Scotland Vacation

Two days of travelling and now we’re in Gunn country.  A train to Inverness where we overnighted.  Another train to Thurso at the northern tip of the Scottish Mainland, a short bus ride to Scrabster to catch a Ferry to Stromness, which is on the Orkney Islands mainland.  Why they call an island a mainland is a mystery to me.  One theory I read is that it originated with Gaelic words that sounded like mainland but meant something completely different.

We’re staying at a cozy BnB outside of Stromness with a view of the countryside, the waterway (I believe they call Scapa Flow, and the Island of Hoy across the way. 

While in Thurso we saw one business with the name Gunn, and another Jamieson.  Also did a stroll in a cemetery here on the Island and came across a Gunn.  Might mention there is a Scottish beer called Innis and Gunn.  So if I can stake claims to that entity as well as the Irish Whisky empire, I should be doing just fine.

Back to the real world, the cattle on Orkney are HUGE. 

And on the train ride to Thurso we spotted several groupings of red deer in the scrub lands.  No trees, just heather and other brush.

DRIVING!  Yesterday was my first day driving on the wrong side of the road sitting in the wrong side of the car.  It’s more different than I imagined.  Today we went further afield to the sites referenced below.

It’s taking a long time for the photos to upload to the blog, forcing me to keep writing.  We’re staying at a small BnB. A big picture window in the commons room affords quite the view of distant farm and much closer ledge sitting cats.  Was lulled to sleep to the lowing of the nearby cattle last night, but now they seem to be gone. Did I mention they are big?  And so muscular? 

Today was/is archaeology day.  First stop was Maes Howe, which I believe is an underground burial tomb from 5,000 years ago.  As group size and parking areas are limited, the next available slot was for seven tonight.  So we’ll head back in a bit.

These next pictures are from the Stones of Stennes site.  The standing stones is what is left of the oldest henge structure in the world.  Apparently this is the granddaddy of them all.  Stonehenge came hundreds of years later.  Around the site they found (only in the mid 80s) a collection of houses. Pictures of house like structures are recreations of what they found and subsequently re-buried.

These next pictures are from an active dig a standing stones throw from Stennes.  You can read the August issue of NatGeoMag, but apparently this is a real big deal.

 

 Viewing platform set up for tourist to watch the dig in progress.

 Ring of Brograr.  We didn’t have a tour on this one so I know even less.  The stone circle has a much wider radius than Stennis, but wasn’t a henge.  While Stennes stones were aligned with the sun's position at solstice time, I don’t know if that’s true for Brogar.

About six miles up the road is a 5,000 year old village called Skara Brae.