Our daughter, Juls, and I travelled for 200 miles in six days on the Orkney Islands and 415 miles in seven days on the Shetland Islands. We did 82,000 steps on five walks. We also used ten ferries. Juls had just finished an adventure of visiting all 104 bothies of the Mountain Bothy Association in Scotland, Northumberland, the Lake District and Wales. She had visited all the bothies and an additional 30 non-MBA bothies in 476 days and 5,000 miles, with the final visit being last Saturday. I had asked her to show me Scottish islands that she had enjoyed.
Day 1 – Kirkwall, Orkney area – 14 miles
I arrived in Kirkwall after a 3h20 flight in a 50-seater propellor plane of Loganair from Heathrow via Dundee at 13h00 on Friday 29th September.
Billy, the cab driver, complained that, although there were plans for an offshore wind farm nearby, he was sure that the community would not benefit and continue to pay high electricity prices, and that although he worked for many years in the fire brigade, The House of Lords (sic) voted against his group getting a pension (later rescinded but not backdated). He delivered me to Orkney Campers in Stromness.
Juls had crossed from Scrabster, on the north coast of the Scottish mainland, to Stromness and was waiting for me.
We quickly realised that the camper hire business should have been called Orkney Camper, rather than Orkney Campers, as they clearly only had one camper, which they used personally, and which they hired out when they could. We were quickly told that the oven could warm things but never got hot enough to cook anything, not to leave anything in the rear storage area because it was not waterproof and the catch on the main drawer in the kitchen was not working. The covers that normally cover the windscreen to provide privacy at night, were missing, so a Heath Robinson alternative of a blind tucked under the front mattress was provided. I was told that they did not know how well the shower worked because they never used it, but always used the ablution blocks in camping sites. I had paid extra for linen and was expecting crisp, white linen but instead was given duvets and pillows that were covered with a furry type of material in drab colours. We found that the blind by the dining table did not work properly resulting in a fiddly solution having to be found. We later discovered that we were not provided with a broom or brush nor with a hose to fill the water tank. (These were provided two days later.) Everything else seemed to be in perfect order.
We travelled 14 miles to Kirkwall and bought provisions at Tesco.
We walked up to St Magnus Cathedral. It was founded in 1137 by the Viking, Earl Rognvald, in honour of his uncle St Magnus who was martyred here in Orkney. It is a lovely building with magnificent stained-glass windows.
We checked into Orkney Caravan Park next to The Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall and worked out how our camper worked.
Dinner was lovely scallops followed by steak at the Warehouse Restaurant.
Day 2 – West Coast Walk – 17 miles and 25,000 steps
Sunrise today was at 07h13 and sunset was at 18h48.
Our taxi driver, Deon, was a Royal Marine for 26 years and his personal challenge is to hike around the coast of Orkney Islands with several already done and a few smaller ones scheduled before year end. He dropped us at Skara Brae Prehistoric Village.
In the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland causing widespread damage. When the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village consisting of several small houses without roofs. Initial excavation work happened then but the main work was done from 1927. Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement. It consisted of eight clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams that provided support for the walls; the houses included stone hearths, beds, and cupboards. A primitive sewer system, with “toilets” and drains in each house, included water used to flush waste into a drain and out to the ocean. The site was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC and is Europe’s most complete Neolithic village
The museum is well organised with an introductory video, explanations of the site, a replica building which one can enter and the site itself, where visitors walk above the ruins. This was an interesting visit.
We then walked ten miles on the West Coast Walk through Yesnaby and on to Stromness. We were walking on top of cliffs with beautiful views of the sea and cliffs ahead of us. The weather was very kind to us. The temperature was about 14⁰C, the skies were partly cloudy and there was no wind. We popped into the Broch of Borwick – the remains of an iron age defensive tower. Highlights were seeing two sea stacks, Yesnaby Castle (115 feet tall) with a natural arch at its foot and North Gaulton Castle (165 ft tall).
As we walked the last two miles on small roads between farms, I became aware that BT OpenReach was laying broadband fibre between the farms! I would love them to come and lay fibre in Richmond, London.
I have been walking a lot more recently in anticipation of this trip, but I was shattered after this walk.
We camped at Ness Point Campsite in Stromness and Juls knocked up an amazing dinner of Chicken Fajitas. The wind howled and rain was constant through the night.
Day 3 – Hoy Island – 25 miles and 17,000 steps
We caught the 35-minute ferry at 10h00 from Houton on Orkney Mainland to Lyness on Hoy Island. It rained all the way.
