The weather was highly variable on Orkney, rain and wind alternating with sun. Every few minutes we ran for the car to hide from the rain and then hoisted ourselves out again when it passed. We saw rainbows constantly, after every storm. During our full day there, we saw about a dozen different rainbows, partial, whole, even a couple of double rainbows. What a place! The rainbows are one of our strongest memories of the trip.I wore one short sleeve and two long sleeve shirts, a hoodie, fleece vest, canvas jacket and my raincoat. I wore rain pants over my jeans. I was glad I had my gloves, wool socks and hiking shoes.

Archaeology was at the top of our sightseeing list, starting with the Stones of Stenness. The remnant of this ring of stones lies at one end of a natural causeway between two lochs (in this case, fresh water lakes) in the center of the Orkney mainland.

Note the rainbow above Jonathan.

It was very cold and rained off and on all day.

Not all the stones are still standing–in the early 1800s, a local farmer was stopped from knocking them all down and breaking them up. All the visitors got in the way of his farming.

Some of the stones are over 20 ft. tall. That small figure by the stone is Jonathan.

Most remarkable about Orkney is the age of these stone circles and villages. Most are 5000 years old, built and used between 3000-2000 BC.

The Stones of Stenness were not the end of the story.

Just down the isthmus that separates these two lochs is the Ring of Brodgar, an even bigger circle of upright stones. It really is the biggest stone circle I’ve ever seen. It started to rain, so we stood in the lee of a tall stone until it passed.

Though the stone circles have been known for centuries, the ancient village that lies right between the two circles was not discovered until 2002. New techniques of geophysical survey allowed archaeologists to see that the ground below the surface was disturbed probably. by human settlement. Excavations go on each summer. There is a detailed view of the houses that been excavated and a dig diary on the Brodgar Ness website (click on the words below this photo from their website):

Ness of Brodgar excavations

Because dig season was over, the site was not available to visit, and is covered with tarp and old tires to protect it….so we went to visit the site of Skara Brae that is open for visitors. It is a beautifully presented Neolithic site, helped along by the fact that household furnishings were built of stone and left behind.                                           These houses were like hobbit homes, partially underground, with roofed passageways among the structures, so that people did not have to go outdoors to get to their neighbors.

The older homes have sleeping areas and storage spaces built into the hillside. (It was made of midden, er, garbage, and might have smelled just a bit. Maybe it was weathered and only smelled like the shore.)

The later houses were larger, with areas for sleeping and storage marked off with stone slabs. You can see there was a large hearth at the center of the house. It was probably smoky, but warm.

The houses each have a “dresser” or set of shelves built across from the main door (on the right in this photo). It’s suggested these were used to store and display household goods.

The visitor center shows some of the objects found at the site, and others are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It’s a very detailed stabilization project, based on excavation was carried out in 1928-1930 by V. Gordon Childe, a highly regarded British archaeologist.

Having met our goal for archaeology, we went to the beach in Birsay to look at birds and picnic looking at the water while it rained and then didn’t rain. The view is stunning, and it’s possible to walk out onto the point at low tide. That will have to be for another trip, and it ought to be in a warmer month.We saw flocks of migrating curlews and lapwings, hundreds in a single flock when we usually see one or two. We made our way back to Kirkwall for a bit of shopping and then on to the hotel and dinner. The next morning we stopped at The Gloup (!) for some birdwatching on the way to the ferry back to the rest of Scotland. Gloup is a Scottish term for a collapsed blowhole and comes from the Norwegian word for a ravine, so its all very sensible–it just sounds silly. I was sorry to have such a short visit on Orkney. I could have spent a week walking along the cliffs and beaches. The day we left was perfect weather, sunny and mild. We rode on the outdoor deck of the ferry all the way back to Gills.

We saved some of the best for last, and after one night in Invergordon after our trip to Skye, we set off for the Orkney Islands. We were advised to check and make sure the ferry was running before leaving home, and found that the first ferry was cancelled due to high winds. The wind and rain was supposed to abate by 1 pm–our ferry was scheduled for 1:30 pm, so we decided to go ahead and go. Part way along we managed to connect with the Pentland Ferries site and found our trip was scheduled to go as scheduled. We left Invergordon a bit early to fit in a scenic detour to the Duncansby stacks, a couple of wildly sculpted rocks just off the lighthouse beyond John O’Groats. It’s possible to hike about 3/4 mile to get close to them, but the wind and rain deterred us.

The ferry was a bit late and the ride a bit bumpy, but we made it safely to Orkney. We saw a flock of eider ducks flying by, and gannets. One seal popped its head out of the water to have a look at us, but no whales.

The ferry leaves from the town of Gills, and lands at St. Margaret’s Hope near the southernmost point of the Orkney mainland. We purchased our tickets online ahead of time (one ticket for each of us and for the car R/T £140). Once on dry land, we worked our way north across the Churchill barriers, causeways built of huge cement blocks that were installed after a battleship was sunk in Scapa Flow, the huge natural harbor here. Despite the great motivation behind the project, it ended up being christened a few days after the war in Europe ended. The Churchill barriers connect two small islands with the mainland. Roads in Orkney were narrow, but in better condition than those we recently experienced on Skye. We stayed at The Foveran “food and rooms,” and had dinner there both nights. It was very comfortable and not far from Kirkwall, convenient if you have a car.

More on the sights on my next post.