Tag Archives: Orkney
#Orkney Mainland and Churchill Barriers #Touring #Scotland
Orkney is pretty windswept, and has only small, stunted trees, so the vistas are open, and dominated by stunning coastlines and views of other islands. Remember, Orkney consists of around 70 islands (20 inhabited), so almost everywhere you go has views of other land masses. Although we were there for ten days, there was so […]
#Orkney – the Broch of Gurness #Touring #Scotland
During this strange phase of our lives, I plan to keep on sharing our tour of Orkney last year – so lovely to look at places we cannot currently visit. Swapping time periods again, next came the Broch of Gurness. This is still pretty ancient – Iron Age, somewhere between 500 and 200 years BC. […]
#Orkney – St Magnus Cathedral #Scotland
After crawling into Neolithic tombs on the first morning of our Orkney holiday, the afternoon was time for a shift to a more recent historic site – St Magnus Cathedral. Of course, ‘recent’ is relative, if you get my drift. Kirkwall’s impressive cathedral was founded in 1137, by the Viking, Earl Rognvald, in honour of […]
More #Neolithic sites on #Orkney, #Scotland
I promised more, and believe me, there’s plenty more! First up is Unstan Chambered Cairn. This is only a little way along the road from Maeshowe, and the second of 4 chambered cairns we explored. If you recall, I was a little apprehensive about going into Maeshowe, being somewhat claustrophobic. Having survived the experience […]
#Orkney’s Neolithic sites – the Standing Stones of Stennes, and the Ring of Brodgar #Scotland #holiday
I promised more posts from October’s Orkney holiday, so here’s the next one. I mentioned before that Orkney’s history is amazingly rich, and spanning an incredible range of ages. Most intriguing for me are the Neolithic sites found all over the islands, most incredibly well preserved compared to others of comparable age across the world. […]
#Orkney holiday – back to Neolithic times – #Maeshowe chambered cairn #Scotland
I am happy to report that my creativity has returned following its 2019 enforced sojourn. I am currently writing the next in my Caledonian Sprite contemporary fantasy series, so I will be back to producing more writing-related posts soon. In the meantime, I still have a whole load to catch up on from my October […]
#Orkney – The Italian Chapel – SO beautiful #Scotland
Tanked up on caffeine after our ferry trip, we set off from St. Margaret’s Hope on South Ronaldsay, first stop, the truly awesome (in so many ways) ITALIAN CHAPEL, on the tiny island of Lamb Holm. Like so many of the Hebridean islands, there are causeways linking islands together, but these on Orkney came about […]
Over the sea to #Orkney, #holiday
I’ve learned a bit from the past few island hopping holidays, where I used a holiday company to organise the ferries and accommodation. This holiday was to be rather different as a friend – a fellow dressage judge, the only dressage judge on Orkney – had invited us to stay with her. As a consequence, […]
John O’Groats – North coast of #Scotland – as far as you can go? #Holiday
STILL mired in the events of this horrendously challenging year, I am once again resorting to sharing my travels with you instead of anything writing related. Fortunately, it seems you love reading about the wonders of Scotland! In desperate need of some clear head space, I’d arranged to leave for Scotland the day after mum’s […]