We headed north and stopped at the grave of Betty Corrigall. Juls wrote the following about Betty in her diary:
‘A young pregnant woman has lain in a lonely grave amongst the knotted black heather for three hundred years far away from consecrated ground. Her lover was already many miles away at sea when she died, with her equally as distant from his thoughts.
Betty Corrigall saw her fate as an unwed mother as one written in shame and unending penance, in grovelling poverty and alone. She turned in desperation to the sea but was dragged back to shore. She walked inland then and hanged herself.
Suicides could not be buried on consecrated ground, and she was lowered into an unmarked grave in the hills, the noose she had swung from alongside her. Still there was no peace; the grave was accidentally exhumed twice. Once by peat cutters a hundred years later, and then by some of the many soldiers stationed in Hoy in the Second World War. It was only after the latter, that her grave was marked with a simple wooden cross, and only thirty years ago she was given a headstone.
Why does her story outlive her contemporaries? Doubtless I expect there are those misguided that see beauty in tragedy and think suffering is profound, but it is also a simple tale of injustice where those who worshipped a merciful God showed none themselves. An all too ordinary story of cruelty in the name of morality that ended in a death. Betty Corrigall should have lived an ordinary life and faded happily into obscurity afterwards. Instead, she lies among the heather having become at first a warning, and then darkly revered.’
We were now driving on a single lane road with passing places. I love driving on roads like these, as they meander round the peat covered hills.
We parked at Rackwick Settlement. Juls took me down to the Burnmouth Cottage next to the stony beach. This is a bothy run by the Hoy Trust for use by hikers. Juls stayed here earlier this year. This is a simple stone building with log stove but no other amenities. It brought home to me, just how basic the bothies are, that Juls has been staying in for the last fifteen months.
We then did the 5.75 mile walk to the Old Man of Hoy. The rain clouds had disappeared, and we had a beautiful blue afternoon. The walk begins with a climb of 720 feet which left me struggling while Juls strode ever upwards. The views over Rackwick Bay in the sunshine were spectacular. As we came round the hill, the top of the Old Man of Hoy became visible. We continued to the edge of the cliff overlooking the Old Man.
We had a good view of the impressive cliffs at St John’s Head (the highest vertical cliffs in the UK).
On the way back (going down was easier) we stopped off at Craa’s Nest Museum showcasing life here in the early 18th century. The traditional turf-roof croft and steading has two box beds and a dresser, as well as a byre and barn with a kiln for drying oats.
We camped the night in the car park at Rackwick. The wind howled and rain fell throughout the night.
Day 4 – Hoy Island to Mainland Island – 82 miles
We were greeted by a beautiful blue day. I did not know the amazing sights I would see in the day.
Our return ferry first stopped off at Flotta Island. I could see that we had docked at an oil terminal. Further research revealed that the oil terminal is on a 395-acre site and receives oil by a 130-mile pipeline from the Piper oilfield, but a further sixteen pipelines from other North Sea fields feed into that pipeline. Basic processing and stabilisation of the oil takes place in the Flotta Oil Terminal before the oil is transported away by about fifty tankers each year.
We visited the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm Island. 550 Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa during World War II, were brought to Orkney in 1942. They worked on the construction of the Churchill Barriers, four causeways created to block access to Scapa Flow. 200 were based at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm Island. In 1943, Major Thomas Pyres Buckland, Camp 60’s new commandant, and Father Gioacchino Giacobazzi, the camp’s Catholic priest, agreed that a place of worship was required.
The chapel was constructed by the prisoners in the form of a tin tabernacle and comprises two Nissen huts joined end-to-end. The corrugated interior was then covered with plasterboard and the altar and altar rail were constructed from concrete left over from work on the barriers. Most of the interior decoration was done by Domenico Chiocchetti, a prisoner from Moena. He painted the sanctuary end of the chapel and fellow prisoners decorated the entire interior. They created a facade out of concrete, concealing the shape of the hut and making the building look like a church. The light holders were made from corned beef tins. The baptismal font was made from the inside of a car exhaust covered in a layer of concrete. It is a wonder to see.
A war memorial, including a statue of Saint George, stands outside the chapel.
As the map below shows, the four Churchill Barriers or causeways joining Orkney Mainland and the islands of Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm, Burray and South Ronaldsay created a safe harbour of Scapa Flow, south of Kirkwall. This was deemed crucial after the sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak in October 1939.
