Scotland - Day 4

I don't know if I can do this day justice, but here we go...

The hotel served a full traditional Scottish breakfast with sausage, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, egg, and a roll. They also had granola and oatmeal available. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach and collected more shells. The rocks were slippery, and we had to be careful to avoid the limpets that were still alive. Laney found a crab pincer.

We drove up to John O' Groats to board the ferry to the Orkney Islands. It was chilly so we rode inside on the way. We landed on the southeast island of South Ronaldsay where we boarded the tour bus. The tour guide told us about the history of the islands including economy and agriculture. The history during World Wars I & II seemed particularly significant in recent history. It was at that time the Churchill Barriers were built to connect the southeast islands to the main island.

Our first stop was Kirkwall, the capital and largest town. It is home to the magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral and the ruins of the Earl's Palace and the Bishop's Palace. We didn't have long but I took off on a quick mission to try to find the remains of St. Olaf's Kirk to no avail. I wanted to find it because it's the origin of the town's name, but it's not too well known. By that time the sun was out and the weather felt perfect.

Next, we went across the island to the other main town and port of Stromness. We had a snacky lunch featuring Orkney ice cream. I enjoyed the vanilla honeycomb flavour. Then it was off to Skara Brae, the highlight of the tour. It's a neolithic village from about 5,000 years ago. We also toured the nearby Skaill House, a mansion belonging to the noble Breckness family. We went on down the road a ways and stopped at the Ring of Brogar which is a large circle of tall stones somewhat like Stonehenge but bigger in diameter and without any intentionally horizontal stones.

We headed on around the island and back toward the ferry with one last stop at the beautifully painted Italian Chapel where we ran into the members of our group who were backpacking and had time for a quick hello, howdy-do.

Since the sun was out David, Laney, and I rode on the top of the ferry watching the birds and the ocean as we crossed back to John O' Groats. Most of the birds were guillemots, but Laney and I are sure that we saw one puffin. Back on the mainland, we had to hurry to get back to Inverness before the Bed & Breakfast closed. The time crunch meant that by the time we had time for dinner the only places open were take-out, really expensive, or McDonald's so McDonald's it was. I'd say it was about as unimpressive as McDonald's here.