Days 5 and 6 of Scotland Trip

Nov 3, 20205 min read

We had an early start on day 5 heading to see the Earl’s Palace in Birsey for 08:30 am. It was so nice not to have any traffic with every road being very well maintained. This is a sizable palace with corner towers and enclosing a yard in the middle. The story is that the local lords who owned it were not nice to the peasants so I wouldn’t be surprised if its haunted. We were the only visitors this early, so it did not take us long to look around before heading off to the Brough of Birsay, an island with a lighthouse and sheep connected to the mainland via a causeway revealed by the tide only at specific times of the day. When we arrived, the tide was just pulling out, but had not completed doing this so we couldn’t walk across. The best part, other than the views, was the hermit crabs we saw moving around in the crystal-clear water. Walking to another headland not to far from the Brough took us to see Skiba Geo, consisting of a fisherman’s hut overlooking a bay. An information board gave a brief history that this site has been used for fishing since Viking times, with the later hut belonging to a family to store their fishing equipment.

Next place to visit was Skara Brae, a very well-preserved prehistoric village dating from circa 3000BC, unknown until strong winds and the sea revealed the huts. The path leading up to it is lined with stones with dates from key historic events and buildings such as first man on the moon, US independence, Inca empire, the pyramids, Stonehenge etc placing Skara Brae in its historic context. The houses are well organised, sunken into the ground and covered with turf, keeping them insulated, with drainage also being built in. House 7, the most well-preserved house, has been reconstructed next to the visitor’s centre for people to go in but unfortunately, it was closed due to not being able to keep to social distancing inside. Later on, that day, we visited Barnhouse Village, a similar site to Skara Brae but with a stone circle nearby that may have been used for ceremonial purposes. The stone circle attached to the village was a small one compared to the Ring of Brodgar we visited just before this one. Both have a outlying stones on the approach to them.

Orkney’s capital of Kirkwall, is a charming city with a red cathedral and a Bishop’s and Earl’s palaces next door to it. Again, these are charming ruins now and were closed on the day we went. The streets a narrow and full of independent shops as well as some of the usual chain ones. We did end up adding whiskey glasses from Highland Park’s distillery to add to our growing collection. These are cheaper than out usual pint glasses and very collectable. Highland Park whisky is too smoky for us, so we didn’t end buying any bottles.

On the way to Stromness to catch our ferry, we stopped by the Broch of Gurness. This was a lot larger site with a later village attached to it. As you walk in, you come across a large Pictish house made up of various rooms before leading onto the rest of the village and the broch. These houses were a lot smaller in size compared to the Pictish one and, although dating from a slightly later period to the broch, both likely continued to be used at the same time. Interesting features in some of the houses included a sunk stone and clay lined holes that were filled with water next to the hearth. There is a suggestion that the holes may have been used to cook stews in by placing hot stones in the water. Some also had grinding stones as well. When we arrived at Stromness, we had some time to kill before the ferry so we wondered around the town and brought a bag of bere flour, an ancient type of barley still grown in the Orkneys, as it is better suited to their shorter summers and colder weather. See here (https://stelladrez.wixsite.com/for-the-love-of-food/post/bere-bannock-bread) for a recipe and how to use the flour. I also brought some Orkney cheddar cheese, both smoked and non-smoked, as I has read online that it was a very good cheese and worth trying. We did end up having the cheese when we got home after the holiday alongside our whisky tasting and discovered two things: 1. Orkney cheese is indeed tasty with a nice soft texture compared to other types of cheddar and 2. The normal cheddar brings out the sweeter flavours out of some of the whiskies we had.

Kirkwall's Bishop's and Earl's Palaces

Kirkwall's Cathedral

Pictish House at the Broch of Gurness

Grinding stone and stone lined hole for water.

The next day was a very early start to drive through the middle of Highlands along single lane roads in order to get to the Isle of Skye. The scenery was absolutely amazing with so many sheep and deer. All of them seem really used to cars walking along beside the road or running across it to the point where we nearly ran over a pheasant, a couple of deer and lots of sheep.

The first place we stopped at was Eilean Donan castle, situated next to the sea again. The good thing about this castle was that it had working fireplaces that were in use at the time to keep the rooms warm. There were bedrooms on display as well as the kitchen (finally!). The kitchen had a contraption like a chandelier to hand your pots and pans from before pulling it up towards the ceiling. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures so I don’t have any photos of it. It was also not labelled so I have no idea what it is called. Some of the corridors between rooms were very narrow to the point where we had to walk through sideways. This should have been mentioned before entry in case anyone was claustrophobic or who might struggle to fit through.

Driving on to Skye we visited a rock formation called the Old Man of Storr, a high pinnacle of rock that can be seen for miles around. This was the first time it had actually rained during our trip and unfortunately, we got absolutely soaked through on the climb up to the rock. The views more than made up for it though. An hour and a half later, we were so wet we decided to head to our hotel, stopping off at a sea side café where I had scallops for the first time. These were very tasty, soft and buttery, well complemented by the black pudding they came with. I couldn’t be happier to take my wet clothes off by the time we checked into the B&B later that day.