Orkney Mainland - a look beyond the obvious

I have now visited Orkney 6 times of a period of 36 years but every time I visit I find something new to visit.  Sometimes the things really are new since my last visit but often they have been there all along but I just haven't noticed them or haven't ventured off the beaten track to visit them.  

On my last visit I stayed 10 nights at the excellent Kirkwall Youth Hostel but was surprised by how little time most visitors spent on Orkney.  Those with a day or 2 to spend are most likely to visit Skara Brae, Maes Howe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Stromness, the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel.  Those staying a week are likely to also visit the Broch of Gurness, the coast at Yesnaby, the Kitchener Memorial at Marwick Head, the Ness of Brodgar, the Brough of Birsay, the Earl's Palace at Birsay, the Bishop's and Earl' Palaces in Kirkwall, the Round Church and Earl's Bu at Orphir, Orkney Museum, the Gloup and  the farm museums at Kirbuster and Corrigall.

In this post I want to highlight some of the places those with a bit more time to spend on Orkney Mainland may like to visit.

Totem Pole at St Mary's
This was carved as part of a community project in 2007.

 Newark Bay

St Magnus Window at St Magnus Church at Birsay

The church was built in 1064 and rebuilt in 1664 and 1760. This is reputedly where St Magnus's body was taken after his murder on Egilsay by his cousin Haakon in 1115.  His remains were later reinterred in St Magnus Cathedral. This beautiful stained glass window, which was designed by Shona McInnes of Keith in Morayshire, was dedicated in 2013. The votive candle represents the theme of light and is a universal symbol of prayer.

Deck gun salvaged from HMS Hampshire

The ship sank off Marwick Head in June 1916 when it hit a German mine. Lord Kitchener and over 700 sailors died.  Only 12 made it to shore alive.

 A novel way to reuse a broken microwave oven - turn it into a postbox!

 Covenanters' Memorial at Deerness

Covenanters were 17th century Scottish Presbyterians who expressed their convictions by the signing of covenants.   They opposed the re-imposition of bishops in the Church of Scotland after the Restoration in 1660 and were persecuted as a result.  In 1679 a Covenanters uprising was supressed at Bothwell Brig and 1,200 Covenanters were taken prisoner in Edinburgh.  Some were executed and many others were released after submitting.  The remaining 250 were to be shipped off to America to work as slaves on the plantations there. However on their journey there from Leith, their ship the Crown of London took shelter from a storm off Deerness but was driven on to the rocks after her anchor chain broke.  The captain refused to let the Covenanters out of the hold and most of them drowned.  Only about 47 of the Covenanters made it to the shore at Deerness and most of them were recaptured and shipped off to slavery in New Jersey or Jamaica.  A monument was erected in 1888 on the cliffs at Deerness opposite where the ship went down.

Trig Point on Wideford Hill

This is the highest point on Orkney Mainland at 225 metres above sea level.  However it is very easy to access by car, as there is a road running right to the top.

Remains of a Royal Observer Corps Post on the summit of Wideford Hill.  

This was one of a network of ROC monitoring posts across the whole of Britain constructed during the Cold War.  This site was operational from 1960 until 1991.

 Doocot at Hall of Rendall

This doocot (dovecote) was erected in 1648. Pigeons were an important food source for wealthier people during the winter months when other food sources were scarce.  The use of doocots declined after turnips were introduced from Sweden in the 18th century, as these provided winter food for people as well as cattle. The four rings of protruding stone were to prevent rats from getting into it.  The birds entered through a hole in the top of the doocot.  This type of doocot is known as a beehive and it is the only one of its kind to have survived on Orkney.
 

An unusual tombstone in St Magnus Cathedral

 Murals at Kirkwall Airport

Fresson Cairn in a layby overlooking Kirkwall Airport
The plaque reads “On 8th May 1933 Capt Ted Fresson in Highland Airways Monospar G-ACEW landed the first scheduled air service from Inverness on this site which was Orkney’s first aerodrome”.  The cairn was erected in 2008.

