A splendid passage from Lewis to Orkney overnight, much of it now in midsummer daylight, gave us great views of the dramatic coastline of North-East Scotland as we rounded Cape Wrath in uncharacteristically calm conditions and approached the Northern Isles. The passage marked a cultural transition, from the Gaelic-speaking realm of the Hebrides to islands that celebrate their Norse heritage. Our morning excursion focussed on the archipelago’s unique archaeological heritage that has earned Mainland Orkney UNESCO World Heritage status. The Neolithic village of Skara Brae, the megalithic henge monument known as the Ring of Brodgar as well as small group visits to the Maeshowe chambered burial chamber and the dramatic if incomplete Stones of Stenness were all taken in. These monuments date back some five thousand years and the richness of the archaeological record here is unique to northern Europe.
Orkney is also a destination for naturalists with significant populations of wading birds and other species that elsewhere are in great decline: it is heartening to see flocks of lapwings in the fields and to here the haunting piping of the curlew as they descend to their nesting sites on the islands wetlands. Orkney is rich agricultural land with beef and dairy herds being raised alongside traditional meadowlands, several of which are being managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, one of Britain’s largest charities. The islands have attracted craftsmen, notably artists and jewellers. They have produced writers of prose and poetry, notably George Mackay Brown, a native of Stromness and a composer of world stature in the late Peter Maxwell Davies. Many of us enjoyed some free time in the cheerful city of Kirkwall at the close of the day, with its wonderful red sandstone cathedral dedicated to St Magnus whose story is told in the Orkneyinga Saga, another important link with the archipelago’s Norse heritage.
In the evening we returned to our buses for an hour’s drive to the Community Hall in Birsay for a traditional evening tea of cold cuts and sandwiches, scones and cake.
