Orkney Part 1 – South Ronaldsay and East Mainland

06/11/2024

We set off for Orkney on the 2nd November from Gill’s Bay. It was a lovely day for our crossing, a hopeful sign of the weather to come. We drove down to the harbour and got into the queue for the ferry where our morning entertainment was watching the lorry trailers being manoeuvred off and on board. Many trailers are transported without the cab, ready to be picked up by drivers at the other end of the journey. Staff employed by the lorry company have the job of fitting them into the jigsaw puzzle of vehicles on deck.

The ferry to Orkney

The Pentalina ferry is not a Roll-On, Roll-Off ship. All large vehicles had to reverse on to the ship so that we could drive off at the other end. I was glad Paul was driving.

We stood on deck in the sun all the way to Orkney, watching the forceful sea and the islands slipping past. First of all uninhabited Stroma and Swoma. We saw the feral cattle on Swoma, left behind when the island was finally abandoned by people in the 1970s. Then heading into the shelter of Scapa Flow with South Ronaldsay on one side and the more mountainous Hoy on the other. Finally passing by Flotta with it’s oil terminal and bright industrial lighting.

Our destination harbour was at St Margaret’s Hope, a village on the island of South Ronaldsay. It is the third largest settlement on Orkney and when we saw the collection of houses and buildings on the slopes behind the bay we realised that Orkney was going to be on a significantly different scale than we were used to.

Seals at Burwick

We drove down to the southern end of South Ronaldsay marvelling at the straight empty road. Burwick harbour is quiet in the winter so we could park up easily. In summer a passenger ferry operates to John O’Groats. We had decided to do a short coast walk to get a taster of the island.

Little did we know that we would be seeing so many grey seals along this stretch of coast. The pups and their mothers lay on the beach, pups getting fat with the rich milk they need to survive their first weeks. They have a short weaning period of about three weeks after which time the mothers leave the pups to fend for themselves. The fat reserves are vital while they learn how to forage. Males lurk offshore ready to mate with any female who has left their pup, beginning the cycle all over again.

Hoxa Head

After our walk we drove back north to Hoxa Head where we parked up facing the pretty Sands O’Wright beach. Paul picked up his fishing gear and we cycled out to the coast where gun emplacements, observation towers and other buildings are scattered along the edge of the headland. These buildings were started in WWI and more were built in WWII, guarding the entry to the sheltered seas of Scapa Flow where the UKs primary naval base was situated during both world wars.

We had wanted to do a circular route around the headland, but one of the tracks was gated, padlocked shut and festooned with keep out signs despite it being a ‘Core Path’ (Orkney’s key rights of way). Instead we had an out and back walk. Paul spent an hour or so fishing with no success, probably due to the curious seals bobbing in the sea. Later, we found out that a Humpback Whale had been spotted by another fisherman who was just a bit further along the rocks. We had seen nothing, but when we saw his photos we realised why as the grey whale in the grey sea was almost invisible.

We stayed at the Sands O’Wright overnight where we were treated to a glorious sunset.

Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel

The next day we drove across the Churchill Barriers to the Deerness peninsular which is the most easterly part of the Orkney Mainland. Along the way we could see the wrecks of ships that had been scuttled during WWI to create a deterrent against the incursion of German U-Boats. There were over 60 of these ‘Blockships’ and also in Scapa flow are the remains of the scuttled German fleet which had been held in Scapa Flow at the end of the war. During WWII the Churchill Barriers were constructed, mostly by Italian Prisoners of War. Now they form useful causeways between the islands.

Also by Churchill Barrier No 1 is the Italian Chapel. This place of worship was constructed by those same Italian POWs from two Nissen huts placed end to end. The artistry is amazing, particularly given the circumstances of it’s creation, and nowadays there is a strong bond between the families of the original POWs and the Orcadians who maintain the chapel.  It took us several attempts to visit the chapel due to winter opening times, but we did finally make it.

