Thurso/Orkney Islands

Quite a site on our Ferry ride

We stayed in Thurso and did walk around there some, but the real reason for stopping there was to take the ferry across to the Orkney Islands.  Thurso is the furthest northern train station in  the UK.  It is a rather small town, but has a long history with a recent 20^th century addition.  The town has had 3 growth spurts so there is old town, Victorian town and the atomic section.  The old is as expected the original town and quite old – we stayed in old town.  The Victorian town is from the Victorian age and is laid out in perfectly straight streets.  The atomic part is from the Dounreay fast reactor that was built there in the 1950s which brought a lot of growth to the area.  The reactor is now being dismantled.

Originally Thurso exported a lot of flatstone and you can see a lot of rocks off the coast line.  Even the floor of part of our B and B was made of that stone.  Our place was a house that had 3 additions over the years and was up a hill a little bit and from our room we had a nice view of the sea. We went for a walk around town our first afternoon there and saw an old abandoned castle and walked around the river Thurs.  

Thurso Castle is only a shell today

The castle did have a large city wall that is still standing on the ocean side

Thurso is a Viking name (Thors River) as it was an important Norse settlement

Old St. Peter’s Kirk founded Circa 1220 closed 1832

Next morning we were up bright and early to catch the ferry over to Stromness in the Orkney islands.  It was a large ferry that even had cabins in it for people to stay – it was kind of part ferry part cruise ship.  It had a restaurant, bar, quiet lounge, and individual cabins.   It was a 1 ½ hour cruise to the Orkney Islands.  People warn you that the crossing can be rough at times – happily it was not bad for us.  It can be bad because you go out into an area where the North Sea meets the North Atlantic ocean so the water can be coming from more than 1 direction at a time.  We did pass a couple of smaller islands along the way.

The quiet lounge

Plush reclining seats made for a good nap on the return

Once we got to Stromness, we met up with our tour guide and group.  It was to be a full day of touring and we were all hoping the rain would hold off since there was some rain in the forecast.  We quickly learned some facts about Orkney that makes them unique in Scotland.  Seems that until 1649 they were part of Denmark (given as part of a dowry) so they never spoke Gaelic like the rest of Scotland which  affects a variety of things around the islands.

Life boat station in Stromness 

The main reason to visit the Orkneys is to explore ancient civilization as in Neolithic ages of civilization some 5,000 years ago.  On the Orkneys you will find the oldest proof of human inhabitation in Europe.  The first site we went to is Skara Brae it had a timeline that you walked along starting with man walking on the moon.  We continued past world wars,  US Independence,  the Aztecs, the Roman Empire, Stonehenge, pretty much every piece of history I could think of.  Skara Brae is an ancient town with several “houses” .  They have also recreated one of them so you can go in it rather than looking down into them.  The houses were built with stacked rocks which is a site you see everywhere in this part of Scotland.  So you have stocked rock walls with a roof of animal skins supported by whale bone.  To improve insultation they would pack the walls with animal debris so the walls became thicker over time.  Each house had a door way with a door, an opening for the smoke to get out which was offset from the fire spot, little boxes that they think were beds and later on an alter that was kind of a shelf of their special items.  It is not known why they left the area but they think it was done gradually.  The area was found in 1850 after a big storm washed away a large area of the shoreline.  The local farmer did some digging on his own and then in the 1920s the professionals moved in.  They know there are more homes under the ocean in a nearby bay.  It is believed when they built Skara Brae they were not that close to the ocean like they are now.   It was amazing to be in the model and to see what they had done 3,000 years before Christ.  In many ways it is very similar to the layout used in the 1800s in a log cabin.

