The Orkneys

The Orkneys are a group of islands that begin 20 miles north of John O'Groats across the notorious Pentland Firth and the tidal race known as The Merry Men of May; there isn't much merry about the place, under certain conditions, the race pushes up standing waves of a size able to sink small vessels! The Orkneys are made up of 9 principal Islands, the largest being named 'Mainland' an island 20 miles north of , well, the Mainland , another rather larger island!!




The Orkneys are quite different from anything we have seen on the west coast of Scotland. Instead of a harsh, rocky, weather beaten landscape the Orkneys are straight out of rural England with gently rolling lush green countryside dotted with many fresh water lakes. Certainly one can see why agricultural Neolithic man settled here so abundantly 5000 years ago. Neolithic Man must have been all over Scotland and England but there are an enormous number of relics here, surviving perhaps because of the generally sparse population and little industrialisation of the landscape. The best know relics are of course stone circles, very abundant in varying sizes all over the islands.







Other discoveries have been the entire remains of a Neolithic village at Scara Brea on Mainland and Maes-Howe, a large burial or ceremonial chamber. In 1930 an entire small village was discovered at Scara Brea after a viscious storm blew all the covering sand away, revealing small stone houses with the stone cots, hearth and even larder shelves still standing exactly as they were left 5000 years ago!

Mike and I are now heading home and leaving the boat in Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkneys. I will be back to finish off the trip on 17 July for two weeks when we will explore the rest of the Orkneys, head another 60 miles north to the Shetlands then back down to the Scottish mainland where I will leave the boat for the winter. Bye for now, see you back in the Orkneys in 3 weeks!