The Burray end of Churchill Barrier No 4 was our overnight spot for later that night. Despite being right next to an A road it was a peaceful night.

Deerness

On Deerness we walked around Mull Head. The circular walk started at the visitor centre which was open but unmanned, giving some useful information about the area. We walked out to the Pepperpot Monument, a light hearted name for a monument to a tragic event; the deaths of over 200 Covenanters who died in a shipwreck off the coast when they were being deported to the Americas.

Then we followed the coast around, enjoying some impressive coastal scenery on the way to the Brough of Deerness, a Viking stronghold on a headland with a steep access path.

The final feature on this walk was a gloup, a chasm in the ground formed when a sea cave has collapsed. The word gloup is one of my favourite discoveries on this trip to the north of Scotland. A word of Norse origin reminiscent of the swallowing, sucking sound of the sea.

Another new word of Norse origin is geo (or sometimes geodha), the word used for a narrow inlet. There were a number of these on our walk too.

After our walk we popped to Deerness Distillery, we’d seen signs for it earlier and thought we’d see what they had on offer. We didn’t realise we were going to find an almost new building with a shop, distillery and cafe. It was a great opportunity to have some lunch and taste a few gins. Of course we had to buy something, and ended up with their pink gin which had a floral rose and cardamom aroma and was just the right level of sweet. It’s going to be saved for Christmas (maybe).

Roseness

The next morning we decided to cycle to Roseness peninsular. From our parking, with it’s Viking totem pole, we cycled across the barriers to another totem pole. This one had a plaque explaining that it had been a joint project between Orcadian and Squamish First Nations wood carvers.

We cycled east and made a small detour to see some WWII lookout towers in farmland. We had to lug our bikes around the coast path to do this and pick our way across mud churned up by the cows who started bellowing at us from another field. Having navigated back to the road we headed up hill towards the war memorial. The limited number of names on Orcadian war memorials belies the impact on such a small community.

As we headed out towards Cornquoy we spotted a broch, it was on stubbly farm land and fenced off making it another tricky proposition to get to and probably not worth the effort.

At the end of the road we were able to cycle down a track and out onto the coast path where the cycling got easier, if a little boggy in places. We cycled along the edge of the cliff where we were treated to more spectacular Geos, rock arches, a sea stack and another Gloup. The ‘Hole of the Ness’ was a good distance from the sea’s edge and fenced off. I snuck under the fence to get a better view, there is something quite fascinating about these sea filled holes and their guttural noises. We talked about how interesting it would be to kayak round here in the right conditions.

 

After the gloup we could see the tall beacon, built before lighthouses to provide a navigation aid. We left our bikes by a cairn to walk the rest of the way to the headland.

When I looked for more detail of the beacon I found out that it had been built on top of a cairn. A skeleton had been found when the beacon was built ‘amongst the rubbish’. Different times, different values.

The lighthouse that eventually replaced the beacon was  a short distance further. From our vantage point we thought we were seeing the top of the lighthouse tower, but it turned out to be a squat structure, obviously not needing any height to be visible across the sea.

 

We retraced our steps, picking up our bikes and riding back to the village of St Mary’s where we stopped at a cafe for some lunch before returning to Bertie.

Pool Farmhouse

We ended our time on South Ronaldsay with a stay at Pool Farmhouse. Unsurprisingly we were the only people on this peaceful 5 van site. It’s up for sale and the owner explained how he was trying to get rid of the mountains of equipment that they had accumulated over the years for the various business he had run from the farmhouse. The logistics of collecting and dealing with scrap must be pretty difficult on small islands.

While I worked, Paul explored the coast and the Grim Ness peninsular. This involved quite a lot of unsuccessful fishing with seals keeping him company. At lunch I would walk down to find him, using what the campsite owner called a ‘seaweed track’, presumably from the days when collecting seaweed for it’s mineral content was an important income stream for crofters along the Scottish coast.