Sun, 20 Oct 2002

author Tim	location Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland
posted 10:21 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Orkney Islands ( all photos )

Around the Tourist Trail ( 7 photos )
Setting out yesterday morning, we had the intention of taking in as many of the famous Orcadian tourist sites as we could stand.
First stop was the amazing Skara Brae, a 5000 year old well-preserved village, complete with dressers, boxes and beds. It is quite mind-numbing trying to take in the age of it, especially with the freezing wind, rain and hail assaulting us - it's right on the western coast. We actually thought the visitor centre there was almost as good as the real thing - some great interactive displays, and a re-construction of one of the houses.
Next we stumbled across was the Ring of Brogar - thirty-six of the original sixty stones from a huge stone circle. Fairly close to Skara Brae, it is quite possible that these things were all used by the same people.
Aiming for Maes Howe, we actually first found the Standing Stones of Stenness - sheep standing around four of the original twelve 4500 year-old standing stones was quite an interesting sight!
Eventually making it to Maes Howe, which is "the finest chambered tomb in Western Europe". Think of a small chamber with storage areas on three sides, and a ten metre long, one metre high access path on the other, and you'd be pretty close. Also about 5000 years old, this one was plundered in 1200 A.D by the Vikings, who left some very interesting runic graffiti.
Heading up to the North coast, we came to Birsay which has the ruins of a 16th century palace, just there in the middle of the town. A bit further along the road is the Brough of Gurness, a Iron-Age (100 A.D.) settlement. We had a quick look at this before deciding not to pay and enter - so much history in so little space.
Returing to the town (Kirkwall), we went for a walk, grabbing some dinner supplies and a few odds and ends around the town. This included brochures on the ferries both around Orkney and Shetland.
Next on our agenda is to decide what we are going to do for the next few days. Being a Sunday today, nothing much happens, as most here respect the Sabbath quite seriously. So we'll stay here another night, but tomorrow we will probably get a ferry down to Hoy, the second-biggest Orkney island, and it's smaller sister Flotta. We're still not sure whether the expensive overnight ferry up to the Shetland Islands is the way to go. They are also accessable from Norway, then on to Iceland, so that is another option we could take up next year some time.

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