THE ORKNEY ISLANDS

The Churchill Barriers

After we landed, we had a new driver and a new bus. Pat took a few photos at the harbour and a pit stop before our first glimpse of a Churchill Barrier. Britain realized during WWI that its naval base at the mainland of the Orkneys needed protection, and enemy ships began to be sunk on the eastern side of the deepest channels leading to the Scapa Flow. At the end of WWI, the entire German fleet was brought there and the captains scuttled their own ships rather than turn them over.
When a German submarine managed to get through in WWII, Churchill immediately began the construction of barriers. A road was eventually built on top of the causeways allowing the southern isles of South Ronaldsay, Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm to become part of the main roadway system of Orkney.

POW Camp 60 on Lamb Holm

Some 1300 Italian prisoners-of-war were housed in Camps on the Orkneys during the Africa Campaign of 1943. Camp 60 on Lamb Holm had an enterprising group of skilled craftsmen who decided to construct a church so they could worship. Basically, they used scrapwood from a wrecked ship, stones from a quarry plus discarded metal or shattered glass. Nicolo Barabino's "Madonna of the Olives" is still displayed in the church. A statue of St. George killing a dragon stands outside. The chief planner, Domenico Chiocchetti, remained behind to finish the font after the other prisoners left to be repatriated at the end of the war.

Skara Brae & Skaill House

Skara Brae is a World Heritage site on the southern shore of Sandwick's Bay o' Skaill. These remains of a 5,000-year-old Neolithic village were discovered by the laird, William Watt of Skaill, in 1850. Excavations took place until 1868 and they resumed in 1925, 1928 and 1930. Today, eight dwellings and a reconstructed home may be viewed on the site.
Visitors are invited to take a small entrance into a typical Neolithic home, which has been reconstructed at the beginning of the village site. The basic plan of the living quarters included a dresser, grinding stone, hearth in centre of floor, box beds, storage spaces set into the walls, and fish-bait tanks.

Not every home on this archaeological site has been excavated. Due to the extreme weather conditions in the Bay of Skaill, erosion is always a problem and one measure of preservation involves leaving things intact.
"Wick" is the Norse term for "bay". Sandwick has lived up to its name many times, since the winds have covered this village with sand many times during its history.

Skaill House is worth a visit, but photographs are not allowed inside. Tourists are led via a one-way system around a series of public rooms . . . a dining room, a study, a huge drawing room, Bishop Graham's bedroom, a gun room and several exhibitions.

Ring of Brogar [Brodgar]

The Ring of Brogar (Brodgar) is the largest henge (stone ring) in Scotland. It dates from the Neolithic period (Stone Age) of 10,000 BC. Of the 60 original stones 27 have survived at this Historic Scotland site. A burial mound is close to the ring.

Kirkwall

Here is the small, picturesque island capital with its ruins of the old Bishop's Palace and its magnificent St Magnus Cathedral. By pure chance we witnessed a local custom involving a girl who was engaged to be married. According to a travel agent down the street, the bride-to-be was being bound in a cellophane sheet with tape before her "friends" applied black shoe polish to her face. The ritual is called a "blackening". A male counterpart is often publicly stripped before the ritual.

Crossing the Pentland Firth

Watch this movie of our return trip across the Pentland Firth. Gordon Tait, our Tour Director seated on deck in the first scene, was thoroughly soaked shortly afterwards. The final scene indicates that the tide had turned and it was a bit "calmer" than when we took the trip across earlier in the day. [GRIN]

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