We drove over the four causeways in beautiful blue weather to the village of St Margarets Hope where we had a light lunch at Robertson’s Coffeehoose.
We returned to Kirkwall and drove on to Stenness where we joined a guided tour of the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn which was built around 2,800 BC. From the outside, Maeshowe looks just like a large grassy mound. It is one of the largest tombs in Orkney; the mound encasing the tomb is 115 feet in diameter and rises to a height of 24 feet. The grass mound hides a complex of passages and chambers built of carefully crafted slabs of flagstone weighing up to 30 tons. It is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber is illuminated on 5th December. The entrance passage is 36 feet long and leads to the central, almost square chamber, measuring about 15 feet on each side. The current height of the chamber is 12.5 feet although the original roof may have risen to a height of 15 feet or more. The entrance passage is only about 3 feet high, requiring visitors to stoop or crawl into the central chamber. The chamber is constructed largely of flat slabs of stone, many of which traverse nearly the entire length of the walls. In each corner lie huge, angled buttresses that rise to the vaulting. At a height of about 3 feet the wall’s construction changes from the use of flat to overlapping slabs creating a beehive-shaped vault. There are three smaller chambers off the main vault where bodies were left. It is not known if the vault was used for ceremonial purposes or was just a tomb.
It seems that Maeshowe was closed for good after several hundred years of use as a burial tomb. Around 3,000 years passed before it was entered again, by Norsemen who broke into the mound. The Norse left a fascinating legacy: light-hearted runic graffiti carved all over Maeshowe’s walls. It’s the largest collection of runic inscriptions to survive outside Scandinavia – and a reminder that Orkney was under Norwegian rule until 1469.
We drove a mile to the Stones of Stenness, which today consist of four upright stones up to 6m in height in a circle that originally held 12 stones. The focus of the interior was a large hearth. It is likely that people gathered here to perform ceremonies marking the relationships between the living and the dead. The stones were encircled by a large ditch and bank, the form of which has been lost over time by ploughing. This may be the earliest henge monument ( a prehistoric monument consisting of a circle of stone or wooden uprights) in the British Isles.
Another mile and five hundred years later, lies the Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge. The Ring of Brodgar comprises:
- A massive stone circle, originally consisting of 60 stones – 36 survive today
- At least 13 prehistoric burial mounds
- A large rock-cut ditch surrounding the stone circle
Visitors are not permitted to walk among the stones, and, in the driving rain, we did not walk the outer circle.
We returned to Orkney Caravan Park in Kirkwall and then had dinner at Dil Se Indian Restaurant.
We have hired a six berth, 6.2-metre-long campervan so there is plenty of space for us to sleep at either end with a table and benches in the middle. There is a small kitchen, fridge, gas hob, poorly working oven and sink as well as a toilet and shower. The van is well insulated, so we hardly have any need to use the gas heating. At campsites we connect to electricity, fill up with water and discharge the toilet and foul water tanks. This is a good way to explore these islands.
Day 5 – Rousay Island – 12 miles and 8,000 steps
Another day of wonderful sights lay in store for me.
The ferry from Tingwall to Rousay Island is small and required me to reverse on to it, which was a challenge with a big campervan.
Our first stop was the Taversoe Tuick Chambered Cairn which was built more than 5,000 years ago to house the dead. It is on two levels and has chambers off the main area on each floor. It has been well preserved although the roof was broken and has been replaced with a concrete roof with a window in it to provide daylight for visitors. The amazing thing is that it is not supervised or controlled and that we could make our own way in.
Less than a mile further along the road is the Blackhammer Chambered Cairn which is about 5,300 years old. Tombs of this type are often referred to as “stalled” cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The oblong tomb measures 74 ft by 29 ft externally. The cairn encloses a long burial chamber measuring 44 ft by 6 ft 7 in, and 6 ft 7 in in height. The burial monument was first excavated in 1936 with financial help from whisky magnate, Walter Grant. It was determined to have originally been constructed with seven compartments divided by pairs of standing slabs. Four of the original slabs had been removed at the time of excavation. Currently, the tomb is entered through a modern, concrete roof. Once gain we were free to enter and explore.
A few miles further we parked and walked through a farm and along the wild sea front.
We came across roofless ruins of long-abandoned farmsteads (the 18th-century land clearances that devastated so many communities in Highland Scotland also took a heavy toll in Orkney; Rousay’s population was once almost five times larger than it is today).
