After a pretty rough 5 hour ferry from Lerwick on Shetland, we arrived at the port of Kirkwall ready for 2 weeks of island hopping around the beautiful Orkney Islands.
Brough of Birsay - Orkney
It was almost midnight by the time we disembarked so we headed for a park up we had found on P4N that was only a couple of minutes drive from the port and just hunkered down for the night. It turned out to be a pretty great spot with great views over Scapa Beach and harbour.
Using the Scotland Wildguide book and still with a mission of finding more puffins, we headed to the north of the Island to the Brough of Birsay which is a tidal island connected by a causeway that you have to time right with the low tides to get across.
Lucky for us low tide was at 11.30am so we had most of the afternoon to get across and explore. Sadly there were no puffins to be seen but we did have a great walk along the coastal path around the island. There are some pretty impressive cliff formations and little inlets that you can climb down to.
There is also some fantastically preserved viking village ruins that you can wander around which were really interesting. On the same sight there was also the ruins of a monastery built at a later date so it was an excellent start to our Orkney trip.
We decided to stay up at that end of the island as there was so much to explore and after a long picnic lunch and rest in the sun we went to find an area called Skiba Geo that had a sea stack you could walk across to. The coastline was beautiful and it was a really calm afternoon so we had lots of fun taking photos and skimming stones.
We did a circular walk and went back to the van via the small hamlet of Birsay where we had a good look around the ruins of the Earls palace and a Mr Whippy ice cream from the local shop which was very welcome as the temperature was in the 20's!
We really enjoyed our evening with a fab sunset over the island - Richard had a bit of van envy when a canadian couple arrived in their overlander truck 'Rosie' - he also realised after chatting to the couple that as much the truck was beautiful and luxurious - we couldnt even afford the tyres on it - never mind the running costs at about 8mpg!
Yesnaby Castle Sea stack, Brough of Bigging
We spent the next couple of days hiking and exploring a few miles down the coast. We had intentions of visiting Skara Brae but on the first day when we got there, we realised that you needed to prebook tickets and it was absolutely heaving with coach loads of cruise ship tourists.
Instead we went on a hike to find another sea stack that was in the wild guide. The walk along the cliffs at Yesnaby was just incredible - the scenery was stunning. First up was the rugged cliffs and rough seas around the Brough of Bigging. The colour of the sea was delightfully mesmerising.
But that was nothing compared to the sight a 10 minute walk further around the coast when we first caught sight of the Yesnaby Castle sea stack standing at around 30m above the crashing waves around its base. It was magnificent - even more so when we moved further around the cliffs and we caught site of the huge gaping hole through the middle - like the eye of a needle.
It was a bit of a pottering day - we did a short hike to find the Kitchener memorial which was an interesting monument with some of the history of the war.
We ended the day with a walk along Skaill Beach - the skies at this point had turned black and we thought the heavens were going to open on us - but the rain held off. However the wind picked up which made for some pretty dramatic photography by the cliffs - sometimes you need a little wildness to make the scenery more interesting. In sharp contrast - as we walked back along the beach 30 minutes later - the wind dropped, the skies cleared and we played around doing handstands with blue skies and calm waves as a backdrop!!
Skara Brae
Being more prepared, we booked the first tickets available the next day in a bid to beat the cruise ship crowds. Being an ex primary school year 3 teacher - I had spent years teaching the children about Skara Brae and the neolithic history so this was something I had really been looking forward to. It did not diappoint!
Something we both really liked was the historical timeline from the entrance gate by the main buildings to the actual ruins a few hundred meters away which really help put into perspective just how old Skara Brae is. The Egyptian Pyramids were only about half way along the time line!
The ruins are incredibly well preserved and there is so much information available around the site as well as audio information so you get a real sense of what you are looking at.
Twatt Royal Navy Air station
The only reason we visited the abandoned air field was Richards childishness to get a photo with the sign - but actually it was amazing! Built just for the war years there are abandoned air raid tunnels and buildings of all sorts to explore - and he got his photo...
There were a couple of other stops on our little tour that day. We came across Kirbuster Farm museum which had a very interesting and well preserved farm which provided a great insight into Orkadian farming and culture in the 19th century.
We also had to have a stop off at the Orkney Brewery for a sample of their beers😉
Point of Ness Campsite
We spent a night on the Point of Ness Campsite to have a good scrub and top up all our electrics before we set off island hopping to Hoy. It is in a great location to walk into Stromness but we preffered to sit on the sea walls and enjoy a nice bottle of wine as it was a Saturday night. If you are lucky enough both otters and orcas have been spotted around this part of the coast, we were not... but we did get a spectacular sunset.
Island of Hoy
Most of the Orkney Islands are pretty flat and rural but you can spot the magnificent hills on Hoy from miles away. It's only a short ferry trip across but you do need to be organised in peak season as the ferry only takes about 12 vehicles at a time - luckily we had been warned and had prebooked.
We spent a fantastic 48 hours on Hoy, hiking to the Old man sea stack, visiting the Scapa Flow museum and generally exploring the island which was just beautiful.
We based ourselves on the north of the island for the 2 nights as there is a park up that allows you to stay for up to 7 days and it has a couple of toilets - so a bonus for us. It is by the shores of Rackwick Bay which would not look out of place in Iceland or Norway with its steep sheer cliffs and rocky beach. There is a bothy by the beach that allows hikers to stop over in the walled garden which had several hikers and an interesting group of marine biologists who were doing some research on the sea grass.
The boulders on the beach were huge - I likened them to dinosaur eggs as they were rounded and a rainbow of colours. We spent hours just hopping along them and playing on the white sandy beach.
We did have another encounter with the scottish midge on our second night on Hoy. The wind had dropped and there was a beautiful sunset. We walked down towards the beach to get some photos but quickly retreated back to the van as they literally swarmed around us.
The Old Man of Hoy can be reached by a 5km round trip hike which was well worth the effort - not for the faint hearted who are afraid of heights.
Richard enjoyed the history of the Scapa flow museum and we both found the old life boat station interesting - Richard could indulge himeself in a childhood dream of getting right into the bowels of the life boat and have a good look around.
If you have made it all the way up to the Orkney Islands then we would definitely recommend hopping across to Hoy.
Back on the mainland for less than 24 hours we decided to go for a bit more history and visited the Stenness Standing Stones and stone circles which were pretty incredible - how did they move such huge structures before machines were invented?
In next weeks blog we visit the islands of Westray and Papa Westray before our final few days of the week trip on the mainland.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard
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