Orkney Part 5 – Last Days on the Mainland

21/11/2024

It always feels a bit awkward talking about the ‘Mainland’. Are we talking about Orkney Mainland or UK Mainland? This last blog entry for Orkney talks about our final week on Orkney Mainland and our return ferry to UK mainland. Hopefully that’s clear.

Stormy Weather

After the strong winds on our ferry crossing back from Sanday our night in Kirkwall was pretty wild. Stormy enough that we moved in the middle of the night to face the wind, moving back in the morning to be properly within a parking bay.

Our next morning was spent in Kirkwall doing some van chores. Mostly seeing to a lot of laundry which had built up over a few weeks. One advantage of having a big van is that we can take a lot with us, which means that we don’t need to do washing very often, the down side is that when we do get round to washing we really have a lot to do. Kirkwall has a large laundrette and we set the washing off while we went out for breakfast and another explore.

Sadly the Bishops palace was closed for winter and the museum was mostly closed while the exhibits were being updated. But Kirkwall is lovely for just a mooch around and a bit of shopping so we managed to while away our morning with occasional trips back to the laundrette to check on our washing..

Skaill Bay

From Kirkwall we drove across to Skaill Bay on the west of the island.

The intention was to stay here overnight ready for a visit to Skara Brae the next morning. We were treated to some amazing waves, churning white water whipped up by the winds and crashing into the bay. The parking was behind a bank so Bertie was well sheltered from the wind and we spent the afternoon popping out to get wind battered while we watched the waves or used the public toilets. That night a gritter drove past us, cold weather was on the way.

Birsay

The following morning we turned up at Skara Brae to find that the staff had only just decided to close the site due to the high winds, so instead we drove up to Birsay.

We visited the Earl’s palace, built in the 16th century by Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, the illegitimate half brother of Mary Queen of Scots. He and his family were not the most pleasant of people, repressing the local population to the extent that his son Patrick was imprisoned. Grandson Robert then rebelled and eventually both Patrick and Robert were executed for treason and the palace started it’s slow decline to eventually become the ruin we visited.

We stopped at a Birsay Bay tea rooms for lunch, they had large windows where we could watch showers being blown in and the sea churning. Nearby Palace Stores offered a selection of home made sausage rolls and cake for later. Well fed and provisioned, we moved onto the Brough of Birsay. This is a peninsular reached by a tidal causeway and we needed to wait for the tide to recede so that we could walk across.

We killed some time by walking along the coast to Skipi Geo, where a small fisherman’s cottage from the 19th century sits next to the coast path. We were caught by a rain shower and ran back to Bertie to take shelter.

Despite the fact that the tide was nearly all the way out, the strong winds made the sea unpredictable. A couple of times we made a start on the walk only to back away as a surge of seawater rushed across the narrow concrete path. But finally we crossed and got to see the remains of the Viking settlement that makes this a popular spot to visit. Vikings were living here a thousand years ago, on the site of an even earlier Pictish settlement. There is archaeological evidence that this was a high status village with large buildings and even signs of features like heating, drainage and possibly saunas. We didn’t spend long looking at the ruins or any of the rest of the island. I was too nervous of being stranded and just wanted to get back without incident.

A short drive south is Marwick Bay where we thought we might stay for the night. It was a bit too exposed to the wind for a comfortable night but we did take a short walk along the coast to a collection of fishermen’s cottages. On the other side of the bay we could see the Kitchener Memorial – a tribute to Lord Kitchener and the crew of the HMS Hampshire which was sunk when it hit a mine off Marwick Head.

Skara Brae

We returned to Skaill Bay that evening where we knew we would have shelter from the wind. The following morning we drove again to Skara Brae and were relieved to find it open.

Skara Brae is an incredible village complex that is more than 5000 years old – older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. It was uncovered by a storm in the late 19th century and cursorily excavated. In the 1920s a storm washed away more of the site and at this point it was decided that it should be properly excavated and protected. Sea defences were constructed and an archaeologist from Edinburgh university appointed. Now it is possible to walk around the complex after visiting the very good visitor centre which puts the site into context and displays some of the finds.

The complex is built into a midden mound, with individual dwellings closely packed and linked by corridors through the earth protecting the whole area from the elements. Inside the houses there are the remains of hearths, shelves, beds and other furniture all constructed from the local stone. It’s amazing how recognisable it all is, the basics of domestic living haven’t really changed.

For more insight into the way that these homes may have looked you can see a reconstructed house next to the visitor centre, complete with household items. I imagine it would have been a bit smellier and smokier but otherwise its a great way to bring it to life.

Beyond Skara Brae we could see a spout of water shooting into the air every now and again. We followed the coast path out to the Hole o’Row, the sea arch that causes this spectacle and spent some time watching the sea and the local seals.

Yesnaby

That afternoon we drove to Yesnaby. We parked up by the remains of the WWII anti aircraft battery and then walked over the Brough of Bigging and further south to see the sea stack that is Yesnaby Castle. This is another spectacular section of coast path. I couldn’t pick out the best stretch of coast on Orkney but this has to be up there.

Stonehigh

As I was due for some work we booked up to stay a few nights at Stonehigh, a Caravan Club Certified Location. We drove back towards Kirkwall from Yesnaby across the ‘heights’ of the Mainland. Snow had fallen on the fields around us.

The campsite is accessed via a steep track up to a croft from the village of Evie. We took is slowly, hoping that the snow wouldn’t cause us any problems, and arrived safely in our camping spot. The owner popped out to meet us and we paid over our cash before parking up and connecting to the hookup. We were pleased to replenish the batteries and warm ourselves up.

The campsite was basic, just hardstandings, electric hookup, water and waste disposal, but it also had the most amazing views north across the sea towards the island of Rousay. I worked while Paul whiled away time watching the Hen Harriers flying over the winter landscape.

Broch of Gurness

When we were at Skara Brae the staff had recommended that we visit the Borch of Gurness. I had thought that it was closed (because the Scottish Heritage website said so) but we were told that we could still walk around the site, it was just the visitor centre that was closed.

After a couple of nights at Stonehigh we drove gingerly down the steep drive back onto the ‘main road’ and then down a lane to the Broch of Gurness. I wouldnt want to do this in a large van in high season, the road is narrow and the car park is small. But we were the only people there  on a cold snowy Thursday morning.

The Broch was a relic of another part of Orkney’s past. An Iron Age settlement before the Vikings but still thousands of years later than the residents of Skara Brae. We’ve seen several Brochs while we’ve been in Scotland, mostly just grassed over piles of rubble, but here the double walls of the Broch are still standing up to about 3m high. It’s thought that they could have been as high as 10m which would have been really imposing. The remains of houses and workshops surround the central Broch. Walking around the site on our own in the early morning light with the sea beside us and the snow on the hills was very atmospheric.

Leaving Orkney

This was our last stop on Orkney. We hadn’t quite seen everything we wanted to on Orkney and we will definitely be back (maybe in combination with a trip to Shetland). But it was time to start our journey back south so our next destination was St Margaret’s Hope to get the ferry back to Mainland Scotland.