Recreation looking in from doorway

Recreation looking towards entry on right

Each Dwelling opened to this common path and shared an underground drainage system

Each shared a common layout, but grew in size over time

While we were at that stop, we walked up to the old manor home that was there because this was the home of the person who first found Skara Brae and it is now a historic home because of the people who lived there.  It is the Skaill house which was originally built for a bishop as a retirement home.  It is an upscale home that was lived in until the late 1900s.  It is now owned by an earl who lives nearby and has fixed the house up.  There are pictures from when Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mum visited, some gorgeous old clothing, a story of how the farmer used the dining room to store and show off his archeology findings and a story of how it was built on a medieval cemetery and when they replaced the stone flooring on the first floor with wood they found bodies.

Bookcase has a secret compartment to the right of the portrait

From there we went to the Ring of Brodgar.  Guess what:  it had started to rain – sigh oh well.  Out we went for the walk to the ring of the stones.  Ring of Brodgar had 60 stones at one time (36 today) encircled by a very large rock cut ditch.   It’s older than both Stonehenge and the great pyramids.  You can walk around them but not right up to them.  There are a lot of theories as to what their usage was.  But there are some interesting facts like only one entryway into the ring and it is only wide enough for one or two people at a time.  After we were sufficiently damp and had made it all the way around the ring, we headed back to our van.

Our next stop we almost wimped out on since it was still drizzly, but glad we did not.  It was the Standing Stones of Stennness.  These are large stones that were not in a circular pattern and even had one balanced on 2 others as if an alter and these you can get right up next to.  Being right there with them was impressive.

Then it was time for a lunch break before we moved on to the St Magnus Cathedral.  Happily it stopped raining while we ate.  St Magnus Cathedral was built in St Magnus’ honor by his nephew who was not Scottish.  Seems the good St Magnus died as part of a power struggle with his cousin over who would rule the land.  The nephew wanted to reclaim his uncle’s position and at his father's advice offered to build a cathedral in his late uncle’s honor because he had been quite popular with the people.  It worked and the people welcomed the nephew.  The cathedral is a mixture of Romanesque and gothic styles.  It started Romanesque and took so long to complete that part of it ended as gothic.   Only part of the cathedral was immediately roofed leaving a substantial part of it experiencing the elements.  The walls of the non roofed part show the wear and tear on the bricks of a hundred or so years of exposure versus the other part where they are nice and smooth.  It is a non denominational church these days.

From one church to the next built under very different circumstances.  We were off to the Italian Chapel and would see the Scapa Flow, and the Churchill barriers along the way.  Scapa Flow is one of the world’s largest natural harbors.  During World War II, the British were keeping some of its fleet in this harbor when a German submarine got brave and went up the harbor and torpedoed  the HMS Royal Oak killing 700 or so sailors and child sailors (teen agers and boys who were looking to become sailors).  It upset the British generals so much that Churchill who was not yet Prime Minister declared they were going to build barriers to the harbor.  4 were built spanning 1.5 miles.  We saw a couple of them which are now being used as bridges (think a flood plane berm).  These barriers  are made of large stone that was cut into rocks and then capped with concrete blocks.   Much of the work was done by Italian POWs.  While the POWs were there the camp’s Priest requested 2 of the quantum huts as a chapel.  The request was granted and work was begun.  The men used a painting from a holy card for the design behind the alter, and painted the walls with incredible faux frescoes of stones  and railings.  It truly looks like you are inside of a church.  The men were relocated right as the chapel was being completed but the leader of the group was able to stay behind and finish it.  The local people agreed that they would maintain the place.  I had heard of it a couple of years ago, but would never had dreamed of how creative and artistic this group of POWs could be. 

That was the end of our tour so off to the ferry we went. One thing to point out about the Orkneys is that the ruins we saw are far from the only ruins on the islands.  As our tour guide put it you go to dig in most places here and you will find something.  She had a story of a lady who wanted a nice flower garden – well they started to dig and immediately found all sorts of ruins.  Good for archeology but the end of her flower garden.

On our train ride to our next destination, we saw the Energy version of changing of the guard.  Oil rigs from the North Sea were awaiting their turn to be dismantled and the steel melted down.  In another area, you could see large yellow pedestals that we believe are for future wind mills.