I'm not exactly sure why, but I've been drawn to the remote North since at least high school. Perhaps it's the result of growing up in an urban desert, or that universal desire to get away from everything. I am definitely a city boy, but I feel a kind of comfort when I am up in the hills or up in latitude that I don't anywhere else. So when Rachel, baking under a heat dome in the American Northeast, suggested a trip to the Scottish islands, I jumped on it. We looked into the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney - I was agnostic, they're all on my list - and decided on the latter after checking out all the transport and accommodation options.
We were only there for four days, so the brevity may have kept the novelty at its peak, but I loved it. Orkney is gorgeous in a way that's impressive and understated at the same time. The islands are small, but packed with aeons of history, and they are so varied that they feel limitless. Even if you stood in one place, the weather is constantly changing, so an outlook never stays the same for long; as soon as you glimpse a perfect view, it's already gone. There's something wonderful about that.
Every day we set out to a new part of the islands, explored, lunched and dined. One day we took a ferry to the mainland, skirting Orkney's most dramatic island, Hoy. Each evening was spent at the Ferry Inn with a glass or two of whisky as recommended by our Tasmanian bartender. Over the days, I felt a slow mental and emotional exhalation, a state of calm that lasted several days into my return to London.
I know that you can infer an inauthentic sense of contentment when you are on holiday, when you aren't the one getting through the daily grind of work and life, however blissful the setting. But the people of Orkney seemed to be a little bit lighter and happier with their lot in life than most people I've met travelling. And even now, thinking and writing about Orkney, I feel a little bit of that island zen return. I hope it always stays with me.
Regards,
Shaun
Shaun
The coastline of Mainland (the main island of Orkney, despite its name) with the island of Hoy behind.
The first residents of Skara Brae lived in a world before Stonehenge, and even before the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Buried for millennia, the village is one of the most intact neolithic sites yet discovered. It was only discovered when one of Orkney's frequent gusty storms eroded away the top of the eponymous hill, revealing the outline of some of the village beneath.
Though the council have removed the sign after growing tired of people stealing it, my arrival to Twatt, Orkney, would not go unrecognised!
Orkney's henge, The Ring of Brodgar.
Who needs a selfie stick when you have a selfie arm? (At the Stones of Stenness.)
We initially tried to stay in Kirkwall, the capital, but happily the available hotel rooms were too expensive and we ended up in Stromness, a fishing village in the Southwest corner of Mainland. It's leagues more charming and beautiful, and has a well-engrained artistic community with a surprising number of (permanent and pop-up) galleries and displays for a town of its size and remoteness.
Chief amongst these is the Pier Arts Centre. From the street, it looks like it is a one-room store conversion, but inside is a surprisingly modern and spacious museum. The museum was started when Margaret Gardiner bequeathed a collection to Orkney after falling in love with the islands.
One of the Churchill Barriers (now causeways), built to keep German submarines out of Scapa Flow, which served as a major naval base in both World Wars.
The incredible Orkney landscape. I felt at peace there.
"Most of Orkney undulates greenly and gently - apart from the grand, anomalous lump that is the island of Hoy. The wind is so strong that trees are a rarity throughout the Orkney Islands, and when they do manage to struggle up, they often grow bowed over, as if cowering before the weather. The uninterrupted sky and the lack of clutter mean that the best views are often composed of horizontal lines, and that you can often see far enough to make out more than one weather system at a time: wisps of rain out to sea, rainbows smuggled behind black clouds, sunlight beaming a godlike finger on a distant house or field."
-Condé Nast Traveller
One of the coolest things I’ve ever done on holiday. We happened to be there for the annual open day at Ness of Brodgar, a 5,000-year-old active archaeological site that was discovered fairly recently. After next season’s dig, it’s going to be re-buried, for at least a generation, to protect it while they do analysis on all the data they’ve collected.
Deerness Parish Churchyard
It is said that if you walk on top of the Great Wall of Deerness, your dreams will come true. And as my dream was to walk on top of the Great Wall of Deerness, my dream did indeed come true.
Shaun H. Coley ~ Archway ~ Islington ~ London N19 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk
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