Close by are the remains of St Mary’s Kirk. It is variously referred to as the Swandro or Westside Kirk and is the shell of the former parish church of Rousay, dating from the 16th century and going out of public use when a new kirk was built at the Brinian in 1815. Despite buttresses being built against the outer west and inner east walls in the late 19th century, the structure is in a precarious state. Next door is the Wirk, a bell tower. The tower was compared to those in Norway and Sweden, where bell towers are sometimes separate from the actual churches.
Juls then led me to, what looked like a barn. She opened the door to reveal Midhowe Cairn. Midhowe is an extreme example of a stalled cairn with twelve chambers flanking a passageway 77 ft in length. The transverse stones rise to a height of 6.6 ft and the walls still rise to a height of 8.2 ft. Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern hangar-like structure that protects the site. The nature of the original roof is unclear; it may have consisted of flat slabs of flagstone at a height of 9.8 ft or more. Alternatively, it may have been vaulted like Maeshowe to a height of as much as 16 ft. The cairn appears to have been intentionally filled with debris after hundreds of years of use, beginning early in the third millennium BC.
The remains of at least 25 individuals were discovered in the tomb. Seven of the twelve chambers have side shelves – the bodies were found in groups of two to four on six of the shelves. Several of the skeletons were in a crouched position on the shelves, with their backs to the side wall and heads resting against the supporting pillars. Other groups of bones had been heaped into the centres of the shelves or swept under them, suggesting that earlier burials had been moved to accommodate later ones. In a few cases only the skulls were present, in one instance the long bones had been piled together with the skull placed on top.
The ruin is now protected by a hangar type building and access is provided to visitors by metal walkways above the tomb.
One hundred yards further along the beach is Mid Howe Broch, a well-defended Iron Age settlement. It’s in an excellent state of preservation, especially its stone internal fittings. A water tank, fireplace and room partitions are all visible. It would have been surrounded by a village.
There are other archaeological sites on the island. It is no wonder that Rousay is called the Egypt of Orkney.
The day had alternated between blue skies and rain. Our walk had been in beautiful blue weather with a nagging wind. Now, as we headed back to the camper, the skies emptied on us. Fortunately, we had dry clothes in the motorhome.
The wind picked up as we crossed back to Orkney Mainland on the ferry and waves broke over the bow and cascaded on to the five cars on the ferry. We checked into Ness Point Campsite where we had been three nights ago.
Day 6 – Scapa Flow and Whisky – 50 miles
On our visit to Hoy Island on Day 3 we had hoped to visit the Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness but failed because we had not realised that the museum opening times had reduced in October. Juls had a call to make so I caught the Houton to Lyness Ferry again, by myself, this time as a foot passenger.
The Museum identifies significant events that happened to the Fleet. The most significant was the sinking of the HMS Royal Oak battleship on 14 October 1939 by a German submarine. Of Royal Oak’s complement of 1,234 men and boys, 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. Before the sinking of Royal Oak, the Royal Navy had considered the naval base at Scapa Flow impregnable to submarine attack, but U-47’s raid demonstrated that the German navy could bring the war to British home waters. The shock resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow.
An earlier event happened on 6 June 1916 when the armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire struck a German mine off Marwick Head and sank with the loss of 737 lives. The ship had taken a slightly unusual route because despite deteriorating weather, Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and Secretary of State for War, wanted to quickly get to the Russian port of Archangel to hold talks with the Czar’s government. He and his staff all died.
The Museum also displayed information about the scuttling of the German Fleet. At the end of World War, I the German High Seas Fleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice while negotiations took place over the fate of the ships. Fearing that either the British would seize the ships unilaterally or the German government at the time might reject the Treaty of Versailles and resume the war effort (in which case the ships could be used against Germany), Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to scuttle the fleet. When the order was given by the Admiral the scuttling was carried out on 21 June 1919. The few British Navy personnel in the harbour were horrified at what they were seeing. Intervening British guard ships were able to beach some of the ships, but 52 of the 74 interned vessels sank.
This is a well organised museum doing a good job in explaining its subject.
- Highland Park 12-year-old
- Highland Park Ballet 50
- Highland Park Valknut
We camped for the last night on Orkney back at Ness Point Campsite. The two campsites that we have stayed at on Orkney are both run by Orkney Council and provide excellent facilities. The communal blocks are heated with a lounge, utility room and shower rooms. The latter are large, clean with good showers and plenty of hot water.
