Day 7 Orkney to Helmsdale

Our last day on Orkney. The weather is a bit less foggy today with high cloud but it is pretty chilly. The temperature is supposed to range from 5 to 7 degrees Celcius.  Around 3.00pm I checked the temp in the car and (after a conversion from Farenheit) it was 6.6 degrees so not a very warm day. We have really enjoyed our few days at the Merkister and on Orkney. It really is an amazing place. 

The plan for today was to head down to see the Tomb of the Eagles which is at the far south of Ronaldsay Island, the southernmost island in the 70 or so that make up Orkney. 

We chose yet another road that we hadn't yet travelled on and drove along the northern edge of Scarpa Flow, through Kirkwall and across the Churchill Barriers to Ronaldsay.  

The Churchill Barriers are causeways joining the islands but I think their original role was to block the Germans’ entry to Scarpa Flow.  They are constructed of huge blocks of concrete which were made near by then moved into position. There appears to have been a plentiful supply of concrete in Orkney and many buildings (which I suspect are stone underneath) have been clad with grey concrete.  

We had a brief stop at the Fossil and Heritage Museum where I was hoping to pick up a bit about the geology of Orkney but the museum was quite extensive and would have taken us some time to explore so I bought a book instead. 

We then continued on to the Tomb of the Eagles,  

This is a chambered tomb of a similar age to Maeshowe (I think) but not as big.  The farmer on whose land it is located discovered the structures some time in the late 1950s.  He contacted the authorities who told him to cover it up and wait until someone came to investigate.  It took them 18 years to get there, but when they opened the tomb it was exactly as it had been left 5000 years ago with the skeletons (and talons and feathers of eagles) undisturbed.  

Access to the tomb was via a narrow low roofed tunnel lying on a large skateboard.

There is also a Bronze Age building (much discussion about its function but apparently not a dwelling) although Orkney did not have a true Bronze Age as they did not have the right fuel to make fires hot enough to produce bronze. Peat fires aren't hot enough. So no bronze. 

The walk back from the site was around the cliffs where there were lots of Fulmers (related to Albatross but much smaller) nesting. 

Information suggested that seals can be seen there but we didn't see any so Suzanne is still within to see her first seal in the wild. No puffins either – evidently not quite the right time of the year yet. 

After visiting the Tomb of the Eagles we made our way back to St Margaret’s Hope to get the ferry then drove to our accommodation in Helmsdale about two hours to the south.  We shared the ferry with a coach load of school boys returning to Caithness after a day in Orkney. It was a lot less quiet than the trip over but to be fair they were no more noisy than a coach load of SMC girls would have been – maybe they were even less noisy. 

Our hostel in Helmsdale is great. There are only 2 other women here apart from Suzanne and me and the owner has a lovely border collie dog which greeted us like long lost friends.