Sunday June 17th

It's so strange having so much light for so long!  Last night at around 11:30 it was still quite light outside.  We had been experiencing this for a while up in northern Scotland so it was no different to that, but it was weird.  It's not the land of the midnight sun, but I don't think it really gets dark until around midnight, and it probably gets light again around 4am.  In our cottage we didn't have any curtains, we had blinds.  Which are fine to an extent, but it really doesn't prevent the room from getting bright when it does outside...!  Still, I think we managed to sleep until around 6am and from then on we were dozing until around 7am when our alarm went off, just because it was light outside.  I had contemplated buying an eye mask before this holiday as well....!

So, today we had originally decided to stay on the mainland and explore the east side of the island, until we discovered that most shops in Kirkwall would be closed on Sunday.  I know it kind of makes a little sense, but I think the further north you go in the UK and certainly the more remote you get, there is less of a chance of things being open on Sundays.  So, we decided to explore the west mainland instead, as more things would be open.  I had found a craft trail booklet in our cottage which I was interested in, and we thought it would be a good idea to pop by these workshops en route to the other places we were planning on visiting.  As it was Sunday we expected them to be closed today, but I thought there was no harm in checking them out, because if they were closed we wouldn't be spending much time there...or much money!  Most of these places – if not all of them – sell their work in other places, such as Stronmness and Kirkwall, so we'll get a chance to see it at some point anyway.  We just might not have a huge selection of their work to see because I imagine they would probably have more at their workshops.

So, this morning the weather was chilly, windy and grey although strangely bright.  Today we started off on our way to the Stones of Stenness, but first we stopped off at Unstan Neolithic Chambered Cairn.  Human bones including a crouched skeleton were discovered in here when it was excavated in 1884 and 1934, and this one has a modern roof.  In actual fact, the passageway into the Cairn was very easy to get through by crouching only – no need to go onto our hands and knees!

Next we arrived at the Standing Stones of Stenness, one of the earliest stone circles in Britain.  Originally this circle consisted of 11 or 12 stones, surrounded by a wide ditch crossed by a single causeway, both of which can be seen today.  In the centre of the circle there was a hearth.  The name Stenness comes from the old Norse “Stein-nes” meaning “stone promontory”.  There were probably more stones and sites in the landscape, and it's easy to come to this conclusion when you keep coming across random stones in the Orkney landscape.  Behind the stones is the “Barnhouse Village”, which surprised archaeologists in 1984 during excavations, what with being so close to the Stones of Stenness.

On our way to the Ring of Brodger, we went across the Ness of Brodgar, the causeway through the mainland.  Excavations have been taking place here recently, although they aren't currently open to the public, but they have discovered a walled enclosure surrounding a number of structures, one building measuring over 20 metres in length.  Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t open – it’s a student dig which runs for 6 weeks a year and tours only take place then – we were a couple of weeks too early.

When we arrived at the Ring of Brodgar, it seemed like we had timed our visit perfectly – there was a coach party in the process of leaving!  There were a few other people there but in general it wasn't very busy, which meant that we were able to get some photos without having many people in them.  We also discovered that the area around it is being left alone for wildlife purposes, and is part of an RSPB nature reserve – we discovered that it was home to quite a few Northern March Orchids!

We visited Skara Brae next, again our timing seemed to be good, as there weren't many coach parties in and some were leaving.  Before we left Skara Brae we went onto the beach – unplanned because my bottle of water had dropped out of my bag and fell down over the wall into the sand!  After rescuing it, we went onward to the Brough of Birsay.