Day 7 – Orkney to Shetland – 32 miles and a flight
We packed up, cleaned the camper, emptied the foul water and toilet tanks, filled up with diesel and delivered the campervan to Orkney Campers. In the taxi to the airport, we heard more of the woes of Billy who got divorced ten years ago, after finding his wife of thirty years, with her boss, apparently engaging in non-work activities!
Our 35-minute flight to Sumburgh on Shetland was delayed by 160 minutes.
We were met by John Garriock who took us around the airport to the Bolts Car Hire depot where our motorhome was waiting. As he showed us the operations of the motorhome it became clear that he was the owner of Bolts and that they had a fleet of over 400 vehicles. He had started as a sea hand in the merchant navy at age 16. He and his wife bought Bolts in 1995 and built it to the big company it is today. I asked 72-year-old John if he planned to retire. He said he would seriously consider that when he became old!
We were delighted with our rental motorhome. It had only 8,000 miles on the clock, was in perfect condition, had great equipment and space, was fully equipped and came with lovely bedding. We were happy.
We drove the 25 miles to Lerwick, bought provisions at Tesco, had tasty steaks at Da Steak Hoose and checked into the lovely Scalloway Camping Site. It rained all night.
Day 8 – Lerwick, Shetland – 20 miles
Sunrise today was at 07h18 and sunset was at 18h25.
We woke to bucketing rain and howling winds.
I did some home administration work in the Lerwick Library.
We went to the Shetland Museum which told the story of Shetland History through Neolithic man, Romans, Picts and Vikings. Vikings came to Shetland 1,200 years ago. Their sudden arrival marked the beginning of a chaotic time that dramatically changed every aspect of island life. Raiders came first. They cleared out the local people and took their land. Settlers followed, setting up house and becoming fisherman and farmers. Viking beliefs, language and architecture replaced the Pictish way of life. Shetland became part of Norway. Shetlanders spoke a Scandinavian language, Norn, and all their traditions – their folklore and place names, buildings and farming methods – came from the east side of the North Sea.
Shetland and Orkney were part of Norway to 1469. King Christian I of Denmark and Norway was in financial trouble and, when his daughter Margaret became engaged to James III of Scotland in 1468, he needed money to pay her dowry. He entered a commercial contract in September 1468 with the King of Scots in which he pawned his personal interests in Orkney and in May the next year he also pawned his Shetland interests. The Norwegians later tried to recover the islands, but they remained part of Scotland. The economy was principally farming and fishing. In the century to 1950 the population declined mainly due to many Shetland men being lost at sea during the two world wars, and the waves of emigration in the 1920s and 1930s. Now more people of Shetland background live in Canada, Australia and New Zealand than in Shetland. Oil was discovered in the North Sea and in 1978 the oil terminal in Sullom Voe opened. The wealth that has flowed from the oil activities has transformed the islands.
The wind was still howling and the sea outside the museum was raging.
In a break from the rain, we next visited The Broch of Clickimin, a large, well-preserved but restored broch (prehistoric circular stone tower). Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch, it was approached by a stone causeway. The broch is situated within a walled enclosure and, unusually for brochs, features a large “forework” or “blockhouse” between the opening in the enclosure and the broch itself. There were several periods of occupation of the site: Late Bronze Age farmstead, Early Iron Age farmstead, Iron Age fort, broch period, and wheelhouse settlement. This is a great defensive building with the entrance being 1200mm high and 3 metres long requiring one to bend to enter.
We moved on to the Böd of Gremista, situated at the north end of Lerwick, which is a typical 18th century Shetland fishing booth (or böd). It contains the Shetland Textile Museum with displays of beautiful textile work from different areas of Shetland. Jennie was spinning the wool from a lamb’s chest into very fine thread and showed us how her foot operated spinning wheel worked.
Jennie told us about Reestit mutton, a type of salted mutton. The name reestit mutton comes from the Scots language word reest, meaning to cure by drying or smoking. A wooden framework, called a reest, was traditionally placed across the rafters of a building, from which the mutton would be hung to dry with the aid of smoke from a peat fire. Reestit mutton was traditionally prepared as a way of preserving mutton so that it could be eaten during winter. If prepared correctly reestit mutton can remain edible for up to four years. Reestit mutton is commonly used as the basis for reestit mutton soup. The soup is made with tatties (potatoes) and is commonly served with bannocks – small savoury scone-like baked items. We went to the Scalloway Meat Company who stock reestit and read through their recipe for reestit mutton soup. We reluctantly concluded that boiling the reestit for two hours to make soup was likely to make our motorhome uninhabitable, so did not buy any. We were intrigued by some of the other products on sale and particularly in the Lamb, mint and pea wheel!
