Orkney Part Two

Thursday 31st July

Change of hostel this morning as the one I was staying in was booked but this only involved a wander up the street to drop my stuff off.

After yesterday's successes I headed out of town a bit, stuck my thumb out and got a lift from an Italian tourist who wasn't too fussed where he was going so readily agreed to take me to Birsay Palace and drop me off.

Birsay Palace

This piece of good luck meant I had time to wander around the palace, pick up some picnic stuff in the village store and head out to the causeway to the Brough of Birsay, which by this time was uncovered.

Causeway to the Brough

Pictish Longhouse

Wandered across to the Brough, had a walk around the old Viking longhouse remains and the Pictish remains then walked up the island to the lighthouse and the cliffs and next stop Greenland if you weren't careful as the wind was blowing a good one.

Birsay Lighthouse

Had my picnic sheltered in the remains of one of the Pictish houses then wandered back to Birsay Palace, just as the bus to Kirkwall arrived. This seemed like far too good timing to pass on (and ironically, it was the bus I would have been getting off, if I hadn't hitched) so jumped on and headed to Kirkwall for a recce as I was moving through to the hostel there the next day.

Had a wander around the cathedral and town centre before getting the bus back to Stromness.  

St Magnus Cathedral

The Bishop's Palace

 Quick G&T at the Ferry Inn, back to the hostel for dinner and a glass of wine then off out to the town hall for the Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain gig.  Bumped into the couple from the ferry outside the gig who invited me to join them for a drink at the Stromness hotel afterwards. Surprisingly, I accepted this suggestion!

Great music, great acoustics and some amusing (if perhaps a little well-worn anecdotes) from the boys meant it was well worth seeing. (Robbie Shephard's reading of a request for Angus who was 111 last week, oh no he wasn't he was ill, an interesting account of a flight from Shetland to Fair Isle etc.)

Anyway, true to form, headed to the Stromness Hotel and again attempted to buy a round and again wasn't allowed. A couple of pints and a couple of Highland Parks later and I realise that Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham have joined the table as they are friends with the couple from the boat. So we sat and discussed nationalist politics. As you do.

Friday 1st August

Remarkably hangover free ( I have found that these diminish while travelling but don't quote me on that after Belladrum this weekend), 'twas up, organise and head to Kirkwall this morning as there was a wedding happening in Stromness and everywhere was fully booked.

I knew I wouldn't be able to check in at the SYHA hostel in Kirkwall until later that day so I was wondering what I was going to do with the miraculous weight changing rucksack but the lovely people at the visitor centre (conveniently located right next to the bus station) only charge £1.00 per item for left luggage so problem solved.

As the weather was a bit undecided about what to do with itself, and because it was lunchtime and mostly because I could, a tour round the Highland Park distillery seemed in order. Naturally, this has nothing to do with learning how they make the stuff as I have been on enough distillery tours to know they don't vary that much, but has everything to do with the free drams at the end and the discount in the distillery shop.

However, Highland Park are one of only five distilleries who still do their own floor malting so that made a nice change (Laphroaig,Balvenie, Springbank and I'm having a memory blank are the others).

Anyway, the tasting at the end was rather disappointingly (but understandably) of the 12 and 15 yr olds - you always hope you might get a treat of something older when it's quiet as it was today as they're in their silent season or non-producing time when they do all their maintenance work. Still it meant the tour was cheaper.

The 12 yr old is the basic that I am very familiar with. The 15yr old was good but a bit too sweet for my liking. However, the shop was offering a bottle of the 12yr old with a free 50ml bottle of the 18yrold for the same price as just the 12yr old so it didn't take much arm twisting for me to invest. The 18yr old, as remembered from a speed whisky tasting in Embra a year or so ago, is fantastic and needless to say has been drunk. The 12yr old is being kept for Belladrum.

After the tour and now fortified, I headed back into town (the distillery is right on the outskirts) with a small detour to actually find the youth hostel. As expected, it wasn't open till 5 so back into the centre of town feeling rather aimless.

A rather heavy downpour quickly decided me that being in the pub was a good way to spend a Friday afternoon and so it was.

As is typical, you can't go anywhere without bumping into someone with connections, and in this instance it was some locals who now live in Embra and drink in the pub across the street from my usual pub there.

However, this meant a few games of pool and some more free drinks (I know, I know, I do actually pay for them occasionally, I promise!)

In another strange twist, despite the opportunity of a session, I did remember that all my gear was still in left luggage and that I needed to retrieve it before 8pm.  As I also needed to do some food shopping, I cut short the drinking, headed to Tesco and Lidl (Kirkwall is so big city compared with Stromness!!!), retrieved my stuff and headed to the hostel.

Wasn't overly impressed by the welcome, but the poor lass was rather stressed as apparently there had been some thefts of food recently and they had had to tighten their security measures. I got a bit of a culture shock about the whole being locked out thing after the freedom of the independents.

Had a quiet night, reading and was in bed by 11 (shocking I know).

Saturday 2nd August

Up at 8, out of the hostel by 9.30, and sat in the Pomona Cafe with a coffee and bacon roll by 9.45. I could, of course, have made my own breakfast but, as you all know, mornings are not my best time of day and dealing with a hostel kitchen when I'm snarly is not a good plan.

Anyway, had a bus to catch down to the Italian Chapel on Lamb's Holm.

