We arrived n Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands, about 7:00am, and this is the first place where we will have to take a tender to the shore. There is only one excursion offered here this trip, to see the stones of the Ring of Brodgar (about 2,500 years old) and the village of Stromness, with plenty of time in the town of Kirkwall.
Our guide for the tour was a very informative older woman … all our guides on Shetland and now here are older, well past retirement age, and one mentioned that he loved doing this as a second career after he retired. All were natives and certainly loved their native islands. The population of the Orkney Islands is about 22,000, with 70,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep. More than 200 cruise ships call here annually, most during the summer months as we have. Our guide described the local distilleries, the ice cream shops which use the cream from the many dairy cows. Salmon farming is big here, as is open water fishing, and of course sheep and cattle, interestingly no one mentions goats. The island has benefitted from the North Sea oil to fund road and infrastructure improvements, and everyone now uses heat pumps for heating, and there are large wind turbines everywhere.
During WWII, this was a major center for the British military, with more than 60,000 military passes issued during the war, apparently all of the airplane hangars and housing they built during the war are long gone. The British Home Fleet was headquarters here at Scapa Flow (which from the Old Norse Skalpafloi, which means bay of the long isthmus) in WWI and WWII. There is a memorial to the HMS Royal Oak, which was sunk by a U Boat and more than 800 died. The Scapa Flow was also the site of the first time a plane landed on a moving ship, in 1917, a precursor to the kind of warfare seen in WWII. At the end of WWI in late 2018, the German fleet was interned in Scapa Flow to await the Armistice in June 1919, guarded by the British Navy. Because they thought the British would seize the ships, or that if the Treaty of Versailles was not signed the war would resume, the Germans armies decided to scuttle the fleet. There were 74 ships in the harbor, 52 ships were sunk in 5 hours, and 22 were grounded or beached. The sunken ships are now a popular spot for divers.
We continued on to the Ring of Brodgar, an UNESCO site with one of the best-preserved circular stone ring from the early Bronze Age. It was a beautiful site, with the 36 relatively thin stones in a huge circle, often with angled tops that were deliberately cut off for some reason. How they did this is a bit of a mystery, and there is no clear archaeological evidence of whether this was used for elisions or political reasons or something else. It was about the same size as Stonehenge, 100 meters (300 feet) across, though the stones are thinner and smaller. Surrounded by a ditch of about 10 feet in diameter, it involved about 4,700 cubed metric tons of rock having been moved. The site was fairly quiet, the first place we heard lots of birds singing, and it was bursting with spring wildflowers. The site was surrounded by several mounds, which apparently do not house burials according to preliminary exploration, which is unusual. We were able to walk around the entire outside of the ring, and the photos as it was silhouetted against a varied clouds were beautiful. The nearby Ness of Brodgar, an inhabited area in the Neolithic age, has been under excavation for the past 20 years, with thousands of artifacts recovered. We also went to the nearby Stone sof Stevens, fewer in number but equally mysterious. Nearby two sheep were in the area inside the fence, and one kneeled on her front legs to better get to the grass, something I had never seen (though my experience watching sheep eat is indeed very limited).
We drove back to the town, picked up a map, and went off to explore. We found a store which was a bit like the Rockridge Market Hall under one roof, and bought some whiskey samplers and oatcakes which I like - they cost about 1/4 what they do in the states. We asked the young woman who checked us out for recommendations for lunch, she she noted a place called the Archive, in the old library, a few blocks away. We went there and had a nice lunch of cauliflower soup and 1/2 sandwich, it seemed like the hipster place in town from the other folks who were there. Fortified, we walked around the town and the many shops (oh the sweaters!) and went to the the famous St. Magnus Cathedral. I have been wanting to sing there ever since we decided to take this trip, so I was prepared with lyrics and sheet music for the Hymn to St Magnus. We explored the church which dates from 1137 in Romanesque style, with tombs of noted people dating back 600 years. There were folks setting up for a big concert that night as part of the St. Magnus International Festival, and all of the performances were happening after we left the island, but it meant that there was a good bit of noise going on so I figured I could sing without disturbing anyone. I went to the northeast corner by the altar, waited until most of the people had left the area, and started to sing, which Barney recorded. I could see folks listening, so I stopped after one verse. Barney indicated I should go on, so I waited again for folks to clear and sang verses 2 and 3, using a fairly quiet voice, but I could tell that people stopped talking. I was so glad to have the chance to do this, and several people told me how beautiful it was and asked what the music was. Really a dream fulfilled for me!
As we left the Cathedral, we saw a group of young mean tying another man to a stone monument out front with plastic wrap, and they were all coated with oil or something similar …it seemed like a bachelor party activity. After fully wrapping him and dumping more beer and whisky on his head, they left, yelling and beating their truck with a stick. An interesting ritual indeed. Back to the ship on the tender, and some time to catch up on my blog and do some work emails. Tonight we have dinner in the Chef’s Table whihc appears to be a pan-Asian menu.
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