We returned to the Scalloway Camping Site.
I then witnessed an act of kindness. A French woman was in the communal sitting room of the campsite. I happened to be there, washing dishes, when she explained to Alan, the warden, that she had come to the end of her holiday, needed to catch three ferries home to France, had run out of money and wanted to sleep in her car to pay the minimum price for the night. Alan asked her if she had eaten since breakfast, and she said no. He said, ‘we need to get you something to eat’ and disappeared. He returned fifteen minutes later, and I assume, brought her something to eat. In the morning he returned and when I went into the communal area, she had a sandwich in front of her. Juls says that she has often been helped by the kindness of strangers in Scotland in the last fifteen months.
Day 9 – North of Shetland Mainland Island – 76 Miles and 18,000 steps
The day was partly cloudy with periods of bright sunshine and no rain and no wind – the wind turbines on the hills lay completely still. This was a huge contrast to yesterday.
Having discovered that tours of the Terminal were not available we stopped across the voe (sea inlet) and took a photo. We approached the Terminal and were met by heavy security and high barbed wire fences. By requiring oil companies to all use one terminal the local council minimised the physical disturbance on the island. While it is an industrial site it has a low impact on the island’s beauty. I have been aware of the terminal for many decades. It was good to put a face to the name.
We headed further north on the island and entered a one lane road with passing places. I love driving on roads like these as they wander through the hills and along the coast, helped today, by beautiful weather.
We stopped at Pottery North Roe and met potter, Sharon McGeady. Sharon’s philosophy is ‘My work is deeply connected to people and place. Most of us do not have expensive heirlooms, but we maybe have a milk jug, a lace hanky, or a pipe, or a spade that belonged to our loved ones. But most of all we have our memories of the welcome we had when we visited, the smell of baking, the pattern on the china and the wallpaper, the worn feel of Grandad’s favourite baccy tin. I try to bring these wonderful reminiscences to life through the shapes of the vessels I make and the textures I roll into the clay. I work on a plaster mould of antique textured wallpaper and use treasured lace, handmade clay stamps and knitting to signify and represent the uniqueness of the people who loved us.’ She showed us her small workshop. Juls bought a present for her mother for Christmas which were plates with lace imprinted in the design.As we left Sharon showed us ten five-day old chicks which were very cute.
We made our way a little further north from North Roe to Isbister the furthest north settlement on Shetland Mainland Island, parked and walked further north.
Two seals were relaxing nearby.
We walked another mile on the peninsula to the automated Point of Fethaland Lighthouse and looked out to the small islands of Gruney, Inner Booth and Outer Booth. We were now at the northernmost point of Shetland Mainland Island. We could see the large island of Yell to the northeast which we will travel on in two days.
Having walked over the hills to get to the point we returned along the coast, which was beautiful, wet and hilly. We got back to the motorhome 3.5 hours after leaving. Juls would have done it in two hours if she didn’t wait for her old and insufficiently fit, father!
We camped at the Braewick Campsite and Café.
Day 10 – Back to Lerwick – 66 miles
The night was the coldest yet. The heating in the motorhome kept the cold at bay. Today’s temperature was 9⁰C but felt like 6⁰C.
Juls took me to Johnnie Notions Bod, an upgraded bothy, which she had stayed in for three nights when she was exploring the nearby Eshaness area. When planning this trip, we had hoped to stay at the Bod, but it closed for the season on 30th September. It was still interesting to me to see it and its location.
It is quite reasonable to ask – Who is Johnne Notion? John Williamson (c. 1730 – c. 1803), more commonly known by the nickname Johnnie Notions, was a self-taught physician from Shetland, Scotland, who independently developed and administered an inoculation for smallpox to thousands of patients in Shetland during the late 18th century. Despite having only an elementary education and no formal medical background, the treatment he devised had an extremely high success rate, resulting in the immunisation of approximately 3,000 people and the saving of many lives, which had a significant effect on the demographics of the Shetland population at the time. He is reputed not to have lost a single patient. While Notions administered his inoculation by at least the late 1780s to early 1790s (and likely much earlier), his method was largely overshadowed by the work of Edward Jenner, who pioneered the cowpox-based smallpox vaccine in 1796.
