The north west corner of Scotland

Today our trip took us from Dunnet head to Wick via John o’Groat. First we stopt at this old little harbour to spot some seals. We tried to make pictures but they were to far away. Main thing is that we saw them.

Watch the seal, just left of the dark rock


A spare 4 cylinder engine?


At the slipway close to the seals

After the harbour we went along until we passed a sign of castle Mey. We decided to visit the castle’s garden and animals. We skipped the castle itself because we have seen enough classic furniture for one holiday. 

The castle’s walled garden




Just beautiful

The walled garden was beautiful and the outside of the castle was exactly as a castle should look like. I think the queen also comes here for holidays, or at least has something to do with the cattle here. They breed price angus cows here. We had some piece of one on the bbq tonight and I must say it was delicious.

After castle Mey we drove to John o’Groats, the most north western point of the UK. And believe it or not, there was this rally exposition of classic cars. Naturally we had to stop and have a look. They even had the Anglica from Harry Potter standing there.

1947 versus 1967


Ralley 1967




Straight from the Cars movie

After this nice surprise we drove to our final stop of the day, Wick. There we had the Angus steak and a little beer tasting with one of the Orkney beers, the “Skull Splitter”. The name made us worry a little, but the tast was actually very refreshing and nice. Hopefully it won’t make his name worth fully tomorrow.

Skull Splitter - Good night

Orkney day 2, tastingday

After al the history the day before, today it was time for something else of which there is planty of on this island: tasting booze.

We started the day with a visit at the Highland Park distillery. In the shop be bought a nice bottle of 12 year old, along with some glasses. We didn’t do a tour but instead walked along the premises ourself. Highland Park is a large distillery, I think the largest we visited so far. But still beautiful and authentic. 

The fire place where cole and peat is burned

A warehouse full of treasure


Warehouse after warehouse

The second visit of the day was at the Scapa distillery, we wanted to do a tour there, but is was full. So instead we bought two bottles of different Whisky to comfort ourselfs, and a really lovely glass pipette with a little glass angel on top. Really necessary for good whisky tasting 😇.

Just in front of the distillery was this sign, no explanation needed.

But as it has a wineglass on the sign, we guess it doesn’t apply to whisky.

Next stop on our list was the Italian Chapel, a chapel built by itallian prisoners of war in the WWII.

They were in this prison camp on Orkney and wanted a place of worship, so they build this church in two connected half round barns. Really amazing.

Everything was built from scrap materials

The imprisoned archtect Domenico Chiocchetti stayed after all prisoners were released to finish this font built from cement




Increadible art and craft work from scrap material


Every piece hand built by the prisoners

Domenico Chiocchetti himself came back a few years ago to help restore the chapel. 

It’s completely made out of concrete and stuff they found or was leftover while working on the Churchill defense of the harbour.

Just next to the Italian Chappel was the Orkney wine company seated, so ofcourse we had to pay them a visit as well. After tasting some of there “wines”, non of them have grapes in it, only local found fruits, plants and veggies, we bought two bottles. One Tatties wine, made out of potatoes and aged in a whisky barrel, and a wine made of elderberries. Both very nice.

We followed our route further up to St. Margarets Hope were the ferry back to Scotland was leaving. Because we had some time left before boarding we went into the center for a lunch. There was this lovely lunchroom/ second hand store/ market where we ate. I had the homemade pumkin carrot soup and Tanguy the ploughmans lunch. We ordered some mocktails to go with the food. 

Our Mocktails - very nice

After lunch it was time to back to Scotland by ferry.

Also the roof with solar panels looks good

Back on Scottisch ground we drove to Dunnet Head, the most northern place of the UK mainland. A friend of ours used to live there and we promised to make some pictures. 

This slip way was built to supply the Dunnet Head light house construction in 1830




2 seals taking a bath

Dunnet Head light house

Unfortunately it was very crowded on the parking along the lighthouse so we drove back a few yards for a quiet camping spot for the night.

Our camping spot

And because it was a bit cold we put the bbq insite after we had diner to warm the place up a bit.

Good night

Mainland Orkney, lots of history, and the local nightlife

Yesterday we did a roundtrip along ancient Orkney. There is so much history on this small islay, unbelievable. We only saw part of it, but it made us realise how short our stay on this planet is. And how long back history of mankind goes back.

On our way to our first stop we came along a brewery, naturally we had to pay it a visit and buy some locally brewed beer. Alcohol is the other thing they have loads of on Orkney. They brew their own beer, have two whisky distilleries, a few Gin distilleries, and a wine making place. 

The Orkney Brewery

So after we got our beers we went to the Broch of Gurness, an ancient settelment. Younger than Skara Brea, but still 2300 years old. Amazing how much is left of it. It gives an idea about how people back then must have lived. 

To get there our Tomtom send us over this gravelpath, quite a challenge with the H-van. So instead of the four minutes it would take to get there, we needed 15. Even the cows looked worried. But we made it.

Once upon a time this was a decent road

Cows

Bull

At Gurness the “office” was closed for lunch so we couldn’t buy a ticket. We could still enter, so we did en we payed afterwards. To nice that this kind of trust still exists.

The site itself was impressive, you could walk trough the buildings and get a feeling of how crowded it must have been.

Entrance to the fortified settlement




Beds, cuboards and fireplace still in place

Al the houses were connected with only one small covered path around the mainbuilding in the middle, and one way out.

In the information centre was the possibility to grind flower the way people from the settlement did 2300 years ago. The same grinding stones were found when they discovered the settlement. 

It actually works quite well 

Impression of life inside the houses

After this Broch it was time for some stone circles, there were two of them close to each other, one small “the stones of Stennes”. 

Stones of Stennes

And one very large, the Ring of Brodgar.

Ring of Brodgar

And of course there was another settlement as well.

During our cultural trip we were stalked by this monster camper van which seemed to have drivend straight out of a transformers movie. It was huge! What do these people carry around with them?


Mini & Maxi

After two days of overwhelming history we saw enough for that moment. Time for some other entertainment! We drove to Kirkwall to the campsite. First we had to do some laundry, but then it was time for the local nightlife. We walked into the centre and found a nice old fashioned pub, the Auld Motor Hoose. It was filled with old things from cars, so we feld right at home. We had a beer and went to a hotel restaurant after that for a nice meal.

Steak & Ale Pie

Free Masons

After diner we went back to the pub and had a lovely evening. Nice conversations with locals and nice drinks.