O RKNEY
/ Terry Marsh visits a northern archipelago
S
cratch the surface of Orkney and it
bleeds history, prehistory mostly.
You have only to spend a day or
so on Orkney to realise that the wealth
of Neolithic remains – chambered
cairns, standing stones, souterrains
and stone circles – is a stunning legacy,
bequeathed by distant ancestors. No
wonder then that in 1999 ‘Neolithic
Orkney’ was awarded World Heritage
Status.
Just 10km north of the coast of
mainland Scotland at its nearest, Orkney
is a group of 70 islands and skerries
scattered across the Pentland Firth like
rose petals before a bride. Only twenty
of the islands are inhabited, and most
of those linked by ferries or motorable
causeways.
Kirkwall, on the island known as
Mainland, is the main town, a settlement
first mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga
in the year 1046 when it is recorded as
the residence of Rögnvald Brusason,
the Earl of Orkney. In terms of size,
it is rivalled only by narrow-streeted
Stromness, birthplace of Eliza Fraser,
who in 1835, survived shipwreck on
the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, was
captured by Aboriginal people, but went
on not only to provide a name for Fraser
Island, but to become a legendary figure
in Australian history.
The Ring of Brodgar, Maes Howe,
the Stones of Stennes and Skara Brae
are the most renowned and popular
prehistoric sites, but the whole ensemble
constitutes a major prehistoric cultural
landscape – arguably the best and most
important in Western Europe − that gives
12 Outdoor focus | summer 2019
GETTING THERE
Fly to Kirkwall Airport with
Loganair, from Inverness,
Glasgow, Edinburgh and
Sumburgh.
www.loganair.co.uk
Northlink Ferries operate
car ferry services from both
Aberdeen (to Kirkwall) and
Scrabster (to Stromness).
www.northlinkferries.co.uk
Pentland Ferries run a
catamaran service from Gills
Bay to St Margaret’s, Hope
(the shortest crossing to
Orkney).
www.pentlandferries.co.uk
John o’Groats Ferries operate
a summer-only pedestrian
service between John
o’Groats and Burwick on
South Ronaldsay
www.jogferry.co.uk
Tourist information
Destination Orkney, The Travel
Centre, West Castle Street,
Kirkwall, Orkney KW15 1GU.
Tel: +44 (1856) 872856.
[email protected]
www.orkney.com
www.terrymarsh.com
a graphic depiction of life in this remote
archipelago some 5,000 years ago.
For my money, the Broch of Gurness
exceeds Skara Brae in its extent,
construction and intrigue, and thankfully
lies too far from the cruise ship port in
Kirkwall for it ever to need the kind of
management introduced at Skara Brae
and Maes Howe since my first visit over
twenty years ago. Likewise, the smaller
(hands-and-knees) chambered cairns
on Cuween Hill and Wideford Hill are
miniature versions of Maes Howe, while
the Tomb of the Eagles, which you have
to enter lying on your back on a pulley, is
a remarkable Stone Age tomb well worth
seeking out (ND470846) at the southern
tip of South Ronaldsay, and discovered
only as recently as 1950.
The Brough of Birsay, too, is a
fascinating place (HY239285), not
least because you can only get to it, by
a constructed pedestrian causeway, at
low tide. Thankfully, the tourist office
in Kirkwall put out a daily ‘What’s On’
pdf, which also gives the low tide times
at Birsay. And while you’re waiting, take
time out to visit the nearby Earl’s Palace,
a ruined 16th-century castle, built by
Robert Stewart, illegitimate son of King
James V and his mistress.
New archaeological discoveries are
being made each year, even in the centre
of Kirkwall where road improvements
recently exposed sections of the 14th-
century Kirkwall Castle built without
royal consent by Earl Henry Sinclair
at a time when Orkney was still ruled
by Scandinavian kings. There are
excavations at older sites that continue
Fulmars >