On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
There will be one last Scotland post from Albatrossity next week, and then it’s goodbye to Scotland for awhile. I have grown fond of Scotland, so I figured advance warning for everyone might be good. ~WaterGirl
Albatrossity in Scotland
The Orkneys are a group of small islands north of Scotland proper, and are the site of many archeological treasures from the Neolithic age, some of which are 5000 years old. See here for lots more information. Intriguingly, the largest and most populous island is called Mainland, and that is where the ferry from Scotland (which is also on an island and not the mainland) dropped us off. We only visited sites on Mainland, since we only had two days there, but those were two very full days. I’d love to spend a month there, although, given the northerly location (59 degrees north, the Arctic Circle is approximately 66 degrees north), it would preferably not be in the winter!
This cheerful and personalized sign greeted us as we headed from the ferry terminal to Kirkwall, the largest metropolitan area in the archipelago. I hope that they do this for every visitor!
Kirkwall is the administrative center of Orkney, and the population was about 9,000 at the time of our visit in 2008. The harbor (and another famous harbor to the south of Mainland, Scapa Flow) is mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga (History of the Earls of Orkney, dating to 1046). We spent some time wandering along the breakwater in the harbor, and found these darling young Common Eiders resting there. Momma Eider was not very far away.
Another cool bird along the breakwater was this Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), which looks a lot like the American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus), which is found on the east and west coasts of North America. Since this is the only Oystercatcher in Europe, it is of course “The” Oystercatcher to European birders.
Some of the major attractions of Orkney are the standing stone circles, including this one, which may be the oldest stone circle in Britain. Dating back 5000 years, the Standing Stones of Stenness are, like the stones at Callanish, open to the public and you can walk around amongst these monoliths. Be mindful of the potential for stepping in sheep poop, however!
The other big stone circle is the Ring of Brodgar, not very far from the Stenness stones. This is a large circle, 27 of the original 60 stones are still standing (or have been re-erected in their original sockets). Here’s one of them with a view of one of the nearby lochs. If you are interested in learning more about this site, check out this informative link.
The strangest place on Mainland Orkney is a Neolithic village, Skara Brae. It brings home the “lithic” part of the age; not just the house walls but the beds and even some furniture are all made of stones. Here’s one of the houses; those two smaller areas on either side of the main room are sleeping areas, with stone headboards and side-rails. I half expected to see Fred and Wilma Flintstone popping in for a visit.
Exploring the island the next day, we found this spotted pony. It was not as trusting as the white horses of the Camargue…
The ferry trip back to Scotland a couple of days later was bright and gorgeous, allowing great looks at this tall sea stack near one of the other islands. That island is Hoy (high), and the stack is known as the Old Man of Hoy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Wow, a personalized greeting, guessing they don’t get a whole lot of visitors. //
evap
Thanks once again for the beautiful pictures. I was on Orkney in June of 1981, part of a month-long trip around Britain. What I remember most about this trip is the incredibly long days, it never really got completely dark. There were people out on the golf course at 10 pm!
oatler.
Vashti Bunyan recounted that she and her partner were emphatically NOT welcome there circa 1970 when they tried to set up housekeeping.
Z. Mulls
This is my dream destination. I almost went this past Summer but had canceled my plans due to finances, even before the pandemic hit. This is where I will go the year after things start to be safe again.
Sab
How timely these are. I just finished reading Dorothy Dunnetts “King Herafter” about 11th century Earl of Orkney Thorfinn Sigurdson.
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
Nice. We’re planning a visit during the summer of 2022 and we’ve just begun our research and this is a definite look-see. One conclusion we’ve come to is we’ve ruled out eating Haggis.
Albatrossity
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: Haggis is worth tasting just so that you can say you did. I tried it, and I probably wouldn’t add it to my recipe files, but it was okay, and now I know what it tastes like!
tom
I’ve been to Scotland three times, mostly the Hebrides, Glasgow, and Edinburgh (which is a lovely city). I love the country, and very much want to visit the Orkneys and Shetlands.
Haggis is surprisingly good, and I eat it each trip there.
Z. Mulls
@Sab That is exactly why I want to visit! I read KING HEREAFTER years ago and I don’t want to re-read it until I’m on the ground in the Orkneys, to really be able to picture the landscape :-)
arrieve
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: I actually like haggis — it tastes kind of like sausage, and goes nicely with eggs on a breakfast buffet. Black pudding on the other hand….just yuck.
This is one of my dream destinations when we can leave home again. Gorgeous pictures as always. Thank you, Albatrossity!
cope
I came for the geology and stayed for the climbing history.
