We left Shetland on another lovely evening bathed in sunshine but slightly apprehensive that we were going to back to more civilisation and more campervans! We have become used to and like the more wild and sparse way of life in Shetland!
We passed several familiar locations along the way as we headed south until we came to Sumburgh Head and open sea towards the remote island of Fair Isle and then on to Orkney. As we arrived, we were treated to a lovely sunset overlooking the Auskerry Lighthouse.
We docked at Kirkwall, the main town on Orkney mainland and based ourselves here for a few days before moving on.
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| Kirkwall Cathedral |
Kirkwall is actually a nice town with a historic centre based around the cathedral. We visited the Earls and Bishops Palaces as well as inside the cathedral and the museum.
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| An interesting pic from the museum |
The peninsular of Deerness was a great place for another walk. This is The Gloup, an old blow hole that has caved in forming this long gorge.
In the south of the mainland are the Churchill Barriers, which were built in the early 1940s to block access to three eastern entrances to Scapa Flow during WWII. These were built by Italian POW's based on one of the islands, Lamb Holm. They famously built a chapel from two Nissen huts fitted end on end. All they had was some plasterboard, things they salvaged from some of the scuttled boats nearby and some paint they bought after selling some bits they had made.
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| The barriers are basically 3 causeways made from concrete blocks cast on site |
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| Many ships were scuttled here to help block access |
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| Very impressive artwork in the Italian chapel |
The weather took a turn for the worse for a couple of days when we have had a lot of wind and rain - well it had to come! Our campsite was next to the leisure centre so we made the most of the situation and used their pool.