Orkney! Day 1: Mainland and Rousay!

So here we are, back again for our third annual Scottish island bagging tour. This year, a week in Orkney was the plan, with an itinerary put together skillfully by Liam, a long long drive to Scrabster to start us off, boats, planes and hostels all worked out, and a haul of more than twenty islands the intention. First of all, an introduction to the 2013 Orkney crew. You've met me and Liam before (if you haven't, there's a lot of reading for you to do!), with us this year were my charming (not to mention very patient and all round good sport) girlfriend Terri (previous island count - about five; island bagging skills - photo taking, hiking, and being a good tide-coming-in spotter), and Rob, who has known Liam since forever, and who I first met when they both accidentally went to the wrong class at school about sixteen years ago (previous island count - not many; island bagging skills - snacks). You can see them in the picture below practicing their very best thumbs up poses. 

Terri, Rob and Liam on the ferry to Stromness

Anyway, so it was, after meeting in Chesterfield late on Friday night, and a twelve hour drive through the night we got to Scrabster just in time for the ferry, an hour and a half to Stromness, across the Pentland Firth and past the Old Man of Hoy - one of the most iconic landmarks of Orkney, and although when we passed it was pretty misty and damp, half the people on the boat were out taking photos - mine wasn't the best. Soon after, we were cruising into Hoy Sound and docked on the mainland (1) at Stromness. 

The Old Man of Hoy. Better pictures are available!

 We were immediately drawing comparisons to last years trip to Shetland, Orkney is an archipelago of similar size and population, but it's situation so much closer to the Scottish mainland initially gave it a feel less remote and perhaps more accessible. The mainland itself contains the two main towns of Kirkwall and Stromness, as well as a whole host of world class neolithic sites, listed as a UNESCO heritage site because of their archaeological significance. More on them later, however. The rest of the sixty or so main islands of the group are split into the South Isles and the more remote and more sparsely populated North Isles, with both ferries and planes providing connections between them all. 

We didn't get a chance to have much of a look at Stromness, however, as the itinerary demanded a quick blast in the car around the western mainland to the ferry port at Tingwall, where we parked up and set out on foot on a second smaller ferry to Rousay (2), where we would be spending our first Orkney night. Rousay is an island 13.1 miles around, if you go on the road, we knew this because of the upcoming race around the island, and is home to slightly more than two hundred people. It's one of the hillier and more rugged islands of Orkney, to the north west of the mainland, separated by the narrow Eynhallow Sound. 

Terminal

Ferry number two - Tingwall to Rousay

We jumped off the twenty minute boat and carried our bags up the hill in the direction of the hostel, at the Trumland Organic Farm just a few hundred yards from the pier. However, we had only made it an even shorter distance before we were accosted by a man coming out of the pub. Who were we, where we staying, did we want a lift? Did we want a drink? He said he would arrange it all for us, so we happily joined him (Jock) for a mid-afternoon pint. Whilst we waited for our lift (it turned out just a lift for the bags, but it was hardly that far anyway) we talked to Jock about the smaller islands around Rousay, and whether we would be able to get there. 

Rousay - Island #2

Eynhallow is a small island in the Eynhallow Sound (obviously) with a ruined church and it's used for sheep grazing, but apparently the man with a boat that might have been able to take us had family visiting from New Zealand, so perhaps he might be too busy (too bad). The Holm of Skokness, situated around to the East and in between Rousay and Egilsay is smaller again, and to get there we would apparently have to traverse the land owned by new blood in the island and it didn't seem likely that we'd be able to get there either. It seemed therefore that we would have to settle for getting to know Rousay instead, so after getting our bearings at the hostel we decided to take a leisurely stroll along the road the the Midhowe Broch at 

Westness. 

The view from the hostel

The view of the hostel

 This is one of the more important sites in Orkney, let alone Rousay, with a huge burial chamber preserved under a modern cover, the Broch itself (pretty good, but not as good as Mousa, we've clearly been spoiled on the Broch front) and a chain of further ruinous buildings along the coast, tracing history from neolithic man, through vikings settlers and medieval farmers right up to the present day.

Blackhammer Chambered Cairn. One of many Chambered Cairns you will see

I hadn't slept for thirty hours and had just walked five miles. Tired face.

Midhowe Broch

Looking down Eynhallow Sound from the Broch

Neolithic living room

It was a long long time, however, before we were able to find any of this out, and this is probably a good time to introduce the concept of the 'Orkney Mile'. Whenever someone on Orkney says something is a mile away, it takes three times as long to walk it as it does anywhere else, so the five miles from the hostel the Broch, a half hour poke around, and then the five mile walk back again, after a night in the car without a bed, and a full days exploring on top, left us more than ready for a simple meal of pasta, a glass of wine and a game of cards before winding down for bed. Day one done, two new islands, but this was just a gentle reintroduction to the island bagging ways (and with the 'hearty' walk, a bit of a baptism of fire, perhaps? Tomorrow? A-Hoy!

Sunset over Eynhallow