The BBC famously broadcast the second ascent of the Old Man of Hoy over a weekend in July of 1967. The climbers included a veritable “who’s who” of climbing greats: Chris Bonington (later of Everest fame) and Tom Patey climbed the previously put up route on the East face while Joe Brown, Pete Crew, Dougal Haston and Ian McNaught Davis made a first ascent of the South Face. The camera crew included some top notch climbers as well including Ian Clough, Hamish McInnes, Rusty Baillie and George Wagland.
I still have a bunch of climbing gear I bought in Joe Brown’s climbing shop in Llanberis, North Wales the summer I did a bunch of climbing around there. I frequented the shop in hopes of seeing Joe himself but to no avail. By coincidence, I was going thru an old flash drive over the weekend and came across scans of slides from that summer (1971) and a bunch of the climbing routes I did in that area. I thought the scans had been lost so it was a wonderful surprise. Lesson: check those old storage devices!
Thanks for the great pictures and the memories.
Lapassionara
These are wonderful. I visited Orkney in June, 2008. It was amazing, and I would go back for sure. If I recall correctly, this was part of Denmark, but became Scottish when the King of Denmark pledged it as surety for his daughter’s dowery, then did not pay the promised amount. Again, thank you for the lovely photos.
J R in WV
I really want to visit a lot of standing stones in England, Scotland, Brittany, etc. Plus the rest of the neolithic ancient stuff, tombs, villages, etc.
I have to believe that those stone sleeping areas were filled with furs…
JanieM
These are so beautiful…the landscape is haunting, and haunted. Anne Cleeves’s Shetland mysteries (the books; I haven’t seen the films) made me want very badly to visit the Scottish islands, though I’m bemused that a landscape without trees is so attractive to this tree-lover. (Me.) Maybe someday I’ll get there. My list is getting longer and longer….
*****
@cope:
Ha ha, glad to see someone else loses track of old stuff. I’ve been surprised more than once when going through piles in the attic (or wherever) to find that something I’d forgotten all about was actually still in my possession, and worth revisiting, or even treasuring.
Albatrossity
@J R in WV: Dunno what furs would have been available in that landscape 5000 years ago. Most of the middens there are filled with shells and fishbones, indicating that seafood was a large part of the diet. But I suppose there were some deer or maybe seal skins available.
Albatrossity
@Lapassionara: Not Denmark, but Norway. But yes, it was a dowry gift.
Walker
I did a hike through Orkney during my college years. The other great feature there (after Skara Brae) is Maeshowe. It was sacked by Vikings in the 1200s and they left some colorful graffiti on the inside about their sexual exploits.
WaterGirl
@Lapassionara: Wondering if you got the email message I sent you a couple of weeks ago.
Albatrossity
@Walker: Yes, we visited Maeshowe as well. I left my camera in the car for that tour, since it is dark in there and flash was not allowed. And yes, the guide pointed out the Viking graffiti to all of us.
The other cool thing about that tomb is that, at sunset on the winter solstice, the setting sun’s light travels down a very long entryway to illuminate the back wall of the inner tomb. There used to be a webcam that you could view to watch that happen in real time, but it went black last year and has not been reactivated (lack of funding). More information about that place is here.
Mike in NC
We visited the Orkneys on our Viking British Isles Explorer cruise in July/August 2019. Always wanted to see Scapa Flow, the giant Royal Navy anchorage of WW1 and WW2. The Shetland Islands were also very cool.
pat
So everything was built of stones because there were no trees?
I am constantly amazed at the weird places our species has inhabited and how they have managed to live!
Igloos, anyone?
Albatrossity
@J R in WV: Actually, I misremembered what they told us about the diet. Apparently the folks at Skara Brae kept sheep and cattle, which made up a large part of their diet as well!
stinger
Great photos of a fascinating place. I’ve only been to Edinburgh, no farther north, and would love to see the islands some day.
Miss Bianca
@arrieve: Well, I’m weird because I like both haggis *and* black pudding. Just not enough to try making them myself stateside. ; )
Origuy
I’m dying to go to Orkney and see the prehistoric sites. They’ve made a lot of discoveries in the last few years and archaeology is one of my passions.
I’ll get around to sending some of my photos of the southern Isles, Mull, Staffa, and Iona
ETA: I love haggis. I had it several times, most notably in an inn in Alloa, which had Chicken Balmoral, chicken breast stuffed with haggis in a whisky sauce.
Lapassionara
@WaterGirl: I did not. Can you send again? I had a few days where my account was not working.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Sab: I was going to mention “King Hereafter”! Longtime Dunnett fan, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it yet.
And our trip to Orkney scheduled for June 2021 has officially been cancelled due to COVID-related uncertainty. I’m so sad.
@Z. Mulls: Hi! Now that the Dunnett lists are gone, I don’t see the old familiar nyms around the ‘net anymore.