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) This is the diary of a 6-day trip to the Shetland and Orkney Islands which lie North of Scotland. The tour was organised by Garry with help from Brightwater Holidays. Click here for the itinerary and interactive maps. Click here for the complete slideshow.
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Briefly, here's how we spent each day:
|
Monday, 27th July - Flight to AberdeenWe are picked up by Felix with Garry
and Amanda and driven to Eastleigh, where after buying coffees we
quickly board, with our coffees, the 10am Flybe flight to Aberdeen.
When we get to Aberdeen
90 minutes later it is sunny and warm and we
are early, We have time to sample the Deuchars IPA and some white
wine sitting on the benches outside the terminal building.
At 12:30 we were picked up by Bill, a
taxi driver from the Bridge of Don. He is an angler with a strong Scottish accent.
He
takes us to the dock via the beach in North Aberdeen. We leave our
luggage at the Northlink ferry office and amble into town to find
the Prince of Wales (more...) pub which Bill had recommended to us. We have
some more beer and Graham has the speciality of the region –
mince and skirlie. The rest eat conventional steak and kidney pie.
It starts to rain but that does not put off a woman across the street
from smoking a four inch cigarette in two minutes flat. It is an
amazing sight. After we have finished eating, drinking and watching the cabaret
we leave and it starts raining more so we
go in search of books and umbrellas. The ones in BHS are £5
whereas those in Boots are £16. We walk back to the terminal
and wait with others. By now it had stopped raining. At 5pm the
Brightwater coach arrives and we load our luggage onto it and
clamber onto the coach. Our guide Andrea (call me Andy)
introduces herself and gives us our boarding passes and breakfast
tickets. We get off the coach and board the boat, the M V Hrossey.
After dumping our luggage in our rooms we make our way to the
cafeteria where we dine with the other forty five people in the party.
After the meal we adjourn to a bar, have a coffee and retire to bed
at 10pm. The sun has just gone down and the sea is pretty calm.
Tuesday, 28th July - Lerwick and SumburghThe crossing was pretty
calm. We are awoken by an announcement at 6:30am. The boat is
making its way up the East coast of Shetland. Eventually we get to
Lerwick(more...)
which is sheltered by the island of Brassay. We have
breakfast in the cafeteria and get on the coach at 8:30am. The coach
takes us down the town to where a cruise ship, the SS Columbus, has
docked. It is a bright sunny day. We get off the coach and walk
South around the Knab promentary, past a par-3 golf course and end up
at the Clickimin Broch
(more...)
.
This is a circular stone building started
in 1000BC and renovated in the 19th century. There are
many brochs on Shetland and nobody knows exactly why they were built
where they are. We walk back into the city of 7,000 inhabitants
(about a third of the islands population) and end up at the
Shetland
Museum Museum (more...). After a round of liquid refreshments we explore the museum
and have lunch in the cafe. We wander back to the coach via Fort Charlotte and several Closses (small streets and alley ways). The
coach takes us to the South of the mainland and across the runway
of Sumburgh International Airport.
We arrive at the Sumburgh hotel
and wander among the nearby Jarlshof
(more...)
archaeological remains which are
very old and interesting. We get back in the coach and climb up close
to the lighthouse at Sumburgh Head
and wander around the cliff edges
looking for puffins, a few of which we see along with gannets giving
us a diving display. We get back to the hotel and find our bags are
already waiting outside our rooms. We have a short rest and eat en
masse in the restaurant. The tour party has taken over the whole
hotel for the night. After the meal we take a short stroll to the
beach in the very blowy wind and
watch the sun set over the hills to
the West.
