940 Day 4 – Inverness to Kirkwall – Saturday 18th May 2019

Day 4 – Inverness to Kirkwall – Saturday 18th May 2019

I struggled to get up as today, I had a good cuppa as my body is still asleep that early. I should probably do something to get my blood pumping, but my brain power is minimal until I am awake. I am quite surprised everyone was on time for the bus and I didn’t leave anything behind. Being on the bus so early was strange, it was cold and dull being so early and Nick went straight into explaining the firth, glen, ben etc. Nick had mentioned that the food on the ferry was not great. We stopped at a Coop to get lunch while we are on the ferry to Orkney. I got a sausage roll, a packet of crisps and a packet of Wispa’s for us to share. Next, we drove through Golspie, an awesome name, right? The first fun stop was Dunrobin castle, there was a bit of a walk down a steep road, then across a grassy area because the castle was built to be seen from the water. It looked magnificent from the waterside, it was HUGE, and we hadn’t even gotten that close to it yet. The walk back to the car was worse and felt like we were walking for half an hour.

We stopped a few more times through Helmsdale, where Nick explained about the clearings. We stopped at a monument of a family showing them leaving the area. The father was ready to leave, the boy was looking up to his dad, and mum was looking back with a newborn baby in her hands. Next was John O’Groats, there were gift shops and a coffee shop, like a service station. I looked at a scarf, it was nice but not £25 nice. I was frozen and fancied a hot drink. We grabbed one to go and got on the ferry at 13:30 which took 1 hour. We found somewhere to sit and ate our lunch on the ferry. Nick told us that going up on the top deck is a great experience but very cold. You get to see the islands and possibly spot some wildlife. I wanted to go up to get some pictures but there wasn’t much with the Haar (fog). The crossing was alright, a little bumpy but nothing too bad and it didn’t make anyone feel sick.

We got to St Margaret’s Hope on Orkney and drove towards Kirkwall over the Churchill Barriers built by the Italian prisoners of war. Those blocks couldn’t be easy to move once made and they would have had to be in the water. Next to the barriers in the water, there were purposely sunken ships to stop the warships from getting through while they were building the barriers. Just before the last barrier was the Italian Chapel also built by the Italian prisoners of war (POWs). It is nice inside, I expected it to be bigger, but I do understand why it isn’t.

A few people were obsessed with the cows (called Hiland Coos in Scotland) so we stopped to get pictures. The next stop was Kirkwall itself, Nick dropped us off at St Magnus Cathedral, we looked around the shops and grabbed a coffee and headed for our accommodation, The Kirkwall Hotel. Check-in was challenging as one of the ladies was being difficult. Then because she wanted to eat, she stood in the way while we were trying to check in and she wouldn’t move. We finally got checked into rooms 333 (mine) and 332, the lift was similar to the ones in Titanic, you had to pull the door and the shutter across yourself, or it wouldn’t move.

Our rooms were in their corridor which was weird but nice. It felt like it was our corner, and we got an awesome view of the harbour! Beautiful, I could have stared out of that window forever, the room was quite big. Possibly the bigger room I have ever stayed in. The downside… there was no plug socket in my room, they provided a hair dryer but nowhere for me to plug it. I had to ask about an extension lead at the front desk; the lady was lovely and tried her best to help me. After looking around she finally brought it up to my room.

Grandad wanted a drink in the bar before dinner, so we headed downstairs at 19:30. Every drink we asked for the poor girl had to run somewhere else to get it. They explained that they had a very busy afternoon with two groups of 30 or more turning up which must have been hard work. What we found out later is that the bar in the hotel was called the Highland Park Bar after a nearby distillery. Dinner was delicious, I originally was going to go for a burger but right at the last minute, I changed my mind to a roast dinner. I would have that again in a heartbeat, it was the best roast I had ever had, I loved it. I can see why they were so busy; the menu was small which usually means the meals things they do have, is a speciality. The meat was so tender, tasty, and just in general amazing.

I tried some Orkney ice cream, usually, I don’t get dessert, but Nick told us how good the ice cream is, I thought I am only going to be here once I might as well try it. After, we headed up to our room for the night. I organised my stuff sorted, boiled the kettle, and got into bed. Nick was right about it being light outside super late (because of how far north we were). It was cool, and the visibility was astonishing but also annoying because I have become sensitive to light making it hard for me to get to sleep if it is not dark.

Read about Day 1 here

Read about Day 2 here

Read about Day 3 here