We headed south looking for the Original Cake Fridge. Most of us are familiar with honesty boxes
outside farms where eggs or vegetables are available in a box by the roadside and where one takes the produce that you want and leaves the appropriate money. Honesty boxes in Shetland have risen to new heights and offer a far wider range of products. We took the road from Voe to Aith and came across the Original Cake Fridge. Two shop type fridges with glass fronts stand in a small structure next to the road offering cakes, confectionery and cold drinks. I had worried that I would not have enough coins to buy cake. I need not have worried. Two pieces of cake cost £5 so notes did fine! CCTV was in operation.
I hugely enjoyed the road we were driving on. It was a single lane tarred road with passing places, winding through the hills, regularly passing stretches of water. It was beautiful.
We headed north out of town and camped at the South Nesting Community Hall and Campsite.
Day 10 – Almost to Muckle Flugga – 70 miles and 14,000 steps
As we left the campsite there were Shetland Ponies in the field. They are purpose built for this hard environment.
We crossed on the ferry from Toft on Shetland Mainland to Ulsta on Yell Island.
Coming off the ferry we turned off the main road and headed east to the South Yell Parish Church of St Magnus, Hamnavoe. Just inside the churchyard we found the headstone of the communal grave of the seven men who died on 19th January 1941 when their Catalina seaplane crashed nearby. They had set out to patrol off the coast of Norway with the aim of locating the battleship Tirpitz and had engine trouble. When circling to make an emergency landing at Sullom Voe they hit a hill at 250 ft. Three men survived. We had hoped to see the tapestry that had been woven by the widow of the pilot, but the church was locked.
In the churchyard we met 81-year-old Donald Sinclair who pointed to a house on a hill where he was born and had his early childhood. He now lives near his daughter and her twin nine-year-old boys in Aberdeen. He had returned to Yell for a reunion and was visiting the graves of his mother and sister in the churchyard.
We carried on the lovely single-track road through Burravoe and Mid Yell and saw a boat recovering fish from a fish farm.
We caught the ferry from Gutcher on Yell Island to Belmont on Unst Island.
We crossed the thirteen miles of Unst Island and parked at the entrance to the Hermaness National Nature Reserve and walked for an hour to the most northern point of the island. We looked down on the uninhabited island of Muckle Flugga which has an automated lighthouse. Another uninhabited island called Out Stack, 2,000 ft further out, is the northern most point of the country. However, at that moment we were the northernmost people in the United Kingdom. This area is part of Scotland, but it is further away from Edinburgh than London is. We were at 60.85⁰ North which is further north than Bergen, Norway and Whitehorse, Yukon and just south of Anchorage, Alaska and Yakutsk, Siberia. No wonder we were cold!
Actually, that is not true. We were cold but not as cold as those in Whitehorse, Anchorage and Yakutsk (all several degrees C colder). Research tells me that northwestern Europe is generally warmer than many other comparable latitudes because of the Gulf Stream which is a strong ocean current that brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean. It travels all the way up the eastern coast of the United States and Canada and crosses the Atlantic to the British Isles.
On our return to the car park, we were tickled to see one of the other two motorhomes of Bolt’s Car Hire, parked next to us.
We stopped off at the replica of the Skidbladner Viking Ship and marvelled at the replica Viking Longhouse with a grass roof.
A few miles south we stopped at Bobby’s Bus Shelter where clothes are left for people to dress themselves up for photos as well as a simple honesty box of cake and confectionery. A £3 pack of fudge was acquired.
In Baltasound, Juls posted a card to Tibby at the northernmost post office in the UK.
We walked around a hill to the ruins of the Hamar Viking Longhouse, described as the best-preserved Viking longhouse in Scotland. Unfortunately, all that remained were walls that were 18 inches tall.
We diverted off the road to Glansin Glass where we were greeted by the glass artist, Cheryl Jamieson. She has many beautiful creations, but I was drawn to the ones which used Shetland lace to create designs. Another Christmas present was bought for Tibby.
We camped at Gardiesfeuld Hostel and Campsite.
Some campsites offer WIFI but this one did not. It was not a problem because the signal on our phones remained strong. We have marvelled at how we have been able to get good phone signals in almost all places in Orkney and Shetland.
Day 11 – Back to Lerwick – 98 miles
It rained through the night and continued through the morning to 15h00.