Wednesday, 29th July - Eshaness and ScallowayWe wake up and look out of
the window at the airport runways. It's a bit hazy today. We have
breakfast, check out and board the coach at 8:30am. We stop just
before the runway and visit Scatness
(more...)
which has a reconstructed Iron-age stone house
close by a partial genuine broch where some of the walls are
supported by sand bags. The haze has disappeared and it's a bright
sunny day. We are driven North on the A970, over Latitude 60N
marked by yellow posts at the side of the road, through Lerwick and
Brae, the second largest town and on to the part of the island
called North Mavine. There are very few trees on the island. Those
that exist appear to be in private gardens. We arrive at the
lighthouse of Eshaness
(more...)
and get out to view the wonderful scenery and
sea birds. We get back in the coach and take a brief stop at
Mavis Grind
more...)
at the Southern end of North Mavine where the Atlantic Ocean is
100 yards from the North Sea. The coach takes us south to the old
capital of Scalloway
(more...)
on the Western coast opposite Lerwick. Here we have lunch in the Fish College
(more...)
with no sign of fish in the soup or the
sandwiches. After the break we are driven to the fish harbour and
walk the short distance to Scalloway Castle
(more...)
,
built in 1610 and now a
well preserved ruin with a large hall on the first floor. After the
castle we stroll into the town and read all about the Shetland Bus
(more...)
which ferried escaping British and Norwegians to these islands during
WWII. We return to the museum which is rather like a bric a brac
shop with no items for sale. We decide it's time for a leisurely
beer sitting on the pavement outside the Scalloway Hotel
.
We return
to the coach to discover that Garry had left his camera bag and
contents at the hotel. He ran back and was given a round of applause
when he returned to the coach with his bag. We are driven over the
island to Lerwick and board the M V Hjartland. It departs at 5:30pm.
We dine on board. It's a bit less calm than the last time. We
passed Fairisle and watch the sun set at 9:30pm. We arrive in the
Orkneys and are driven to the Kirkwall Hotel
(more...)
where we will stay for
two nights. Our rooms are on the third floor.
Jane selects the bed which allows Graham to see the television - it's that sort of room
Thursday, 30th July - Italian Chapel and KirkwallToday we have a lie in but
it is disturbed by sea gulls marching across the roof. It is cloudy
today but not raining. The sun is trying hard to come out. We have
breakfast at 9am and board the coach at 10am. We are driven South
over the Churchill Barriers
(more...)
which were built during WWII to block off
the Eastern entrance to Scapa Flow. The 5 and 10 ton concrete blocks
were put in place by Balfour Beatty and a load of Italian POWs. A
road causeway was built over the top of the blocks joining up the
islands. We visit the Italian Chapel
(more...)
on Lambsholm.
It is a
fantastic piece of POW construction which disguises two Nissen huts
into a well decorated chapel.
Outside there is a statue of St George
made from barbed wire sprayed with concrete. We get back in the
coach and pass the Orkney Wine Company with no vineyard in sight. We
arrive at the Highland Park distillery on the outskirts of Kirkwall
and get off the coach. Unfortunately we cannot take a tour as there
are too many of us and one of the tour guides is sick so we watch a
short video and have a wee dram (£1.50 each). We walk back
into the town an end up at the Shore Hotel and have lunch. A new word
enters our vocabulary. Peedie means small, 21,000 people live on
the Orkneys, slightly less than on the Shetland Islands. After lunch
we wander back through the narrow streets to St Magnus's Cathedral
(more...),
a massive sandstone building started in 1137. It is narrower than
Chichester Cathedral where 14 chairs can be got in between the main
pillars of the aisle. There is only room for six in St Magnus's.
We leave the cathedral and wander around the rabbit warren of the Orkney Museum.
We walk round the gardens and seek a place for tea
but instead have ice creams. We return to the hotel for a short rest
before the evening meal at 6:30pm. We all eat on the first floor in
the Writing Room next to the Reading Room which is used as a lounge.
After the meal we go outside for a stroll but it is cut short by a
shower, something we haven't had since Aberdeen. We seek haven in the St
Ola Hotel. We have a couple of drinks and then return to our hotel
fifty yards East.
