Archaeology and Stromness

We returned from Hoy to spend some time on the west of the mainland to visit some archaeological sites. We have demounted and stayed for a while at Stromness.

The hills of Hoy in the background

Scara Brae is one of the most well known Neolithic sites, although in our opinion, not as interesting as Jarshof in Shetland. Also, here we had to follow a route around the edge, while at Jarshof we could explore how we liked inside the ruins.

That is a stone age shelf unit!

5000 years old stone carving - so well made!
No-one knows what it is.

He doesn't look too happy!

There has been an archaeological dig on the Ness of Brodgar since 2004 after a notched stone was uncovered when ploughing, which unearthed a massive settlement. They think less than 10% has been excavated but this will finish next year when it will be filled in to preserved for future generations.

We had a guided tour by one of the
archaeologists on site

Nearby was the Ring of Brodgar, a very impressive stone circle.

During the second world war the standing stones, with their outer ditch, proved a great training ground for tanks! Not sure how many stones they knocked down!

Maeshowe is a well preserved chambered cairn. We had to book on a guided trip to get in and you cannot take photos inside. All these cairns involve crawling through a tunnel to get in - and once inside they are surprisingly large - you can stand up and walk around - the roof is very high.

There are some trees in Orkney!

Standing Stones of Stenness

Some cairns are just open and you can go straight in - there is usually a torch in a locker outside. This one at Cuween Hill had a particularly low, narrow passage to get inside.

A large number of dog skulls
were found inside this cairn

Impressive sea stack at Yesnaby

The Kitchener memorial at Marwick Head

There are some lovely hikes around the coastal cliffs. One of them takes you to the Kitchener memorial. Lord Kitchener (secretary of state for war) is the man on the 1st world war "Your Country Needs You" posters. He was on a ship going to Russia in 1916, which was hit by a mine laid by a German U-boat. Kitchener died and there were 12 survivors out of 749 on board.

We were in Stromness during their "Shopping Week", which is actually a week festival of events. The carnival had a very unusual parade of floats having to negotiate the narrow streets! The difference was that they were taking the p**s out of various subjects like Pentland Ferries (breaking down), something about Phillip Schofield, Love Island (??) and the film release Barbie. Lots of men dressed as women and drunken antics! Not very PC!

On another evening there was a raft race which was actually quite a distance. One sank at the beginning but all the others made it. The sunken boat was refloated and with two less paddlers came close.

We also stumbled across the Royal Mail testing a drone for delivering parcels up to about 4 or 5 kg to nearby islands. Interesting but sad that the local human connection will soon be lost.

We had learned at the museum in Hoy how the captured German fleet was scuttled by its crew in Scapa Flow at the end of the First World War, so this pub mat made us laugh!

We have been in Stromness for quite a while now - John, the campsite warden, said we will be locals soon! The walks from here are lovely and we have a little jetty to swim from about 10 steps from us. Stromness is a friendly place that we are enjoying being based at.

The island of Hoy

When we reached Hoy the weather had turned for the worse! However, just off the ferry was the Scapa Flow Museum, somewhere we had been looking forward to visiting for some time and a showery day was perfect! 

Scapa Flow is the massive 'safe' harbour created inside the many islands south of mainland Orkney. Famously used in the first and second world wars for the protection, refuelling and maintenance of our Home Fleet. There was also many people involved in keeping the harbour secure, using block ships, netting suspended from floating booms, the Churchill Barriers as well as many other methods.

In 1919 the German Navy scuttled their fleet after defeat and 52 of their battleships were sunk, most of which have since been salvaged.

There are no campsites on Hoy so we were wild camping for the 4 nights we were there. 

Massive prop from HMS Hampshire sunk off Marwick Head

Crane used to make the boom netting.

Boilers used in the process to pump fuel oil.

Herbert Morris Crane - Phil's interest!

We had a wild night parked up on Pegal Head!

We visited Hackness Martello tower and Battery for a tour - a long tour - but very interesting!

Dee was given the key to open up!

Great view from the top.

We stayed at Rackwick to hike to 'The Old Man of Hoy' and beyond to St John's Head, at 355m the highest vertical cliff in the UK. We had our first glimpse of the Old Man from the ferry to Stromness at the beginning of June on route to Shetland so it was nice to get up close.

There he is!

The Old Man!

An interesting rock full of holes

As it happens, Rackwick is where the main power cable comes in from the mainland to Orkney - and it was being replaced while we were there. They were literally pulling the cable ashore, so very interesting to watch and we chatted to a few of the riggers working there who told us all the details.

The main red ship was laying the cable with small boats pulling it to shore

At last they pulled the cable ashore!

We stayed in the carpark near to the beach for 3 nights, a lovely location with beautiful views all round. We saw a pair of Merlins and also a pair of Hen Harriers while we were there.

Remote but surprisingly good internet here!

The beach at Rackwick has very large boulders of pinkish hues - very photogenic but not so good for Purdy to walk on! There were plenty of other places for her to explore though.

Purdy cooling off in the cool peaty water.

Beautiful Rackwick beach

On our last day we visited a tomb inside a massive rock - called the Dwarfie Stane which is 5000 years old. It's amazing they hollowed this slab of rock out just using a sharp bit of pebble! The smaller rock in front used to slot into the doorway. 

Outside the Scapa Flow museum we had a personal look in their Romney Hut where we saw Otter Bank, a lovely boat that was a travelling bank for The Bank of Scotland - the only one known in the world! She went all around the islands until 1970 and will be part of a boat exhibition that is not yet ready in Stromness.

We really enjoyed Hoy and would definitely return. We were also pleasantly surprised that wild camping was easy in nice isolated spots with not many 'campervans' about - just how we like it! At Rackwick we had the car park to ourselves on our last night.

Muy crammed on to the return ferry.