Thurso to Glasgow

We left Thurso on the 8:30 am train to Glasgow, a 7- hour,  276 mile ride that required two train changes. The leg that ended in Inverness was uncrowded and new to our eyes. Snapping photos through the train window while hurdling through space was giggle inducing for us old Americans.





The trains from Inverness to Glasgow were crowded and we faced backward so photos were really challenging. 

I finally took a photo in our luxurious hotel room. We were mysteriously upgraded to a corner suite on the 6th floor and it was very nice, except for the dirty windows. 


 

Tomorrow we head to the airport for the Covid test and then board the plane for home. Not certain how I feel as these days away have been refreshing and restful. Eager to be home and see what's happening in the garden, and whether Cat stuck around. Less eager to return to work. Ah well, I still have a few days to get my mojo back. 


Sanday to Thurso

We began the 2-day trip back to Glasgow today, and the day started with a setting moon, glorious sunrise, friendly chicken farmer at the ferry and smooth sailing to Kirkwall.

The tweed hatted farmer was on his way to Mainland for new poultry stock as he supplies Sanday with most of its eggs. The global avian flu pandemic has touched this Sanday farmer, and he is trying to bolster the health of his flock.


The Byre at Ayres Rock Hostel on Sanday.


We turned in our trusty rental car at Kirkwall. What a lifesaver this vehicle has been for us, hauling provision and treasure, shelter from the wind, transport to remote sites. Before turning it in, we filled it up. This price equates to $5.60 per gallon. 


We chatted with a professional vagabond at the bus stand while waiting for our ride to Stromness. He is retired and dog sits for people across the globe. He also attends music and dance festivals and competes in swing dance competitions. So many ways to live a life.


Stromness is an old town with "a shambles" like main street full of pedestrians, cars, homes and businesses. The streets were wide enough for one car, so when one approached, we had to duck into a shop dorway or close or alley to save our lives!



I took the photo above as the street name interested me; the flag flying in the back is the flag of Orkney.

We eventually boarded the Northlink ferry to Scrabster on mainland Scotland. Compared to the ferries we've been on, this one is a cruise ship! Cushy seats, restaurant and bar, gift shop, kids' play area. 

A view of Stromness as we left the pier.


We sailed around the western edge of  the Isle of Hoy. One of its famous attractions is the Old Man of Hoy, a sandstone sea stack.




The ferry arrived in Scrabster and we had to scramble to find a ride / taxi / bus into Thurso a few miles away. As luck would have it, a family with three children had been on the same travel path as us since the Sanday ferry. They were able to arrange a taxi, but it would only carry four of them, so we  hailed the single passing cab and shared it with the mom.

Today was full of these extraordinary encounters; I always enjoy chance meetings of this kind and the opportunity to glean shared experience with another.

Orkney - Isle of Sanday 2

This last true day of vacation was gloriously sunny and full of white sand beaches, blue ocean and skies and the firecracker shots of rocks rolling in the surf.

Whitemill Beach is in the northern part of Sanday. The color is astounding. If I didn't know it was a bit cool, I would think this is in the tropics.



Not the tropics for certain!


The color!


Cata Sands and Tressness in the east. We only made it about halfway of the six mile walk.




Stark Lighthouse in the northeast. It is possible to walk to the lighthouse at low tide; we elected to not do this after last evening's tramp to the Holms of Ire. You can see the tidal race between the mainland and the lighthouse. Another beautiful white beach leads to the lighthouse.




After this we went back to Bill MacArthur's studio for a chat and to settle our bill for the seascape paintings and shipping.

Sanday has been a treat. With 530 residents on an island with 98 square miles of land this place has been welcoming and full of surprise. We stayed at a hostel which was once a byre (attached cowshed) to an old farmhouse.


We brought food with us from Kirkwall to prepare in the hostel kitchen. We found this wasn't necessary as there is a well-stocked store on the island. Regular restaurant and pub hours, however, do not exist, and I fear some establishments did not make it through the pandemic.

Orkney - Isle of Sanday 1

We headed for our last island on the early ferry. The day started rainy and cold in Kirwall, so the ferry ride seemed a bit "swayish" to me, with the ferry tipping and dipping its way north.

