Day 6 More Orkney

A bit darker and wild and woolly this morning so we rose later for breakfast, but not too late for Wendy, this time, to try the Westray smoked haddock. We were served such large pieces!

We changed our plans from a nature day to a morning in Kirkwall. The Aurora jewellery workshop caught Wendy's eye on the way in and we stopped to chat. We were sure there must be more art and craft here on Orkney than we had seen so far. We found more in Kirkwall itself.

At last we are at a distillery and time to visit. Wendy should be writing this as there was little new the guide could tell her, but the tour was a first for me. The barley dampened and spread over the floors to begin germination, flavour added at a later stage by gentle heat from peat fires, made sense to me and explained the smokey flavour. 

Wendy confirmed that the cattle feed we had seen at Scara Brae yesterday was the waste produced after the ground barley has been heated in water and the undissolved matter extracted.

I loved the notice beside the furnace that the swallows had left. Why wouldn't birds find their way into breweries and distilleries (we found corn crake nesting boxes outside the Orkney Brewery yesterday) with so much grain around and warm places to roost!
Highland Park said they make and supply barrels to sherry makers in the south of Spain who return them, after bottling, impregnated with sherry flavour and it is this that gives the brand it's particular flavour.

Ian Rankin had bought a barrel for the proceeds to go to charity and this Rebus bottle sells for £11000. It is a fifty year old whiskey called Rebus (after the detective character in his books).

St Magnus Church's distinctive mix of red and cream sandstone should not have been so hard to find and we visited a much more austere St Magnus later in the day in Birsay, the first burial place of St Magnus the plaque said. The Kirkwall St Magnus had such long and deep galleries and beautiful stained glass. 

Though relatively new I loved the altar inlaid with a Celtic design and we found another example of local carpentry in the Orkney chair in the Highland Park reception area. The curved back functions as a kind of snug.

We returned to Marwick Head for another chance to see puffins but the wind became a little stronger and a squall was coming over so we decided to drive on to Brough of Birsay. This is another puffin nesting site but the walkway across to this island was under repair and access prohibited. We could see across to the archaeological sites and the Stevenson lighthouse. Quite a lot of preservation of significant sites was underway in Birsay which was good to see. 

At a distance among the rock pools it looked as if up to a dozen mute swans were feeding on seaweed It was a rather strange and beautiful sight.

Wendy has found yet another puffin site so maybe we'll be lucky tomorrow!

Day 5 Around Orkney

NOTE: I think I have changed permissions so that others can comment on our blog. Would appreciate it if one of you could add a comment so I know if it is working. 

Today was our day to visit Orkneys’ main archeological sites.  We started off with Maeshowe, a multi chambered tomb  quite close to our hotel. The visitor centre was a lovely old mill and the staff very obliging and knowledgable. It is only possible to visit the tomb as part of a guided tour but there were only 6 of us.  The guide really knew her stuff, “ye ken”.  Sadly photography is not allowed in the tomb so you will have to make do with one from outside. 

I am going to check out their web cameras during the northern winter solstice as it is supposed to be quite spectacular.  http://www.maeshowe.co.uk

After Maeshowe we visited Scara Brae, a costal village which dates back to 3100 BC (600 yrs before the pyramids). Again words are not sufficient to describe it so I will post a couple of photos.  I can't believe the weather we are having (and neither can the locals!).  

See what I mean about the weather?

After this we visited a couple of other archeological sites – the Standing Stones do Steness and the Ring of Brodgar.  

Sadly the most recent discovery – the Ness of Brodgar is only open for 6 weeks in June/July when the archeologists are working on it.  I think that Orkney has the most amazing history of any place I have visited.

We rounded off the day with a visit to a local brewery and a quick look at a potential bird watching site for Suzanne. I'll drop her there tomorrow and let her check out all the chicks while I visit a few more ancient ruins.   We finished the day off with another lovely sunset. 

The people here are all helpful and obliging and the accent is lovely to listen to.  I keep chatting to people just so I get to  listen to them speaking. 

I have just started receiving aurora alerts for the northern hemisphere so I will check out the night sky after it gets dark so long as there is no smirr and the haar stays away. Ye ken?

PS No aurora last night but did get some airglow for anyone who knows what that is!

Day 4 Fortrose to Orkney

Dennis the cat oversaw our arrival and departure at Cathedral Square, Fortrose (the black dot in the picture), and thank you George for the recommendation. 

Eileen Campbell looked after us beautifully and checked the tide times for us to ensure we were on time for the dolphins at Chanonry Point... and it was the Anderson Bar we retreated to to warm up after dolphin watching George.
Fog or low cloud cover engulfed the north east corner of Scotland this morning. As this spectacular drive north along the coast road was a little slow we bypassed the Grey Cairns of Camster and Duncansby sea stack and we had difficulty finding the Whaligo Steps. There will be another opportunity on the way back we hope.
We did take a short detour to see Dunrobin Castle, a French Chateau style residence of the Sutherlands, right on the coast with no gate keeper and open gates which was a change from English stately homes.

