Scotland Trip - Skara Brae, Broch of Gurness, Kirkwall and the Peatfire Tales

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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Today was a full day!  After our wonderful  breakfast at Kenila, we began our day at Skara Brae.  Skara Brae is a well preserved Neolithic village.  It consists of ten houses and was built around 3000 BC.  The houses were connected in a way that you could travel from house to house without exiting the complex, much like a modern day apartment building. The village was preserved under peat until 1850 and thus is in amazing condition.  The site was as good as it was supossed to be.  They had one reconstructed house which gave a really good idea of what the houses would have been like and then the whole village is a bit furthur down the path.

Skara Brae

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The front door to one of the houses

The inside of a house at Skara Brae

At the same site was Skaill House, the Laird's home which was very good.  One of the Lairds actually discovered Skara Bare.  The items on display in the house were cool!  Amongst other things there was a set of China that was given to the family by Captain Cook.

From there we went to the Broch of Gurness.  This broch had a whole Pictish village built around the broch.  The oldest part of the settlement dates to between 100-200 BC.  The village was built mainly during the Iron Age and contains about forty houses.  Seeing three of these villages really gives a nice idea of how the town were built.

The Broch of Gurness

The road that leads to the door of the Borch of Gurness

The stairs that take you into the walls of the broch

Tower of the Earl's Palace

Next, we went to Kirkwall to see the Earl's Palace, the Bishop's Palace and St. Magnus Cathedral.  They are all three located next to each other with the Cathedral on one side of the street and the two palaces on the other side.  The Earl's Palace was ruined but still very impressive.  It would have been stunning in it's day.  The Bishop's Palace was less impressive, possibly due to the state of the damage..

The Earl's Palace

The view out of the windows

The Earl's Palace, Kirkwall

The Cathedral was begun in 1137 and is unique in two ways.  First, it has a dungeon.  Second it is owned by the burgh of Kirkwall and not the church.  The Cathedral was nice - with a very beautiful stain glass window and some interesting tombs (including a pirate).  The Earl's Palace was definitely the highlight of Kirkwall.

St. Magnus Cathedral , Kirkwall

The alter at St. Magnus

A pirate's grave

Inside St. Magnus Cathedral

The stained glass

We drove to Stromness to eat.  We chose the Cafe Bar across from the Stromness Hotel.  It took 1 hour!!! to get our meal, which left us 15 minutes to eat as we were booked for the Peatfire Tales in the Old Still Bar at the Stromness Hotel.  It was a nice storytelling session with some singing and dancing for £8.  Caution though- you have to do some of the dancing.  If you like hearing a good story told, I would recommend this.

The Orkneys were definitely worth the trip!  We begin our trip south now.

SIEDBAR:  Kirkwall has  a very unique Christmastime tradition.  The town is divided in two and a ball is thrown out.  One side tries to push the ball into the sea, while the other tries to prevent it from entering the water.  The stories sound insane!  You can read about it here.

Scotland Trip - Castle Aardvrek, Dun Dornaigil and Tongue

An updated version of this site can be found here

Monday, June 26, 2006

Sarah and I began the day with a run from the house over the mountain.  The first half mile was on the road and then the rest was on a track through the bog -- it was a pretty rough path.  The views were gorgeous though.

After breakfast we reunited with my parents and then began the trek from Lochinver to Tongue. First, we wanted to make sure we visited Castle Aardvrek, a former MacLoed stronghold that was built in Loch Assynt near the junction of the A837 and A894.  The castle has a stone barrier in the water and it looked like a dream to defend.  It apparently wasn't that easy though as they lost a few battles there.

Castle Aardvrek, Sutherland, Scotland

Loch Assynt

I thought we might take the scenic route out of town along the coastal road (B869) to see a broch, only we couldn't find it!   It was a beautiful, but tough to drive (my poor Dad).  It's a single track road for about 15 miles, but it was VERY slow going.  I also ended up sleeping through a lot of it, my poor Dad.

 We then went up the coast and stopped for a picnic lunch in Scorbie.  The scenery through here is exactly what you would expect the highlands to look like - but it is so devoid of people.

When we reached Durness, we stopped briefly to contemplate Smoo Cave but the tide was out so there was no waterfall.  It didn't seem worth £3.  Up the road a ways we went off the main road down a really small (terrible) road past the car park for Ben Hope looking for another broch.  This one was sign posted on the main road.

It is found at the head of the longer Ben Hope Trail.  On the way, my father drove off the road making the whole adventure that much more exciting!

The trail up Ben Hope

Highland coos

The broch, Dun Dornaigil, was interesting and worth the 10 mile pasture penetrating drive.

Dun Dornaigil, Iron Age broch

The road to the broch

From there we reached the village of Tongue where we stayed at Rhian Guesthouse on a farm.  We ate at the Cragness Hotel which was in a picturesque village (I think it was called Milknes) and had nice seafood.

Rhian Guesthouse, Tongue

Rhian Guesthouse

Rhian is a nice house, but when we arrived it seemed as if they were hosting some sort of party.  Our interaction with the owners was thus very limited.  However, after we returned from dinner we were treated to this view:

Sunset at Rhian Guesthouse, Tongue