Friday, 31st July - Orkney ArchaelogyWe breakfast at 8am
following a night which included a couple of rain bursts but it is now
dry outside. We board the coach at 9am and are driven West to park
close to the Standing Stones of Stenness
(more...)
.
We are ferried in a
minibus to the Maeshowe
(more...)
visitor centre and then walk a couple of
hundred yards to a burial mound. We wait for the first tour to
complete and enter the mound via a 1.5 metre high and 15 metre long
tunnel. Apparently it was designed like this so that people entering
it were forced to show respect by bending down. When we straighten
ourselves out we are standing in a large square chamber with three
smaller chambers built off to the sides. Two dozen of us stand and
are enthralled by our Geordie guide who explains all we need to know
about the 4500-year old burial chamber. The sun shines through the
doorway at the winter solstice. We make our way back to view the
standings stones and then are driven to the port of Stromness.
Unfortunately the street is too narrow for the coach but this is only
discovered after we have been driven down a narrow lane for half a
mile. The driver, Andrew, performs a remarkable job of reversing back
the way we entered. We are dropped off at the ferry terminal. We
walk along the port's narrow flag-stoned streets and as we find
nowhere to eat we return to the ferry terminal and eat on a seat
outside the Ferry Inn. We have a long chat with a German girl who has
lived in the town for a couple of years and loves it. We get back on
the coach and are taken to Skara Brae
(more...)
,
a neolithic village on the
coast. It is sunken in the ground. The walls, stone dressers,
hearths and sleeping areas are all well preserved as they are made
of stone The tops of the walls are covered with turfs. The village
is 3200 years old and the best preserved in Northern Europe. We visit Skaill House
(more...)
owned by the Laird of Breckness on whose estate the
neolithic village stands and tour its rooms. We end the visit with
an ice cream. We get back on the coach and are taken to the
Ring of Brodgar,
,
originally a circle of sixty stones but now only half that
number. They stand at the edge of a 100 metre diameter circle and
are 3000 years old. We then visit the Barnhouse Neolithic Village
near the Standing Stones of Stenness. Feeling that we are Neolithed
out we are taken to the Ayre Hotel in Kirkwall where we will eat
tonight. We walk round the fishing port and talk to a fisherman who
opens up a crate of his catch and shows us a mass of lobsters all
with their claws bound with elastic bands. He will sell them to
someone who will fatten them up in tanks and sell them at Christmas
for £35 each. We amble along to the Kirkwall Hotel and have
coffee. We return to the Ayre Hotel and after an hour's wait we have
a decent meal. The speciality, which Graham has, is the Clootie
Dumpling, something akin to spotted dick but with cinnamon to spice
it up, Garry has his third lot of ice cream today. After the meal we
leave to board the ferry which leaves from nearby Halston at close to
midnight. The boat is the M V Hjartland, the same on that brought
us to Kirkwall.
Saturday, 1st August - Return HomeWe are awoken by a voice from the ceiling telling us it is 6:30am. At 7am we dock in Aberdeen. The crossing was smooth with a few undulations towards the end. We have breakfast and at 8am we disembark and board the coach. It is drizzling and overcast. Some people get off at the station and some at the airport. The coach stops just before 10am at Discovery Point, Dundee for us to have a comfort break and a coffee. We wait outside in the rain for the place to open up at 10am. We have coffee and take a photo of the Discovery moored adjacent. Some more people leave us and we continue South. Some leave at a service station near Kinross, some at Dunfermlin. The majority leave at the Marriott, near Edinburgh airport including our guide who has forgotten us! There are now 7 of us plus the driver. Four of us get off at the airport and the rest will travel to Glasgow. We enter the airport at 12:30 which gives us 4.5 hours to while away. We spend some of it in Wetherspoons downing some Deuchars IPA and lunch and then retire to comfortable seats by a window. The plane is delayed by twenty minutes. When we arrive in Southampton we are greeted by Felix who drives us home. We arrive home at about 7pm, exhausted having done no exercise all day.
A few observations: