948 Day 5 – Stayed in Kirkwall – Sunday 19th May 2019
- Sophie Carter
- Aug 4, 2019
- 4 min read
Day 5 – Stayed in Kirkwall – Sunday 19th May 2019
Today was not so early, kick-off wasn’t until 9:05 and we also got to leave our luggage in the hotel while we were out which meant less rushing. Breakfast was very posh. We got seated, I have never been waiting for breakfast in a hotel before. Nick mentioned the dry-stone wall that is all over Orkney and we saw it today. The first stop today was Maeshowe, it’s a tomb with lots of carvings on the walls, stories, and sayings. You had to crouch down and walk about 10 meters to get into the tomb, it was quite interesting, the girl explained that the people who built it would have kept bones and things inside. The Vikings chucked anything that was kept in the tomb. The girl showed us a picture of what happens on the 21st of December when they have the winter solstice, very beautiful. I might have to find the webcams online if I remember. Of course, I bought a pen from the visitor centre, I plan to buy many pens.
After that we stopped at the standing stones (Scottish stone henge), these were cool but the sheep around them were CUTE. I got a good close-up on the sheep if I remember I will show you when I have the images ready. Next was the Ring of Brodgar, it is said that there might have been 60 stones standing originally but most have fallen or been destroyed just over time or with the weather and lying on the ground have probably been hit by lightning. It was cold walking around this time because we were quite far north, and the wind was coming from the North Sea.
Then we headed to Skara Brae, I didn’t know what that was, all I wanted was a hot drink and to sit somewhere for a bit. The shortbread there was gorgeous, soft, tasty, and very melty. If you google Skara Brae, it will tell you it’s a prehistoric village in a Neolithic settlement. Short version, it’s a group of old houses, 5000 years of history. It’s lovely to see, I wouldn’t have known it even excited without this tour, I didn’t investigate where I was going or what I was doing on this tour, so I didn’t have any expectations. I also wanted to test something which worked out, but I am not quite ready to publicly share. Would you believe a bad storm discovered this village? Part of the ticket included this 17th-century mansion called Skaill House. I am not sure who lived there but it was, erm I can’t think of the right word. For a mansion, it seems small inside, lots of little rooms instead of bigger rooms with fewer of them like a modern mansion might be.
Nick took us to a place called Kirbuster which had a Museum. It is the last firehouse in the area. Throughout the tour, Nick has been telling us how a lot of the highlands have peat which makes it difficult to grow crops. Peat is good for a central hearth (old-fashioned fireplace) to keep the house warm. When this was used in 99.9% of homes years ago, if you couldn’t see smoke coming out of a house it meant bad news, something was wrong with anyone inside. In those days burning something was the only source of heat so it would have been going all day every day. The museum had a shop, and by the shop, I mean a cupboard with a till in it. I always try to buy something from small businesses, it helps them out and doesn’t break your bank.
When we finished at Kirbuster, Nick drove us to Yesnaby can I just say WHAT a beautiful place, stunning, the sun was shining, the waves were crashing against the cliffs, there was sand, sandstone and it was just spectacular. We spend time enjoying the view and me taking pictures. I literally could have sat up there all night, but I probably would’ve frozen to death. On the way back to the hotel Nick stopped just outside an ice cream parlour there is nothing better than a bit of sugar at the end of the day. I got vanilla honeycomb; it was to die for if I had the opportunity I would have got more.
We made it back to the hotel around 6 pm, we chilled out for a little while and then headed out to the Chinese for dinner. We ordered way too much, but it was nice, the BBQ sauce was a bit grim, but the rest was good. One thing that shocked me was the Chinese had southern comfort and lemonade (WIN). I have never known a Chinese place to have what I call real alcohol (more than just bottle bears, basic wine, and vodka). The Chinese place was called Empire Chinese Restaurant.
There was something that I wanted to talk about today, but I can’t work out when we were near it. I saw some souvenir-type items for it yesterday but there is a place in Orkney called Twatt. I do love the names in Scotland, they are so quirky.
Comments