Ernest Edmund (Ted) Fresson Memorial outside Kirkwall Airport

Binscarth Wood

3 hectares of coniferous and broadleaved woodland planted in a sheltered valley over 100 years ago on the western edge of Finstown.  For those who like me get tree withdrawal symptoms during visits to Orkney, this is a truly lovely place to visit.
 

 Khyber Pass, Stromness style!

 Groatie Hoose inTankerness House Gardens, Kirkwall

The volcanic stones used to build this folly came from the ballast used in the ship belonging to pirate John Gow.  After he was captured the stones were used by John Traill, an Edinburgh merchant who had retired to Orkney, to build a summerhouse in the garden of his house on Bridge Street.  The house later became a hotel but burnt down in 1938 and was demolished and the site rebuilt on.  The Groatie Hoose remained in Bridge Street until it was moved stone by stone to its current location in 2005.

A rocky armchair in Tankerness House Gardens - I didn't try it out because it was pouring with rain

Fishermen's hut at Skipi/Skiba Geo near Birsay

Whale bone on a post at Skipi/Skiba Geo with the Brough of Birsay in the background

This is thought to be the back of the skull of a right whale, which washed ashore here in around 1876.

 

 Dr John Rae's Memorial in St Magnus Cathedral

Rae was born in Orphir in 1813. He became an Arctic explorer and discovered the fate of the Franklin expedition and the final link in the North West Passage.  He died in London in 1893 and was buried in the cathedral grounds. There is a bronze statue of him in Stromness, which was designed by the sculptor Ian Scott from North Ronaldsay and was unveiled in 2013

John Rae's statue in Stromness

Royal Oak Memorial at Scapa

This was officially unveiled in 2011.  It commemorates the sinking of the HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow on 14th October 1939 by a German U-boat with the loss of 833 lives.

 

 

 Royal Oak Memorial Garden at Scapa

Waterfall on the coast path by Scapa Distillery

 Barnhouse Stone

Deepdale Standing Stone

War Memorial at Norseman Village - am I the only one who thinks this resembles a rocket?

Login's Well, Stromness

This well was used by many mariners as their last chance to stock up on fresh water for hundreds if not thousands of miles.  Captain James Cook and Sir John Franklin were some of the famous explorers who used it, along with the ships belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company and many merchant vessels.  The well was sealed up in 1931.

 Restored fishermen's hut at Sand Geo to the south of Marwick

Barony Mills at Birsay

This working watermill was built in 1873 and specialises in milling bere - an ancient form of barley. 

Stone seat near the beach at Warebeth 

I think this may have been a temporary feature

Island 283 - Eilean Dubh, Loch Eriboll, Highland

Eilean Dubh is a small uninhabited tidal island located on the west coast of Loch Eriboll 500 metres to the south of the island of A' chleit.  It is about 800 metres long by 400 metres wide, 10 metres above sea level at its highest point and it is covered in heather and rough grass.  It is only cut off for a short while at high tide.  It was unclear from the Ordnance Survey map whether it ever gets completely cut off but there were small amounts of loose seaweed strewn across the whole of the rocky causeway, which indicated to me that it is sometimes cut off.

The geology map shows that the eastern side of the island is composed of pipe rock while the west is composed of false bedded quartzite.  Both rocks are members of the Eriboll Sandstone Formation and were formed in the Cambrian Period.

 Looking north up the west coast of Loch Eriboll towards A' chleit

 West coast of Loch Eriboll from Eilean Dubh

 East coast of Eilean Dubh looking south - pipe rock

 Rocky outcrop of pinkish quartzite on the west side of Eilean Dubh

 Looking north up the west coast of Eilean Dubh

Looking south down a spit of land from the west coast of Loch Eriboll towards Eilean Dubh

Island 282 - A' chleit, Loch Eriboll, Highland

A' chleit is a small low lying grass covered tidal island located off the west coast of Loch Eriboll.  It is approximately 200 metres long by 80 metres wide and the highest point is 10 metres above sea level.  The grass on the island is much better quality than that on the mainland, a fact which hasn't gone unnoticed by the local sheep. The geology in this part of Scotland is extremely complicated but the geology map of Loch Eriboll that I looked at shows A' chleit as being composed of a different Cambrian rock type to the mainland to which it is adjacent.