Scapa Flow

The sun was out, the view over Scapa Flow was stunning, and I even managed to squeeze in between tour buses to get some photos of the chapel interior when empty.  It truly is an amazing transformation of a Nissen hut.

Decided to stick my thumb out and see what happened as the next bus wasn't for ages, so ended up in St Margaret's Hope, thanks to a lift from a lovely women and her two kids who were fascinated by this weird, plait-headed thing in their car.

Found the pub, found their beer garden, miraculously empty, and enjoyed a good sit in the sun with a glass of wine and my book.

Decided that I would rather be sat near the sea on such a glorious day,so acquired some lunch from the small shop and spent the rest of the afternoon being ridiculously lazy, sat on the grass by the sea in the lovely quiet sunshine.

Watched the ferry from Gill's Bay come in and made a mental note to always sail from Scrabster as it looked rather small and decrepit.

I was the only passenger on the bus back from St Margaret's Hope to Kirkwall, where I had another quiet night but a good blether with my temporary room mates. One of the pleasures of this kind of trip (indeed, in life) is the random exchanges of life stories with strangers. I do occasionally think about fabricating a whole different existence for myself, just for the the hell of it, but I actually quite like my real life so I tend to stick to the truth.

Orkney Part One

Monday 28th July

Hair braided ready for my trip!

Departed Edinburgh amid a dodgy haar and ensconced myself happily on the train to Inverness. The cost of petrol certainly seems to have had an impact as I have never seen an Inverness train so busy! Thankfully, however, my fellow travellers were of the civilised persuasion so the journey was not tedious apart from a slight delay due to a points failure outside Perth. 

Miraculously, I was drinking nothing stronger than water on this leg of my journey I can hear the gasps of amazement from here (Kirkwall library)!

This was rectified by a trip to M&S in Inverness where a bottle of red was acquired prior to having to queue ludicrously at Inverness station to board the Wick/Thurso train. Health and Safety has taken over the planet as they won't let you on the platform in case you jump in front of the train. I didn't realise living in Inverness was that depressing... This queuing wouldn't have been so bad if the sun hadn't come out and the station was stifling. However, once on the train things gradually improved although I have yet to figure out why they put four carriages on but only let you use two of them on this route.

Got into a conversation with two lovely women on the train, wine was shared and the world was set to rights.

Arrived in Thurso, dropped the miraculous weight changing rucksack off in the hostel and headed for the pub. In Thurso. On a Monday night. Hmmm. Not exactly bouncing, but the people were very friendly and beer was consumed so all back to normal. Made it back to the hostel in one-piece and had a good sleep.

Tuesday 29th July

In some bizarre alternate universe, I was actually up, showered, dressed and cup of tea'd by 9.30am. Rain was pissing down and I really couldn't face the walk back to the station and hanging around until the bus to the ferry, so a taxi was in order. OK so this meant I was far too early for the boat but was quite content to sit (in the dry) in the waiting room at Scrabster and read. Which was a good thing, as the sun came out and by the time we were ready to sail, it was a glorious afternoon.

Hoy from the ferry in the sunshine! :-)

It was lunchtime by now so a glass of wine seemed appropriate on the boat, a couple of conversations were had, photos of the Old Man of Hoy taken and then I was in Stromness.

The Old Man of Hoy

Had been hoping to camp but the only place was the camp site, miles outside of town so I wandered into Brown's Hostel and got myself a bed for a couple of nights.

Out wandering round Stromness, I bumped into the couple I had been talking to on the boat who advised me that Phil Cunningham and Ali Bain were playing in Stromness town hall on the Thurs and pointed me in the direction of the shop selling tickets.

Stromness

Found the excellent book shop in Stromness and purchased a copy of Andrew Greig's 'In Another Light', which is partly based on Orkney (and in Stromness in particular). At this point, it seemed sensible to investigate the pubs. Quick pint in the Flattie, the public bar of the Stromness Hotel, then across the street to sit outside the Ferry Inn. Conversations were had with complete strangers, pints were bought for me and no one would let me buy one back.  A good start I feel!!

However, being vaguely sensible for once, (again, I can tell none of you believe me) I only had 3 pints then wandered back to the hostel for food. To relieve you all, I had invested in some wine on the way. This proved prudent, as I got into a conversation with some other hostel guests, shared my wine and generally had a good old blether which resulted in....

Wednesday 30th July

...getting a lift from the other guests to Skara Brae the next morning. This saved me a bus fare and got me out and about ahead of schedule. The sun was shining again although it was very windy and a pleasant wander around the site ensued before a coach party descended and I headed into Skaill House to escape them.

Skara Brae - check the colour of that sea!

The inside of one of the excavated houses

Having exhausted Skara Brae and Skaill House, I headed out on to the road to attempt to hitch a bit further on and succeeded in getting a lift from one of the local vets, who dropped me off at the Ring of Brodgar.  By getting a lift, I got there ahead of the guided tour, so managed to spend some quiet time there, more or less alone and indeed ended up tucked out of the wind on the side of one of the knowes, enjoying the sun and having a wee smoke.

Ring of Brodgar on a beautiful afternoon

Headed off again and got another lift down to the Stenness Stones, then a lift back to Stromness, couple of pints outside the Ferry Inn, back to the hostel, dinner, bed.  

Day One of sightseeing and not a penny spent on bus fares. I was really starting to like this place!

Stenness Standing Stones