Orion M.C.

ORKNEY WITH EDI AND MILLIE

We visited Orkney during the Easter Holiday’s, and had a great time. In general the weather was excellent, if windy. You'll notice that a lot of these shots contain Millie the dog ... I make no apology for this! Orkney is a great place to visit, and I could have posted hundreds of photos, but I had to restrain myself to some extent! If you have not visited there, then do so, it is superb.

NEOLITHIC MONUMENTS

Orkney is famous for it’s Neolithic Monuments, many of which are now part of a world heritage site.

One of the most famous sites is Brodgar stone Circle, an incredibly complete ring of stones. It rivals Calanais On Lewis in it’s scale and state of preservation:



Stenness Stone Circle, not as complete as Brodgar, but has larger stones, and is still an awesome place:



It’s not possible to take photos inside Maeshowe, but a similar, if smaller tomb not far away (and off the beaten track) is Cuween Hill. This is a photo of the superb corbelled vaulting inside. It’s a bit damp and creepy in there:



The incredibly narrow entrance to Wideford Hill tomb. The entrance looks traight over the valey into the entrance of Cuween Hill. Another fascinating place, you can see how tight the entrance is (considering the size of Millie). Porkers were clearly not involved in the local Neolithic rituals of the dead!:



HOY

On Hoy, I walked over Cuilags and Ward Hill down to the Dwarfie Stane, britain’s only rock cut tomb. Here is a view from Cuilags:



We stayed at Burnmouth Bothy at Rackwick Bay. This a dream bothy … what a location!:



One of the windows at Burnmouth Bothy:



Millie tucked up on some fishing rope at Burnmouth Bothy:



The beach at Rackwick Bay is stunning at all times, but the evening light was, well, see for yourself:



We walked from Rackwick up part the Old Man of Hoy and St John’s Head. A superb coastal walk. The Old Man of Hoy is a very intimidating looking thing indeed. I know the trade route is E1 (theoretically within my grades), but given my present performance there is no way I’d attempt it without a bit of extra training:



And One for Julian ... could this be a section of Fossil Stromatolite, seen at Brough Head? I only discovered after returning that there are Stromatolite fossils on Orkney:

I know this is a mountaineering blog, but I couldn't help myself ... here is a panorama of the Ring of Brodgar. It's 340 feet in diameter, and was built 4500 years ago.



And finally, one for Bob ... a whale skull on a stick. Yes, you've seen it all now ...

Message to Scott ... probably best move this to 'OTHER STUFF' when you get back from Holiday. Cheers, Gav.

Excellent photos

Sooo jealous that you got to Burnmouth Bothy The tomb at Cuween Hill looks like a good howff

Could be a bit scary ... remeber the story of Fester's experience of trying to bivi in a chambered tomb near Lochgilphead!

Gavin, I'm just back from my first wee trip to Orkney and, I agree, definitely worth a visit. .......Lots of flat blobs in the water, a lot of cool, chilled out folk and a general nice feeling about about the islands.

I managed to wangle the trip through work. Got flown into Kirkwall, had to do a days work trying to sort out a new masterplan for Kirkwall's hospital and then had a day cycling round the main island. I think I managed about 40 miles in quite strong winds and managed to take in the Brodgar stone Circle, Maeshowe, Stenness Stone Circle, Skara Brae and the Broch o'Gurness. Great day all in. Most are my photos are practically the same as Gavin's above but here are a few others....

Flying in...


Interesting causeway between a sea loch and fresh water loch...


The Bay o Skaill, next to Skara Brae....


A wee hoose in Skara Brae... Prehistoric neolithic village ....older than the pyramids!!!


Some interesting 5000 year old carved stones???


Broch O'Gurness