29 June 2008

 

Scotland, Part 2: Shetland, Foula, Orkney

On Day 2 we landed at Sumburgh on Shetland.

Our first bird that day was the Terrible and Infamous Thrush Nightingale.



really, a retiring little thing, rarely seen and content to sing in the lower branches of whatever undergrowth is at hand. the fact that this one posed for me was quite out of character.

Then we saw Shetland ponies with foal. Everybody say aaaawww...



And finally, on to the ruins! Layer upon layer of ancient dwellings were to be found at Jarlshof.



After crawling through as many of the wheelhouses and broch's as one could stand, there was more birdwatching. mmm.. oystercatcher. and for me, sheepwatching.



In the aftenoon, we headed over to remote Foula, where basking seals ignored us in the harbor.



Foula is a small island that supports about 10 crofting (subsistence farming) families. I was offered a lift to the other side of the island by a guy on his way, so I piled in.



This sea-stack is what was awaiting me at the other end. along with some cute sheep, fields of peat, and cranky bonxies.



bonxies, better known as Skuas or Jaegers, are fairly large, very mean birds. they fly right at your head when you're on their turf or nearing their nest.. needless to say i didn't stick around that part of the island long.

Next I saw a pretty skylark singing on a fencepost. i didn't know exactly what it was, so it was temporarily named the Foula Fencepost bird. There were quite a number of them.




Foula was fun, because it was sort of like a petting zoo. I got to pet the sheep, there were dogs, bright frogs, and the shetland ponies were on the march.



just don't try calling home from here.



Day 3 - Orkney

I think Orkney was one of my favorite places on the trip. I got a little cagey from being hustled place to place and on-and-off of buses, but there really was a lot of serious cool shit to see. Maes Howe, an ancient Pictish burial mound was really exciting. You know, in the way that only ancient astronomical chambers built around standing stones and graffiti'd with viking runes can be exciting.



We only have a few outside pictures, because the National Trust doesn't allow photography. I will say, though, "Extremely cool." The megalithic stones were brought to this place from miles away. The 4 cornerstones strongly resemble standing stones, and aren't loadbearing, so they were probably there long before the mound was built, long, long ago.. This is one of those ancient works that lights up special on the sunset of the winter solstice.

The viking graffiti from many years later said things like, "I am a viking, and I'm writing high up" over the main door.

Then it was off to the Ring of Brodgar, a massive circle of standing stones about a mile from Maes Howe. It was large in diameter, so I couldn't really catch all the stones at once. suffice it to say, it looked like a ring of broken teeth. it was on a small strip of land between two lakes.



i really like how the ring was inside of a channel, which separated it from the surroundings. rumor has it that cutting through the solid rock to dig the channel would have been more difficult than mining and setting the stones.



just a piece down the road were the Stones of Stenness, another standing stone circle. this one smaller, and with fewer stones remaining. it was built at a later date, and the stones were a lot larger.



i found it very interesting that two of the smaller stones within the circle seemed to "sight" on Maes Howe. (that lump in the middle).



by midday we were toddling around skara brae, which seemed much like jarlshof in that it was a bunch of old dwellings on top of each other. fun for the "flintstone" aspect of the architecture, but that was about it.




oh, not entirely true. they had a good gift shop where i picked up a book on runes and The Orkneyinga Saga, a hilarious account of the earls of Orkney. How can you not just love stories about guys named "Thorfinn Skullsplitter" and "Einar Buttered-Bread" I very much recommend this one, i find it a bit more readable than Beowulf.

In the afternoon we trekked past the Italian church, but not being big on either WWII history, or churches, i went out with the birders and skipped stones on a lake.

We spent a few afternoon hours exploring kirkwall (where i bought some yarn of north ronaldsey wool), and then headed back to our boat in Stromness (a very cute little town, where M&P and I stocked up on beverages and had a dinner of fresh fish and chips, fried right on the pier).

As the boat pulled out, we sailed past the island of Hoy. The sun was low, and I think it lit up the red sandstone beautifully.



And then we saw the Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack standing out on his own.



oooh.

stay tuned for more tales of islands and isolation as our travels take us to the Outer Hebrides and beyond!

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Comments:
Oh Wow! All of your photos are amazing! Looks like you had a great time!
 
What fantastic pictures! I love the sheep, they are absolutely adorable. What a wonderful trip it must have been!
 
Jessica,

you have a life ... great picts and stories.

when you coming home?
 
omg!!! This place looks stunning! I would soooo love to kayak around there some day!!!!
 
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