitor center at John O’Groats that also contains a very small post office so I bought a couple of post cards, one of which I mailed to myself at home so I could have one for a keepsake with the stamp and post mark. The Ferry was small, smelly and cold. There was seating inside but what’s the fun of that? We decided to brave the North Sea weather and were amply rewarded by a school of dolphins who swam alongside side for a while looking us over and I swear, making fun and laughing at us. This is the kind of situation where I allow my imagination to take over and picture viking long ships on the horizon.
Skara Braae
After arriving at our destination there was another bus waiting for us and we set off for the grand tour of the main island. Our first stop was Skara Braae, and Iron Age settlement dating from the late Neolithic period and was inhabited between 3200 BC and 2200 BC. or so they tell me. It was located right up on the beach and had been buried until a storm caused enough erosion to uncover it in the late nineteenth century.
The houses were small but they looked like there were cosy. They even had a place to keep live fish until they were ready to cook them. The beds didn't look like they would be too comfortable though. It started to rain so that cut our visit a little short.
The Ring of Brodgar or The Standing Stones o' Stenness
To be honest I don't remember which one of these stone circles I didn't visit. The tour stopped and I sent Nicky and Matthew out in the rain to take a picture. What are Grandchildren for if not to abuse? At any rate I have a photograph but there is no way I can tell you which one it was.
Stromness and Scapa Flow
We visited both of these places. We had a wonderful lunch in a pub on the harbor. There was a Danish Tall Ship in port. It was the first time I had ever seen one of them. After lunch the tour bus took us to the site where the Naval Base at Scapa Flow used to be. I have to say they certainly did a good job of returning the place to it's original condition. You could not tell anything had ever been there except for the Italian Church.
The Italian Chapel was built by Italian Prisoners of War during WWII. It started out as a quonset hut. This was by far the highlight of our visit to Orkney and I have included two links that will tell you more than I can as no words of mine would be up to the task of describing just how beautiful and poignant this site is.
Kirkwall
This was our last stop on the tour and we were given an hour to just walk around the City Centre. We visited the church and checked out the shops for tatty souveniers, had a cup of tea and a scone and got back on the bus to return to the ferry landing. The return was just a reverse of the morning except that it started seriously raining so we rode inside on the ferry.
Footnote, kinda.
Since this trip I have read Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter and I have longed to return to Orkney and all the places mentioned in that book. It's one the list of my top ten all time favorite books. It just never worked out for me to go back but I am so grateful I was able to go once anyway.
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