Orkney 2007 - Day 6

Saturday 30th June - Hoy

This was my favourite day of the holiday; a trip over to the isle of Hoy, the next biggest of the Orkney isles after the mainland.  Hoy takes its name from Old Norse in which it means 'high island'; an accurate description of this rugged island as it features the tallest sea stack (137m) in the UK in the Old Man of Hoy, the third highest and most vertical sea-cliff in the UK (335m) in St John's Head, and the highest point in Orkney (479m) in Ward Hill.

Sonia and I joined the guys on the car ferry from Houton to Lyness, a trip of some 45 minutes that requires booking in advance, and then up with them to Rackwick from which we began our day's walking, with the first target being the Old Man.  Sonia and I were then to continue on to St John's Head and the fine hill Cuilags before getting a passenger ferry service from Moaness to Stromness.  Meanwhile the guys hit the Scapa Flow visitor's centre before returning to the mainland and then meeting us later after our ferry.

A fair bit of a stomp was required to get you to the Old Man (just over 4 km from the car park) but it proved well worth it;  the Old Man is very impressive, even more so when you realise despite its seeminly impossible sheerness that not only do people come to climb up it but that the first ascent wasn't until 1966 when none other than Chris Bonnington managed it. Oh, and we saw puffins there too!

The full day's route in red, including our search for food!

As you can see, an awful crossing on the ferry:

Ward Hill from the road to Rackwick:

Looking to the hills from Rackwick:

The bay of Rackwick was fine enough:

Almost at the Old Man, the Stromness ferry shows up:

In all its splendour (for now), the Old Man:

Getting some puffin action:

The cliffs south of the Old Man:

And to the north:

Looking back from height showed its

precarious positioning even more:

Coming up on St John's Head:

An impressive crack in the cliff face:

Not a bad spot for a rest:

After the Old Man, Sonia and I went on alone in search of even greater cliff-action with St John's Head, a staggeringly huge chunk of vertical sea-cliff, the scale of which was hard to comprehend.  Indeed, if you looked closely at its base you suddenly realised that the little white flies buzing around it were actually sea-birds!  We spent as much time as we could here eating lunch in full view as fulmars flew beneath us, looking up questioningly.

Step away from the edge, St John's Head:

A lazy fulmar gliding to its nest:

And another, showing just how vertical that cliff-face is:

In panoramic splendour:

Fulmars however, I can cope with.  Next on our wildlife list as we headed toward the summit of Cuilags was the arctic skua, and a lot of them.  These ground-nesting birds are noitoriously protective of their nesting area and it later turned out that 12% of the world's population of this bird bred on Hoy.  By my rough calculations therefore, I believe that somewhere between 10 and 11% of all skua's anywhere attacked us on our little hike, which made things a little more eventful than the average Munro.  When I say attacked, I don't mean actual contact, but these are big and fast birds and there were scary enough for me to come up with the concept for a computer game entitled 'Skua Chick Soup'.  Let's just say it would likely come with an age-restriction...

Anyway, we eventually made it to the top of Cuilags and were rewarded with stunning views all around, including out to the wave-power experiment in Hoy Sound.  From here we could see Moaness, the isle of Graemsay, and over to the mainland as well as fine views of neighbouring hill Ward Hill.  Onwards there was just the small issue of a rather steep descent that unnerved Sonia somewhat, plotted kindly of course by yours truly.

Sonia ducks from advancing skuas:

Coming right at you:

On Sui Fea, getting ready for Cuilags:

Hoy Sound from Cuilags:

Graemsay and the mainland from Cuilags:

A more central shot of Graemsay:

Ward Hill and Sandy Loch from our descent:

Who the hell chose this way down??

Once down, we made our way over to The Hoy Inn, as directed by the many prominent signs, with my mouth drooling for a pint of anything cold and alcohol; a pink alcopop would have been welcomed!  Alas, cruelly, this establishment was no longer in operation and we were met by nothing more than an empty shack.  Deflated, hungry and thirsty we walked back up to the Youth Hostel in hope, but that was closed. We finally gave up and retired to the ferry waiting room, which itself didn't even have a vending machine!  In desperation, I even texted ahead in an attempt to try and ensure that at least a cold bottle of beer would await me in Stromness!  A thoroughly fantastic day, but make sure your supplies are well-stocked!!

One of those mocking signs for available refreshment:

Our saviour from the drinkless land!