There is no path down to the island from the A838.  I parked in a layby almost opposite the island where there was a handy gate, so I didn't have to climb over the barbed wire fence.  It was then a 500 metre walk across boggy grassland to access the beach.  A rough rocky track runs along behind the beach to allow the fish farm staff to access their fish tanks.  You can see some of them in the loch on the left hand side of the photo below.

This was a landmark island for me, as it marks the point when I had visited as many offshore islands as there currently are Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet). I decided long ago that I wasn't going to collect Munros, as I don't like endlessly walking uphill. In fact I have never been up a single Munro and have no intention of doing so.  I much prefer islands but set myself the challenge of visiting as many islands as there are Munros.  Challenge completed!

 Causeway still covered an hour or so after high tide

 A' chleit

 The local sheep are attracted by the superior grazing offered by the island.  However they thought I was dangerous and made their way back to the mainland as soon as they could.

 Small cairn on the top of A 'chleit

 If you look carefully you can see the sheep on their way back across the rocky causeway to the mainland.

Have these rocks been smoothed by the passage of glaciers over them during the last ice age?

 Looking south down the east coast of A' chleit

Island 281 - Eilean Creagach, Talmine, Highland

Eilean Creagach is linked to the mainland by a concrete causeway.  It forms the outer part of the small harbour at the small village of Talmine on the west coast of Tongue Bay.  It is a rocky island topped with grass and thrift.  The island is round and about 100 metres in diameter.  Its highest point is about 10 metres above sea level.  The remains of a navigation cairn or beacon are located on the summit of the island.  The island's rocks are covered in pale grey/green, orange, black and white lichens.

 Talmine Harbour from Eilean Creagach

 Talmine village from Eilean Creagach

 Talmine Harbour and Eilean Creagach

Back of Talmine Harbour and Eilean Creagach.  Looking south across a field of daisies, orchids and birds foot trefoil

Island 280 - Knowe of Skea, Westray, Orkney

The Knowe of Skea is a small tidal island off the south west coast of Westray at Berst Ness.  It is probably only inaccessible at high spring tides. It is about 150 metres in diameter and is 12 metres above sea level at its highest point.

There is a waymarked path down to the beach at Mae Sand from the farm at Langskaill.  Thankfully most of the path is fenced off from the over curious cows.  Once you reach the beach it is a short stroll along the beach and then up onto the low grass covered cliffs on the outside of the fields.  The short rocky causeway between Westray and the Knowe of Skea is mainly seaweed free and easy to negotiate.

Knowe of Skea is covered in grass and when I visited in June 2015 buttercups, clover, thrift, bird's foot trefoil and daisies were all in flower.  There were also a few patches of nettles.  There were plenty of seabirds to be seen around the island - black guillemots, terns, fulmars, various gulls, oystercatchers, ducks - and a few seals.

There is a mound on the top of Knowe of Skea, which is thought to be the remains of an Iron Age funerary complex. Hundreds of graves were found during archaeological excavations in 2004 and 2006.  There is also evidence of metalworking on the island. The site is beginning to be eroded by the sea.

Mae Sand

Knowe of Skea from Mae Sand

Mae Sand from Knowe of Skea

Looking north up the west coast of Westray from Knowe of Skea

Funerary complex on Knowe of Skea

Archaeological site on Knowe of Skea

Bakie Skerry off the south coast of Knowe of Skea

Westray from Knowe of Skea - tidal causeway

Knowe of Skea from Westray