Sanday is aptly named as this island features white sand beaches, sand dunes, sand spits, sand roads, and all things sand. Our first adventure was to the studio of artist Bill MacArthur on the Norwa', the last point of inhabitation on Sanday, where we gabbed with the artists and purchased orignal art work to be shipped home.

Then, you guessed it, Quoyness Chambered Cairn, our last cairn on the trip. The walk out to Elsness Peninsula was glorious with curious seals keeping us company the whole way.




After lunch and a quick stop at the Sinclair Shop for supplies we headed northwest to the Holms of Ire. There are two Holms that reach out into the ocean, accessible when the tide is low. We ambled across a farmer's pasture and visited with the Shetland ponies, then scurried across a rock strewn "beach" to the farthest holm. The sun was out, the sea spectacular, the sky blue, the wind blowing away the care and cobwebs of the last few years.



Each Holm featured a monument cairn except the last, so I built one. You can see mine in the foreground the the other two in the far distance.


Orkney - Day 7

We planned to attend Easter services at St. Magnus Cathedral this morning; however, the Covid-19 restrictions in place (proof of vaxx, contract tracing info, limited to the first 100 people)  seemed too onerous so we drove up to the Broch of Gurness instead.

Yesterday on Rousay we visited Midhowe; just across Eyenhallow Sound sits Gurness. This broch is different in that it includes the village of houses and workshops that surrounded the broch, the defensive ditches, and a Pict dwelling.




It was strangely eery to walk the passageways of the village, step into the houses of people who once inhabited the space. The stones are all covered in white - calcium or lichen? - and the whole space resembles a graveyard.



After a stroll across the bay to another broch site, this one disturbed by farming, we headed back into Kirkwall and a tour of St. Magnus Cathedral.





I'm not certain what happened to the stained glass window for St. James the Elder - with all the amazing colored windows his stark colorless window certainly stands out.



Orkney - The Isle of Rousay

 

Happy Easter 2022! We met this pair in a churchyard near Midhowe Broch  on Rousay yesterday. The little one was still wobbly kneed.

For all the churches closed on Friday, it was a strange contrast Saturday that all the Neolithic sites were open. I suppose not so many people enjoy crawling around in burial cairns, or perhaps, they are simply better cared for because so many people DO like crawling around in them!

We visited four Neolithic Stalled Cairns on Rousay, all of which were accessible. They are stunning examples of the ingenuity, creativity and drive alive in humans since the dawn of time. All the cairns were constructed 3,500 years ago and consisted of "stalls" where bodies were laid, ashes were placed and bones collected over the millennia, a testament to the honor and care of ancestors and deceased.

Some photos:




These cairns were capped with concrete roofs containing sky lights. While this preserves the stone building, it also promotes the growth of alga and lichen in the damp and sunlight.




Beautiful resting place; the fog was low and the walks misty.



Most of the day was spent at Midhowe Chambered Cairn, Midhowe Broch, Midhowe Farm, St. Mary's Church, Viking farm ruins and an 18th century farm ruins.

Midhowe Cairn is known as The Great Ship of Death. Covered by a hangar, the site has catwalks so that tourists can view the chambers and experience the magnitude of the site.




The Broch constructed in about 1100 by the farmer who worked the fields here. Perhaps Sigurd from the Orkneyinga Sagas.


As the walls of the broch began to slide, heavy slabs were set against the slipping wall - on the left - as buttresses.



The entire seascape around the broch is this slabbed stone, clay laid down in the seabed of the great Orcadian Sea in the Devonian Period, similar to our own Lake Bonneville.


We didn't make it to Eynehallow, the mysterious disappearing island. Here is video of the tidal race between Rousay and Eynehallow.


Midhowe Farm, perhaps farmed by Sigurd.


St. Mary's Church, desperately close to falling into the sea, the site of the lamb birthing.


Skaill Farm with an excavation of a possible Viking Long House in the front.


An example of a bere kiln, typical of all Orkney farms of the period. Bere is a form of multi-row barley which had to be dried in order to perserve it for porridge, bread and brewing.


We drove out to the Shop on Rousay for souvenirs; it is closed on Saturdays.