In this weeks blog we island hop across to Westray and Papa Westray before returning to the mainland for the most spectacular night with nature putting on quite the show. After an evening of the most vivid sunset I have ever encountered we were treated to a show of the northern lights in August on the Orkney islands!
Westray
There are so many islands that we wanted to visit on our trip to Orkney but time was limited so we chose a trip to the island of Westray as it is renowned for having one of the best puffin colonies and for its easy access to the tiny island of Papa Westray.
The ferries are very popular in the summer months and we had to be organised and book in advance. It is about a one and a half hours crossing and has a capacity of no more than 20 vehicles. It is a really pretty journey through the islands and we were lucky to have a calm crossing as the weather forecast was not great.
We decided to stay at Chalmersquoy campsite in the village of Pierowall for the 48 hours on the island so we could use it as a base to explore. It was a fab campsite with a community kitchen area which was great for socialising with the other campers. We met some really interesting cycle tourers from the Netherlands and some other campervan travellers.
The village of Pierowall is quite spread out with a couple of lovely shops and a small harbour. We decided to chance our luck and go for a walk to explore what was around us.... The heavens opened and we were absolutely drenched by the time we got back.
We visited the puffin colony at Castle O Burrian with little expectations as we were now in early August and they have usually returned back to sea for the winter. WOW - they were still there in their thousands. The 'castle' is a sea stack about 20m out to from the cliffs and the top of the stack was just a carpet of dancing puffins that kept popping in and out of their burrows and flying out to sea and back.
We sat on the cliffs where there were also several burrows and puffins hopping about smiling as we listened to them groan and chatter away to each other. Again, they are totally unbothered by humans and would fly within a metre or 2 of us. It was such a lovely and unexpected treat which made my day.
We have spotted several pieces of artwork by GillyB that we loved on Shetland and we gave into tempatation when we spotted a gorgeous print of Pierowall harbour that would fit in one of the panoramic oak frames that Richards dad had made for us - it must have been fate and it looks wonderful on the wall in our cottage.
Papa Westray
Any one who visits Westray has to make the short hop over to Papa Westray. Had we been more prepared and researched more before our trip we would have been tempted to try and book the worlds shortest scheduled flight which is about 60 seconds or even to fly over from Kirkwall. But we weren't organised and instead took the tiny foot passenger ferry with a capacity of 12 people across which was also an experience.
The small island was such a fantastic place - being foot passengers we braced ourselves for a big day of walking and had clocked up over 12km by the time we returned to the ferry. First we headed north along the coastal path to the neolithic ruins of the Knap of Howar - carbon dated to be older than Skara Brae and the fact that we had them to ourselves and could get right into the ruins to explore them was priceless. They were incredibly well preserved.
Next up was a small farm museum that was full of interesting artefacts and information before we reached the 'airport' which was closed for the morning!
The beaches on Papa Westray are outstandingly beautiful - we walked back to the harbour along the coastal path on the east side of the island. It was a fabulous day - we were lucky with the weather and also to get a crossing as the locals were all preparing for a wedding that afternoon.
On our crossing back there were just 2 locals, us and the ferry captain and it was really interesting chatting with them all. The island is bracing itself for a bit of an influx of visitors after the release of the book 'The Outrun' by Amy Liptrot which has been made into a film released this month. The book was written on Amy's return to the island after living in London and is on my list of books to read.
The Orkney County Show
The talk of the islands for weeks had been the upcoming county show on the mainland. Having grown up with a tradition of going to the local county shows we decided to pay it a visit. It was a fab day out (even though the weather tried its hardest to spoil it with wild winds and the odd showers).
I loved the sheep, particularly the magnificent one year old black nosed swiss valais who was all freshly washed and groomed. Richard was taken with the cows. There was a lovely family atmosphere and people had travelled from far and wide to get there. The ferries had changed their schedules to ensure people could make it from all the islands for the day.
Brough of Deerness
From Kirkwall we headed over to the Deerness Peninsula and explored the cliffs and geological features such as the Gloup - a ginormous collapsed sea cave. It was a really interesting landscape with a great visitors centre packed with information on the area.
South Ronaldsay and the Churchill barriers
Richard, ever the historian, was keen to cross over the Churchill Barriers to get down to the island of South Ronaldsay. The barriers were constructed during WW2 on the orders of Sir Winston Churchill as a way of protecting the navy fleet based in the Scapa Flow.
It was constructed by Balfour Beattie using Italian prisoners of war as a means of stopping any enemy submarines and ships from entering the area. Interestingly there are still the wrecks of ships that were purposely sunk that can be seen either side of the barriers - these were deterants whilst the construction took place.
We also paid a quick visit to the ornate Italian Chapel also built by the prisoners from scavenged materials.
We really enjoyed exploring the island starting off at the picturesque fishing village of St Margaret's Hope. The quaint streets are lined with fishermens crofts, small craft shops and the odd cafe. It is also one of the landing points for ferries from mainland Scotland to Orkney so can be quite busy if you arrive at the wrongtime!!
We drove all the way down the island to the tiny Burwick ferry terminal where there is a ferry route to John O Groats. The views were pretty from the picnic point and I enjoyed a little bit of photography using the dozens of concrete blocks that were used to reinforce construct the harbour area.