On the way, we stopped off on one of the craft trail workshops.  We had already passed one which looked closed but we took a chance with this one – Fluke Jewellery – and we weren't expecting it to be open...but as we were about to leave, I noticed the “Open” sign on the door.  We went in and discovered a little shop with a workshop behind it.  He made silver into various shapes of wildlife – shells, starfish, dolphins, whales, flowers, puffins...and of course, flukes – which are whale tails.  He is the only silversmith who makes fluke pendants which are species specific, which would definitely appeal to whale lovers!!  I had been eyeing up a shell pendant in the booklet and I decided to get it when I saw it there.  It's a “Venus Shell” pendant, although it was listed as a charm, but it was the same size as the pendant on the chain.  Well, I have plenty of chains, I don't really need any more right now...!  We told him where we were off to next, and he suggested a place on Birsay where we could possibly see some Puffins, as they are out and about in June....

Leaving the workshop, we continued on to the Brough of Birsay.  At Skara Brae we had discovered the tidal times for today – as this Brough is only accessible when the tide is out.  It turns out that we timed our visit perfectly with the tides, so after eating lunch in the car, we headed off out there.  Before the Norse came to Orkney, Pictish people lived on the Brough, of which several houses have been excavated.  Traces of these can be seen today, including a Pictish stone in the 'graveyard', and you can also see Norse houses, along with a 12^th century church. 

After exploring these ruins, we took a walk out on the Brough and went pretty much all the way around it.  There were plenty of sea birds around but we didn't find any Puffins until we were almost back at the ruins again!  We saw them in flight, but they didn't land.  There were plenty of burrows around which they could have been using, but we didn't see anyone at home while we were there at least.  But yey!  We saw some Puffins at last, even if they were just in flight!  We may yet get to see them elsewhere on the Orkney Islands.

Next we went to the Brough of Gurness.  This was a strong, circular tower of the Iron Age (around 500BC), and the walls of this one stand around 2 metres or so in height.  Made of dry stone, we could walk through the doorway which wasn't too low and inside were all the familiar looking chambers and a hearth in the centre.  Around the outside of the main tower, are small dwellings, a village.  It turns out that we can only see part of the settlement, as the sea has eroded away the rest of it.  The entire complex is surrounded by a number of banks and ditches encircling the site.  Midhowe on Rousay is located just across the water from the Broch of Gurness, and is very similar to this one.

We went on to Tingwall to the Jetty in order to book a ferry to Rousay for tomorrow.  Unfortunately the office wasn't open as it was Sunday, so it looked like we would just have to turn up and hope for the best....but we thought we might just call the office tomorrow morning and find out if we can reserve a space on the ferry over.  We weren't planning on going over until 10:20am which isn't the earliest crossing.  We were planning on three island trips on this holiday- Rousay, Hoy and Westray – and we were planning on breaking them up with days on the mainland in between.  We thought we might be able to book ourselves on the ferries to the other islands at the same time, so we had no idea what was in store for us until Monday morning – tomorrow.

On the way to the cottage, we stopped off at Maes Howe although we knew that there would be a possibility that we wouldn't be able to book ourselves on a guided tour, as this is the only way of seeing it.  When we got in, the bookings were almost full, and we were lucky enough to get a place on a later tour at 6pm.  So we went back to the cottage and popped out again in time for the last tour of the day.  Mathew was amazed at how many runes there were inside!

Maes Howe is the finest chambered tomb in north west Europe, and is dated to around 5,000 years ago.  The roof of the main chamber is a corbelled vault.  Its top was removed by the Norse when being used for shelter, and later by Victorians and the current (and shabbily built!) roof was built in the early 1860s.  It is largely believed to have been used for communal burials, but it has been difficult for experts to say what it was definitely used for, as it has been disturbed so many times in the past, and bone fragments discovered here are now lost.  Around midwinter the sun shines through the passageway and lights the back of the chamber for three weeks before and after the shortest day of the year (21^st December).  The walls are covered in runes – basically graffitti – which the Norse are believed to have inscribed into the stone during a stay of 2 days there.

After our guided tour of Maes Howe, we went back to the visitor centre, bought the guidebook which had info on  quite a few other neolithic sites in Orkney, and went back to the cottage for dinner.  Tomorrow we would try and get on a boat to Rousay!