With only a brief stop in Wick we were in plenty of time for the ferry.

The fog lifted as soon as we were at sea and the temperature is remarkably mild here on Orkney (hope I am not speaking too soon)! A Leicester couple, regular visitors to Orkney, gave us a potted war time history of the Churchill barriers on the trip over. A relative had been in the navy in WW2 and stationed here. Over the headlands and in the estuaries quite a deal of war debris was a reminder of the impact of both world wars on Orkney. We thought a large, isolated graveyard with no church in sight might have been war graves.
Unfortunately I missed my first sighting of a seal as we docked.
We loved the Italian Chapel, built by Italian prisoners of war who were brought to Orkney to build the Churchill Barriers. I have a little book about it for you Ann.

We noted the opening times of the two whiskey distilleries in Kirkwall. We are overdue for a taste now!
Well done Wendy for booking us into this lovely hotel on Loch Harray (and getting us off-season rates). Tomorrow we will leave early to see as many archaeological sites as possible and finish up at Marwick Head where we hope to see puffins.
Time now to share a picnic supper of the last of our Dunveld salmon complemented by Lidl salads. 

Doubtless Wendy will have some pictures of the night sky to add before the day is over.

Day 3 Stirling to Fortrose

We managed an early start today as we were trying to avoid the breakfast rush – there was a tour bus at our hotel!

First stop was Bridge of Allan to check out a cave claimed to have been the inspiration for Ben Gunn’s cave in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”.  We located the track but it was really wet and a local told us that the bridge had been washed out some time ago (sounds more like “Black Beauty” to me) so we decided not to push it.

Dunkeld was our next stop (on Jan Butler’s recommendation). A lovely little town with lots of interesting shops and very helpful locals.  

The weather had really closed in by now and was not looking good.  I have decided that straight hair is a lost cause here!  We saw signs directing us to the Dunkeld Salmon Shop so had to check it out. We spent quite some time here discussing and tasting salmon and ended up buying some for our dinner. I am keen to compare the wild caught cold smoked salmon to our Tasmanian product.

The driving was easy but there were speed cameras every few miles. I couldn't resist a few stops for photos (chilly out) as we made our way through the Cairngorms and by Kingussie the cloud had lifted and we had blue sky and sunshine.  

We left the highway to make a stop at the Ruthven Barracks part of which dates back to the 12th century then the Insch Marshes –a popular and well set up bird watching site.

We made one more stop on the way at Loch Morlich which had an extensive sandy beach and snow on the mountains in the distance. In one section of the beach the sand is liberally sprinkled with broken glass – obviously old from the smooth edges. Evidently the area was used as a training ground for Norwegian resistance fighters in the Second World War and the glass is what remains from their throwing petrol bombs practice.  Milk bottles were their weapon of choice so I guess the locals were encouraged to drink lots of milk to keep up the supply.

We arrived at our B&B then went down to watch the dolphins feeding at Chanonry Point.  The dolphins were only about 15m off the shore and were feeding on salmon as they come in with the tide. Local beers in a local pub rounded off a busy day.

I have left my cables for the camera in the car so haven't been able to upload any of my photos from today. We might add some more photos to this post tomorrow if the photos are worth it. 

Day 2 - Glasgow to Stirling

Loved my Virgin Trains trip to Glasgow. The track runs by the sea north of Lancaster and then through the Lake District on to Gretna Green.

Argyle Street and Glasgow Central Station was elegant and seedy in equal measure when I arrived last night and we both loved the rich wool tartan on the floors of our hotel which was just around the corner from the station.

We set out today to walk to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery so that we could enjoy the red sandstone Glaswegian architecture and found we just wanted to absorb the museum architecture itself, overlooked by the University of Glasgow, and enjoy our coffee (sorry Wendy I meant our tea) before we circuited the individual galleries and the Rennie MacIntosh room.

I was taken by the excellent work of Pringle, a Glaswegian spectacle maker, painting at the same time as Van Gogh and Wendy loved Sophy Cave's  'Floating Heads' exhibition.

We both spent some time absorbing the information and paintings on the expulsion of the highland crofters and met up for the daily lunchtime organ recital

in the entrance hall before collecting our car 

and on to the Falkirk Wheel outside Stirling.

Wendy had researched this amazing structure and continued to gather engineering details from the canal staff. Andy Scott's Kelpies was our next stop... 'art? neigh!' Wendy has just told me was the Guardian's verdict, but I don't think so... love Wendy's photo!

Here we are at the end of the day, enjoying our glass of McGuigan's and the last of the daffodils.

In case the "arr-arr" in the title is confusing it is the way the call of a puffin is described in the Larousse "Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland".  

Day 1 in Glasgow

Ok at this stage we have just set up the blog but haven't started writing it yet because the holiday doesn't really start for Suzanne  until she arrives here (Glasgow) tonight. We will probably do our first official post tomorrow night if there is something to write about.  Having said that, the weather here is beautiful right now - sunny, blue skies and warm.