Wheems Organic Farm Campsite
We spent the night at the quirky Wheems Organic Farm Campsite which was pretty cool. It is a small campsite with a few shepherds huts and pods - it is very popular for cycle tourists and is one of a few official places for tent camping on Orkney.
The owners were lovely and very helpful. They have only recently taken over the farm and have been slowly upgrading some of the facilities but we loved the ethos that all the work is done using recycled materials. There is a small kitcen area and a community room which was packed out with families enjoying time together playing board games and using the dining area to eat together. This is something that we really like to see on campsites and again it was a great place to get chatting to fellow travellers.
A few bonuses for us on the campsite - highland cows, campsite cats and a very friendly and nosy chicken!
There is a lovely beach area about a 20 minute walk or 5 minute drive down the road, sadly the weather was not great the day we were there but I can see it being a great base for a family holiday.
Broch of Gurness
For our last couple of nights on the islands we headed north again to the Broch of Gurness and Evie Beach at Aikerness Bay. Another stunningly beautiful area. The weather was still not great when we arrived and we had a very stormy walk along the beach - it didn't rain but you could see the storm clouds developing over the land and the small breaks in the cloud through which the rays of light streamed made it quite an eerie afternoon.
This was just the start of the spectacular clouds and skies for the next 24 hours. The sunset that night was just incedible - the most vivid orange skies we have ever seen - it was like the sky was on fire for a good 30 minutes! We had the most beautiful evening watching the last sun light rays disappear through the cracks in the ancient broch.
We had been tipped off by a subscriber that there was the possibility of the Northern Lights making an appearance that night. Having mentioned this to a fellow traveller in a motorhome next to us - he knocked on our door at 2am to wake us up.
Over the past year we have seen the northern lights a couple of times but nothing like this. Even to the naked eye we could see a white/pale green light that was flickering and dancing around above us. As soon as you put your camera up to the sky - the colours popped to a vivid green and purple light show that carried on for nearly and hour. We took lots of photo's with our Iphones but it is hard to keep it still enough for the long exposure to come out clearly. It is another night that we will remember for decades to come.
Ness of Brodgar
We had passed the archaeological dig a few times over the 2 weeks on Orkney and had not fully taken in the significance of the site until talking to various locals and travellers. After realising that there were only 3 days of the dig left before the whole site is filled in again to protect it from the elements, we decided we definitely needed to go.
It was absolutely fascinating and historically even more significant than Skara Brae with several building being excavated uncovering multiple era dwellings. We have found this whole corridor of mainland Orkney to be full of history with so many sites to explore.
We also stopped off at the Unstan Chambered Cairn which made for an interesting little detour.
Waulkmill Bay
Many of the places mentioned in the last few blogs we have found using the Scotland Wildguide book and Waulkmill bay was another place listed. We stopped off for a walk there on our way back to Stromness. It is a huge tidal bay that was absolutely littered with jellyfish of all shapes, colours and sizes. We timed it well as we walked along the cliff tops and down onto the beach before the tide came in and cut off access to the path. It was really pretty with the moors of purple heathers contrasted against the pale blue waters and white sands.
Stromness
Our last night was spent back at the Point of Ness Campsite. The weather forcast was pretty horrendous for the next 24 hours with winds forecast of upto 55mph. We got set up on our pitch with no pop top roof or outside windscreen covers, then went for a walk into Stromness.
What a pretty, quiant little harbour town. It is the main port for the ferries across from both mainland Scotland and from Shetland but unlike Kirkwall and Lerwick it still retains it small town feel. There are plenty of little boutique shops and cafes to choose from and lots of little harbour front properties that looked idyllic places to live.
Riding our luck with the weather we continued our walk back past the campsite and around the coastal path where you can get amazing views across to Hoy and there are several WW2 batteries to explore.
We came across something we had never seen before. A young lad working for royal mail was setting up a huge drone to send off delivering the post to the remote islands. They have a launching point by the golf course to send the drone across to Hoy, saving the postman having to get the ferry across every day! Modern technology that completely fried our brains!
The storm picked up with it's full force and verocity by about 8pm - I would not have liked to be sleeping in a tent that night. The van was buffeted and shook by the howling winds for a good few hours but luckily by the time we woke up in the morning the storm had passed and our ferry crossing back to mainland was pretty uneventful. We stayed on the deck for most of the journey as it went past the old man of Hoy which was impressive even from the sea.
Originally - we were planning on taking a couple of days to travel back to the Dales but with a forecast for torrential rain across the country the next day we decided to just take the hit and drive home that day. 9 hours of driving!
A few facts about the trip
We spent 28 nights on the islands in total, split equally with 2 weeks on the Shetland Islands and 2 on the Orkney Islands.
We went on a total of 15 ferries to 9 different Islands
Ferries from Aberdeen to Lerwick (Shetland), Lerwick to Kirkwall (Orkney) and Stromness to Scrabster (mainland Scotland) including a cabin on the 12 hour overnight ferry - £610
Inter island ferries - total £134.20
We drove a total of just under 1500 miles.
If you time the trip right puffins are everywhere!
We were really sad to finally get to the end of the trip - we have been so lucky with the weather. Orkney was much more windy at the time we were there than Shetland but the rain held off for most of the trip. We have absolutely loved discovering this new part of Great Britain and hope that we can return one day as there is still so much to see.
I have put a link in below to our latest Orkney YouTube video.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard
Comments