Visitors!

On 14th August our son, Dan and his girlfriend, Andrea made the long journey to spend a week with us on Orkney.
They took the overnight train from London and then the ferry from mainland Scotland.  And, importantly, they brought a car with them (borrowed from Andrea's Scottish grandfather).

So we were properly mobile and since the weather was rather blowy, we spent most of the week travelling round the Orkney sights by car.

Dan and Andrea with us at The Ring of Brodgar

We repeated some of the places we'd liked best from previous visits but added these:

The Tomb of the Eagles, South Ronaldsay

Maeshowe Tomb - no inside photos were allowed :(

Maeshowe was said to be 5000 years old (like all the other Neolithic sites we visited) however the stonework was far superior to the other tombs and the space inside was tall and much larger.  We wondered if this was really the same age at those others...?

The Brough of Birsay
 This Brough dated from 1100 and was a group of houses clustered round a defensive tower where you could hide if under attack.  Birsay is an island with a causeway to it, covered at high tide.  So it was better defended than most Broughs.

The Brough of Gurness
 Another Brough (pronounced Brock) but this time, from the Iron Age ~ year 700.  They are all located close to the coast to give a good view of any invaders in ships.


Whisky Stills at Highland Park Distillery, Kirkwall

We had to include a tour round this very old distillery founded in 1798, so far north in the UK!

Dan and Andrea on the foredeck of Rapport
We did manage one day out at sea to visit Lyness again but unfortunately there was not much wind!

Ness Battery Tour
We had a very interesting tour of the Ness gun battery that guarded the western entrance to the great naval harbour of Scapa Flow.  They never had to fire their guns in anger but they did fire some shells in front of a ferry during World War 2 to stop them passing into a group of mines that the German planes had just dropped!

Come The Three Corners Of The World In Ships And We Will Sink Them
This is from a similar line in William Shakespear's play, King John.  It was written inside the mess for the gunners at the battery.



Arctic Skua or Bonxie as they are known here
These are generally regarded as "thugs of the sea" because they steal food from other birds as well as eating their chicks.  But they are also rather fine to look at and we enjoyed watching them.


Goodbye to Dan and Andrea
Our time in the Orkneys is now up and we must head south before Autumn cold and strong winds catch us.

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