Orkney 2007 - Day 2

Tuesday 26th June - Highland Park, Kirkwall, Scapa Flow, walk and wreck

The morning brought fine weather to our little cottage:

And fine views down to Grimness, more of that later:

Our first full day on Orkney saw us getting the priorities sorted. Namely, whisky.  After the first lie-in for far too long, a hearty breakfast saw us venture back to Kirkwall where we promptly booked ourselves in for an afternoon tour at Highland Park.  A good lunch at, I believe, The Strynd Tearoom beside the cathedral saw us return to the distillery for some serious tour action.

Unfortunately, for all the effort involved in getting to Scotland's most northerly distillery, I have to say that the tour fell a little flat.  It could be that we are getting to the stage where only Glen Moray style super-tours can hit the mark, but there are a few pitfalls for us that a tour can fall into... 

Number 1 mistake here and the highest on my personal hate list is the dreaded 'audio-visual presentation filler'; a cheap impersonal time-filler that's just going to tread old-ground over a faded out shot of someone pouring whisky into a glass, probably with a fire blazing in the background. 

Number 2 here was giving the pre-tour shot'; what's the point then of continuing? For me a shot at the beginning should always suggest a follow-up afterwards.  Related to number 2 then is...

Number 3, 'the single-shot tour'; Highland Park has three standard expressions, the 12, the 15 and the 18 year old, as well as a number of special editions, but you only get the 12.  Why on Earth would I pay the premium price for the premium bottle without getting a taste and proving to myself that a) you can taste a difference and b) that the difference is worth it? 

Number 4 is the 'inexpert expert'; generally this means a summer student after some spending money.  This in itself is not too bad as some of these people are enthusiastic and know their stuff (see the Glenmorangie tour write-up coming up on Day 7), but it doesn't compare to when the manager is taking you around!  However, the weight of number 4 is doubled when it is accompanied by...

Number 5, the 'whisky-hating guide', as our guide announced herself to be upon introduction.  Add to this the...

Number 6 of mentioning the 'Angel's share', the name given to the whisky that evaporates from the storage casks (stops being funny on your second tour), and...

Number 7 of a rubbish ticket/voucher offer and Highland Park left us feeling a little underwhelmed.  

I did nonetheless enjoy walking through the buildings which included seeing an active malting floor and kiln (Highland Park being one of only five distilleries still doing this early part of the process themselves).  There were also some interesting information, such as the fact that Highland Park uses only sherry-fill casks; no finishes here, it's all it gets!  Basically, the tour is worth doing if you're on Orkney , but don't travel especially for it unless you're a whisky obsessive just like us, and then you can rant about it on your very own blog!!

The attractive streets of Sonia, sorry, Kirkwall:

Girls and a distillery, heaven!

These signs are just made for lounging in front of:

Pretty and sturdy stills at Highland Park:

You are now leaving the most northerly distillery in Scotland:

After the distillery, some shopping in Kirkwall was undertaken, which saw me invest in an 8-year old 'Orkney Single Malt' for only £18.  I believe it to be Scapa due to flavour and colour, but either way it was well worth it - although it is far too drinkable!  A quick pint at one of Kirkwall's disappointingly few hospitable-looking establishments and it was time to head back to the cottage, but not before checking out the gorgeous setting of Orkney's other distillery, Scapa.  Unfortunately there are no tours at this one so we just had to cope with a paddle and a photo or 50...

The gorgeous Scapa Flow with Scapa itself just visible:

A pity to waste such beautiful waters: 

"Well, hello":

Come back, don't do it! It's me not you!

Standing proud, but proudly closed to visitors, hmmph!

Back at the cottage after dinner there was plenty of light left in the sky for Sonia, The Leach and myself to take a pleasant walk down to Grim Ness.  Thereupon we discovered a large wreck along the Lime Banks.  Pieces of this big ship were strewn all across the stony beach giving an indication of what force the sea must have had when it met its end.  Indeed the wreck gave an unnervingly sombre close to the day as it was lapped by the gentle evening waves.  We later found out that the ship ran aground in 1969 and had been a Liberian cargo ship; all hands apparently survived but tragically the Longhorn lifeboat from nearby island Hoy had itself sank with the loss of all 8 men on board, an extremely big deal for such a small community.  This I presume is what is referred to here.

The view from mine and Sonia's room:

Our cottage was just by South Cara:

What a contrast today's weather must have been to that day in 1969: