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The Round Kirk at Orphir - built in the late 11th / early 12th century by the Viking Earl Haakon
and Scotland's only surviving example of a round mediaeval church |
Warning: lengthy post!
We've just returned from nearly a week in the Orkneys, a group of small islands off the northern tip of Scotland. Our last trip to Scotland together was in 2009 when we spent a glorious week in the Hebrides. We have been longing to further explore the Scottish islands ever since.
We based ourselves in Kirkwall which is the largest town on the islands, with a population of 9,000, and each day we ventured out across the main island and a couple of the smaller ones accessible by bridges.
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| The lovely patchwork of agricultural fields, coming into Kirkwall |
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| The Kirkwall Hotel, right opposite the waterfront |
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| Fishing boats in Kirkwall harbour |
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| Some of the little boutiques in Kirkwall are really charming |
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Local designs for sale
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The Earl's Palace, Kirkwall
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The Orkneys are situated only a little below the latitude of Oslo and certainly the light is reminiscent of Norway. Many of the streets and towns are named after significant colonising Vikings and there is a Centre for Nordic Studies in Kirkwall.
There are also some geographic similarities in the meeting of hills with waters and so on.
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| Coastal walk to Earl's Bu and the Round Kirk |
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| View towards the island of Hoy, from Orphir |
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| At the Orkneyinga Saga Centre |
But there the resemblance ends. This is such a tamed landscape - every square inch seemingly cultivated for agricultural purpose, and the architecture is certainly nothing like the vibrant cosiness of Scandinavia where people go to great lengths to make things attractive.
Even the nicer buildings have that Presbyterian austerity, that Calvanist rejection of ornamentation in favour of practicality. Often the only decoration is crowstepped gablets (staircase-like roof embellishments), though they do seem fond of a pepperpot bartizan up here too. You have to work hard to find really attractive architecture, particularly in housing.
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| The Stromness Hotel, built in 1901 (with crowstepped gablets) |
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| Stromness Town Hall, previously the parish church |
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| Kirkwall Town Hall (with pepperpot bartizans AND crowstepped gablets!) |
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| Stone building in the centre of Kirkwall |
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| Kirkwall Council Offices |
A small percentage of the buildings are made from local stone and they are very attractive, but overwhelmingly the external material of choice is *shudder* pebblecrete.
I've come to the conclusion that the dude who invented pebblecrete must have come from Orkney. No doubt it's a very practical material in a cold, salty, wet and windy environment, and we've seen it used elsewhere in Scotland, the UK generally and even Australia. However never with such dedication.
Although some people have made an effort by using bright colours on front doors, planting colourful gardens and adding gabled windows... well, there's still the pebblecrete.
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| Lovely bright green gables and windows trim... but still pebblecrete |
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| Yes, a nice attempt with those nasturtiums but... still pebblecrete |
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Pebblecrete -vs- painted pebblecrete. Hmmm... which looks better?
It's just so difficult... |
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A lovely stone building... with pebblecrete feature wall.
I think the glam gates and ivy are meant to distract you from the UGLY PEBBLECRETE |
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| The local school has done their best to brighten up the dreaded pebblecrete |
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| Stone! Stone! Not pebblecrete! |
Why don't they paint it so that it's a cheery colour? Is there a law? It must be terribly drab in a long, grey winter. Occasionally you see a house which some renegade has painted, no doubt to the annoyance of their neighbours. And then again you see something like the house below, where the owner clearly started off with enthusiasm and then changed their mind.
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Shall we paint the house? Yeah! Let's paint the house!
Nope, I don't like it. It's too 'perky' |
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Good golly, Miss Molly - NOT pebblecrete!
We wondered whether these were some kind of short-lived 1960s social experiment |
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| Aaaah... the more elegant stone houses, sadly in the minority |
One of the biggest attractions of the Orkneys is its incredible wealth of neolithic and viking / mediaeval history.
On the main island alone you can see several examples of standing stones and 'rings', burial mounds, broughs (or 'brochs' - Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structures) and tombs.
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The Standing Stones of Stenness - estimated to date back to 3100BC or even earlier,
making this unfinished 'circle' one of the earliest in Britain.
Would you believe in 1814 the tenant farmer got sick of people crossing his land to visit the stones,
so he knocked one down and tried to blow up another with dynamite! |
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| Remains of the Barnhouse Settlement, adjacent the Standing Stones |
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| Kevin dwarfed by one of standing stones |
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| Skara Brae - the jewel in the crown of the Orkney historic ruins |
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'Bleak House' - real name Skaill House,
with a great view of the ocean and the Skara Brae excavations.
It reminded me of Wuthering Heights |
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| Skaill House |
I somehow overcame my claustrophobia long enough to visit the Tomb of the Eagles, a 5,000 year old chambered tomb - admittance to which involves either crawling on your hands and knees through the very small entrance, or lying down on a board with wheels and pulling yourself into the tomb via a suspended rope. I only managed to stay in there for about 14 seconds before quickly retreating in a blind panic - I shot out of that tomb on my wheelie-board thingy at warp speed.
Kevin was braver, taking the time to explore thoroughly. But even he was slightly rattled by the ghoulish collection of skulls that were dramatically illuminated at the press of an innocent-looking button.
He visited a smaller tomb on another day - and even he found it a little uncomfortable and did not linger.
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The Tomb of the Eagles - those people are contemplating whether they have
the courage to crawl in |
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Skulls from the Neolithic Age.
Is it just me, or are they all having a chuckle at the reaction of the tourists?
