Orkney Vignettes

As the Isles of Orkney are surrounded by the North Sea, their climate is much moderated by large bodies of water. In consequence, I was looking forward to a seasonal holiday break on the Isle of Westray, well away from the deep winter chill of Angus. 

Whoops! Snow has now descended upon the whole of Orkney closing roads, schools and hotels; and cancelling flights and ferries, This morning I helped dig my host's car out of a snowdrift. He arrived back at his house last night, having walked from his abandoned vehicle, looking very much the worse for exposure. The additional challenge is the ever present wind on Orkney, which has no problem gathering snow into heavy drifts.

momentary sunshine and persistent snow on Westray

Ironically, checking the CCTV at Balintore Castle, there has only been light snow which has been melting in the bright sunshine.

I have been discussing the various options with my host (Mark) and my fellow guest (Liza). One is to escape Westray this evening while it is still possible(?) as there is an amber weather warning for tonight from the UK Met Office. Alternatively, we could aim to leave tomorrow evening as planned, but run the risk of being stuck on the island.

The outdoor exposure from the wind is pretty intense. I managed a 5 minute walk on a beach a few days ago before a severe ice-cream headache set-in. Then a couple of days ago, I managed a 10 minute beach walk. On the return leg against the wind it was almost impossible to make any progress and at times it was all I could do to remain in the same spot. I had wisely tested walking into the wind before setting off, but even then I regretted the ambition of my outward leg.

I spotted some bright red sea anemones in the rock pools. In Prestwick where I grew up the sea anemones were a rather dull purple brown. so discovering these brightly coloured marine invertebrates was a thrill. I believe that these are called "Beadlet Anemones" due to a ring of blue spots round the top of the column which I did not see in person and cannot be made out from Liza's low resolution image.

Westray rockpool with anemone

The bedrock on the beach is fractured at exactly 120 degrees. This jumps out to the mathematically minded. Does anyone have an explanation? Perhaps this is similar to the hexagonal columns of the Giants Causeway, which reputedly is due to lava shrinking in an energy efficient manner.

Westray beach bedrock: 120 degree fracturing

Liza and myself had a day on the main isle of Orkney (confusingly called the mainland) en route to the outer isle of Westray. Most tourist attractions were closed, but the magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral in the capital of Kirkwall was still open, and a fantastic guide came up to us to volunteer some of the building's stories. She pointed out the column that St. Magnus (1080-1117) was built into. A Victorian bishop cleared out all the burials in the floor of the cathedral on hygiene ground. The bones were discovered in a wooden box in the column in 1919. These are now in the Kirkwall Museum, and while the skeleton is not complete, for such a large number of intact bones to survive from 1117 is remarkable.

St. Magnus's hidey-hole

She also pointed out a 12th Century sheila na gig in an otherwise plain column capital, surrounded by more ornate capitals. I won't go into nature of a sheila na gig, but "graphic" would cover it. :-)

St. Magnus Cathedral: sheila na gig

Liza picked up a leaflet on the St. Magnus Trail at the cathedral, and given the lack of open attractions, a road trip connecting St. Magnus sites on the mainland was just the ticket. It worked out really well as we saw parts of the island (away from the famous neolithic sites) that you would never normally go to. All of the stop-off points on the trail were churches, and the vast majority of these were either locked up as a result of being "surplus to requirements" or now converted to private homes. However, many auxiliary serendipitous attractions were en route. 

The standout for me was the 16th Century "Earl's Palace" at Birsay. As we headed to Birsay church, another ruined structure appeared on the horizon. I immediately knew it was my type of building, and as we walked around there was no doubt as to the quality of this unexpected structure. I was hit by a very strong feeling that this building should be restored for people to see in all its original magnificence. The contrast between the scale of the hamlet of Birsay (no more than 10 houses) and the scale of the palace spoke to me that the past is often a very a different country.

Birsay Earl's Palace

Birsay Church

Birsay Earl's Palace - keep clicking for panorama 

The round church at Orphir, based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was Liza's standout. I liked the Earl's Bu there, which is the remains of a 12th Century drinking hall.

Orphir Circular Church

Earl's Bu at Orphir

I was surprised that there were a lot of Johnston's (the exact spelling of my surname!) in the associated graveyard. In fact, I even found myself sitting on the fence.

Johnston gravestone at Orphir

sitting on the fence at Birsay

I liked the cruciform church at Dounby from 1947. I had seen nothing like this before stylistically but someone had had a go! :-) 

Dounby Church

In the middle of nowhere we ran into the "Orkney Antique Centre". It was exactly like how an old-fashioned antique shop should be. Liza and I chatted to the owner Alec and he asked us to spread the word, so I took a picture for the blog.  There were no other customers, so I bought a couple of repro swords for £40.  Balintore has been in a weapon deficit ever since the burglary which emptied the castle of all implements of warfare.

Orkney Antique Centre

The Broch of Gurness was my first ever broch. This unexpected encounter with the past has been a longstanding and outstanding tickbox of mine. It feels like a neolithic site, but in fact brochs extended into the Christian era being built from 400BC to 100AD. And indeed this site was reckoned to have been occupied for roughly this 500 year period.

Broch of Gurness

Liza and I were looking for the broch for ages. The fact that it did not appear in the landscape despite the fact we were close was rather concerning - how ruinous and unimpressive was this going to be? In the end we were delighted to find a substantial structure, with an evocative interior. You could still feel that this would have made a comfortable and safe home for a community.

And to finish: a photo from the deck of the ferry at the end of the day going from the mainland to Westray!

Westray ferry by moonlight