Scotland Day 5 - Orkney tour

Anti-Uboat causeway

 

Today we toured the main island of Orkney. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, the Orkney archipelago is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall. This is the island we're touring today.

Our regular tour bus stayed "home" after delivering us to the ferry. On Orkney we boarded a different bus for the day, new driver too. The new bus was a nice change, with a bit more seat room and better visibility for us out the front. 

A bit of mist early on today

Lots of interesting ships in the Orkney harbour

We weren't the only walk-on passengers, but were the main group

Our first stop was at the Standing Stones of Stenness. These monolith stones are very old, predating Stonehenge even. Unlike Stonehenge, tourists are allowed free access to the Stenness stones. There is some controversy about the stones.

<Stenness Stones link>

Larger than they look from a distance

After the  visit to Stenness we stopped at the Skara Brae site. More ancient history, well described in the 4-minute video in this link:

<Skara Brae history link>

It was a misty windy day by this time. The weather added to the sense of history at the site, as these ruins were uncovered by storm action in relatively recent times:

Here's a short video to give a sense of the day. Apologies for the wind noise:

Not sure what breed of sheep these are

The furniture was likely padded with sheepskins or similar, I hope

After a very full morning of tours, we went on to Kirkwall where we had free time and could pick up some lunch. This time we selected a couple of sausage rolls and some Urn Bru (a Scottish soft drink).

Cathie found a wool shop (of course) and purchased some special yarn she wanted. We watch the periodic Youtube videos of a couple named Auskerry who have lived on the small island of Auskerry for 50 years or more, raising their 4 children there. They maintain a herd of rare seaweed-eating sheep, and the wool from those sheep is their main source of income. The Auskerry couple are the only residents of Auskerry island, now that their kids have grown and moved on. Their children come back to visit and help out though; one son has videography skills, and creates the Youtube videos each summer. 

Another beautiful cathedral, in Kirkwall this time

Here is a link to some of the cathedral history. Construction of this amazing building started in 1137!    <St Magnus Cathedral link>

The wool shop was right across the street from the cathedral.

 

After a walking tour of the village, we treated ourselves to some of the self-proclaimed "world's best ice cream" in a small shop. It was yummy:

An informative sign posted at the bus terminal where we loaded on to our tour bus again. The numbers shown are UK Pounds, each about $1.85 Canadian. I guess all these smoke-free years have helped us afford a trip like this eh. :))

From Kirkwall we moved on to the Italian Chapel. This place has a fascinating history, being largely built by Italian prisoners-of-war.

<link to the history>

A local guide took us through a lot of the history, which dates back to World War2. In spite of the roots in war, the story is very  uplifting.

Looks like a sturdy building

You can see part of the original quonset hut here

 

The church building started from an obsolete military quonset hut. The Italian POWs figured out how to make concrete to dress up the structure, and some of the interior, which was finished with painted paper. As you might imagine, civilian building supplies were scarce at that time:

 

The prisoners initially worked on the construction of the Churchill Barriers, causeways designed to seal off the four eastern entrances to the naval base at Scapa Flow.

"A German submarine had used the northern-most channel to gain entry into Scapa Flow and sink the old battleship HMS Royal Oak. Winston Churchill, who at that time was First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered the eastern channels to be blocked permanently."

The causeways were to replace the old ships that had been scuttled in these channels to prevent German U-boats from entering Scapa Flow. Too late for the 834 men and boys who died on HMS Royal Oak when the ship was sunk on 14th October 1939. You can still see remnants of these old blocking ships, poking above the surface:

Then it was time to board the bus and head for the ferry home, with more coastal scenery along the way on this fine afternoon:

Back at our hotel for the second night, our group took over one of the dining areas. There was room enough to be treated to some before-dinner entertainment, a young Scottish piper and several dancers. This was arranged by their leader partly to give her young troupe experience performing before a strange audience (not that we were strange though of course, just strangers 😊).

 

Dinner included several breaded and deep-fried haggis balls, so tasty. Likely not really the original haggis, but a modern tasty haggis-based treat:

with one opened up...

It was a very full, enjoyable day today!