[Photo by Kevin Joy] |
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Cuween Hill Cairn - Neolithic (approx 3000BC), near Finstown
[photo by Kevin Joy] |
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The Ring of Brodgar, a stone henge from 3,000BC originally consisting of 60 stones
(only 36 survive) |
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| The Brough of Gurness, yet another beautiful ruin, comparatively recent at 500-200BC |
One afternoon, having exhausted most of the better known attractions on the Orkney mainland, we decided to head to the north-eastern side of the island. The idea was to do a five-mile walk that would lead us along the Deerness coast to a brough, one that isn't promoted on the tourist maps compared to the others. We think we've worked out why.
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| The stunning coastline at Deerness |
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| Towering cliffs and clean, clear water at Deerness |
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| Inside the brough at Deerness - a chapel from the late Norse period (10th century) |
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Kevin about to descend the steep and precarious steps from the brough
back to the mainland at Deerness |
The walk out to the brough itself is amazing with beautiful, rugged coastline. The brough is small but just as fascinating as the larger, more visited sites in the west of the Orkney mainland. Reaching it involved negotiating a fairly steep incline of stone steps, with only a rope to hang onto. Still, we felt it was worth it - particularly as we had the whole thing to ourselves. We spotted one other couple but they decided not to risk it.
After carefully retracing our steps to the main path we set out to continue the circular walk out to Mull Head and back to the car.
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You can just see the little mound of stone on the headland
- the brough we were brave enough to walk out to |
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| Mull Head, just before we lost the trail and wandered into the heather abyss... |
Sadly we lost the path and then spent an hour trudging in open heather bog - boots getting wet, humidity rising as rain clouds approached, midges in great swarms sticking to my sunscreen'd face. I was not a happy camper.
We did not see another soul the entire time.
Thank goodness I still had mobile phone connectivity (Kevin's phone didn't) and with the help of the satellite function on Google Maps we were able to work out which direction to head. We eventually found a fence line and followed that in the general direction of our car.
Thus our 1.5-hour jaunt turned into a 3-hour slog.
Back in 'civilisation' in Kirkwall, we spent a couple of hours wandering through the beautiful St Magnus Cathedral. It was founded in 1137 by the Viking, Earl Rognvald, in honour of his uncle St Magnus.
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The gorgeous St Magnus Cathedral, founded in 1137 and
constructed from yellow and red sandstone |
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The cathedral has many of these tombstones, the skull and crossbones
doing a good job of letting you know what is behind them - even if you can't read latin! |
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| Memorial marker inside the Cathedral - reminiscent of a pub sign! |
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| Statue of St Magnus |
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| I felt compelled to photograph this particular window, as my Dad's name was Einar |
Only about 30 minutes drive from the 'big smoke' of Kirkwall is Orkney's second largest town, Stromness, which we chose to visit twice - such were its charms. Narrow winding streets, funny little houses with oceanside gardens and a bustling harbour.
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The narrow, winding streets of Stromness.
This restaurant specialises in local produce and only opens a couple of nights a week |
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| Harbourside cottage garden in Stromness |
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| Cottages in Stromness |
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'Town House', Stromness
(there are those crowstepped gablets again!) |
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| Cottage in Stromness |
You wouldn't come to the Orkneys for the food - Scottish fare is pretty unadventurous. It's traditionally just meant to fill you up - the specialties tend to be oat cakes (which I love) and other kinds of bready or oaty things. The local delicacies in the Orkneys are the beef and mutton (and obviously I can't comment on those!) and something called crispy cheese which both Kevin and I managed to resist the urge to sample. It's essentially cheese covered in breadcrumb and deep fried. Yerrrk!
But we did sample some excellent local gin and beer, and had a very nice meal one evening at Orkney's best restaurant, The Foveran - delicious food and beautiful views.
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| The view from the terrace, at The Foveran |
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| A glass of prosecco before the meal |
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| At The Foveran |
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Ah! Gorgeous label with Aubrey Beardsley-like art nouveau illustration!
How could I resist a taste? |
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| Kirkjuvagr gin - named after Kirkwall's original Old Norse name |
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| 'Wee oat cakes' :-) |
Everybody else of our acquaintance headed to Spain, Italy, the south of France for their summer holidays. Not us! My objective is always to flee the warm weather. With Orkney's daily maximum temperatures of between 14-20ºC it was the perfect weather for being out walking every day. And it was a relief to be away from the crowded south-east of England for a week.
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A tad windy at Yesnaby
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Kirkwall Harbour Light (1854)
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| An odd combination, I thought! |
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| The beach at Yesnaby |
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| The gorgeous colours of the Orkneys - green grass, blue water, purple heather |
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| A true prizewinner in the 'funny town names' stakes! |
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The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, an uninhabited small island.
It was built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II |
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| Interior of the Italian Chapel |
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| Yesnaby |
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Longaglebe Geo, Birsay
A 200m long inlet where hundreds of birds nest in the cliffs |
Whilst eating dinner in the Kirkwall Hotel one evening we had a mild brush with celebrity. Some of you might be familiar with Neil Oliver, he of the long black hair and swarthy good looks. He has made a number of documentary series for the BBC - A History of Scotland, Vikings and Coast are examples. I couldn't be sure it was him sitting in a large group at one of the tables, but he's very distinctive looking and I was thinking that if it wasn't him, it was his double. A couple of days later his identity was confirmed when we were told he and a crew had been on the island for several weeks, making a new documentary.
So you heard it here first, folks - you can look forward to a new series about The Orkneys!
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| Kevin expressing how he feels about The Orkneys |
Unfortunately we had missed the puffins by a few weeks so I guess we'll have to return one day to see them, and to explore the other islands.
We've been back in the metropolis several days now, but in my head I am still pootling around Orkney in our little hire car with BBC Radio Gaelic on in the background, listening to bagpipe music and the charming lilt of the Gaelic tongue - marvelling at the gorgeousness all around us.
Until next time,
- Maree xo