We had a slow start and drove the two miles to the ferry at Belmont. The ferry took us to Yell Island, which we crossed in 30 minutes and then crossed from Yell Island to Orkney Mainland Island. I had enjoyed the road from Voe to Aith so much, that we took it again. It was different in the rain but still a delight. At Bixter we turned west and at Turriefield came across a vegetable honesty box, which at other times, has offered a wide range of produce but today was only advertising garlic. Fortunately, that is what we needed for dinner. Unfortunately, there had been a run on the garlic, and none was left!
We went all the way to the western edge of the island to Sandness and Melby. This small community feels like the edge of the world – and yet it is just thirty miles from Lerwick. We stopped at St Margaret’s Church and Cemetery to find that the church has been sealed up, but the cemetery is still in use. We returned to Lerwick via the village of Wall – another lovely road.
Juls had a conference call to attend so I did work in the excellent Lerwick Library.
We returned to the lovely Scalloway Camping Site and were welcomed by Alan and Janet. Alan told us that the camping site had been set up by the local council and that he and Janet, living next door, were the wardens. He told us that he was a retired pastor of the Congregational Church. At one point he had cared for three congregations but two of those churches had now closed. The church congregations were almost exclusively elderly people and as they became infirm or died there are no longer sufficient funds to maintain the buildings. The Church of Scotland has closed 20 of the 31 churches they had on Shetland.
The campsites in Orkney and Shetland have generally been owned by the local council. In general, there has not been a lot of grass with most sites for motorhomes and caravans being tarmac. We have been able to connect to electricity at all sites and almost all have had facilities to dispose of rubbish, foul water and toilet water. The shower rooms have all been spacious and clean, with good showers, hot water and space to hang clothes. At the sites on Orkney and at Scalloway there was also a heated communal area with seating and a utility room with a washing machine and tumble dryer. Generally, we paid between £20 and £26 per night.
Day 12 – South of Lerwick – 49 miles
The wind blew all day at 45mph gusting to 54mph. The ferries to Orkney and Aberdeen were cancelled. As we headed to the south of Shetland Mainland Island, I kept our speed below 30mph as the motorhome was very exposed to the wind.
Our intended destination of the archaeological site of the Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse Settlement was not allowing visitors on to site because of the wind.
We drove up to the beach overlooking St Ninians Isle. The drive there along the coast was beautiful. St. Ninians Isle beach is a large tombolo (a natural sand causeway with sea on either side), linking the South Mainland with the Isle. The waves from both sides were wild, almost closing the causeway. On a good day this would be a wonderful place to walk but today the wind was too wild.
We had planned to stay overnight but instead returned to Sumburgh and camped in the grounds of the Sumburgh Hotel.
Cape Town receives 500mm of annual rainfall, London 600mm, Kirkwall 1,000mm and Lerwick 1,250mm. Our trip could have had rain all the time. In fact, we had wonderful weather during the days. All five walks that we did were done in beautiful blue or partly clouded weather, with the small blemish that we were soaked on our way back to van on the Rousay walk. The rain has not really stopped us from visiting the places we wanted to see, except for today. We were lucky.
Day 13 – Jarslhof – 5 miles
Our top priority today was to visit the Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse Settlement. Jarlshof is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It has been described as “one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles”. It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD. Jarlshof lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland, to the south end of Sumburgh Airport. The site overlooks an arm of the sea called the West Voe of Sumburgh and the nearby freshwater springs and building materials available on the beach will have added to the location’s attraction as a settlement.
The Bronze Age settlers left evidence of several small oval houses with thick stone walls and various artefacts including a decorated bone object. The Iron Age ruins include several different types of structures, including a broch and a defensive wall around the site. The Pictish period provides various works of art including a painted pebble and a symbol stone. The Viking Age ruins make up the largest such site visible anywhere in Britain and include a longhouse; excavations provided numerous tools and a detailed insight into life in Shetland at this time. The most visible structures on the site are the walls of the Scottish period fortified manor house, which inspired the name “Jarlshof” that first appears in an 1821 novel by Walter Scott. It was a wonder to visit.
We drove the short distance to the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse. The museum was closed but we could walk around the site with long views out to sea. The foghorn is huge.
We dropped the Motorhome off at the Bolt’s Car Hire Airport depot and caught our planes to London and Birmingham respectively.
And so, our adventure came to an end on Thursday 12th October 2023. I have seen and experienced far more than I anticipated. It has been hugely interesting. I was lucky that Juls had visited both island groups before and knew the most interesting things to see and had planned for us to see a huge range of beautiful and fascinating things. She was a lovely travel companion, and I will treasure this special time together.
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