John O'Groats....but WHY?? Just to say "I've Been There?"....Ahh but we have the Orkney Islands

Here we are, our little party, taking the 144km journey across the top of Scotland from Durness to John O'Groats on the A838/836 roads. Perhaps your diarist is getting a little jaded, but the trip does seem just a tad boring. A succession of small towns all looking much the same with intermittent views of the Atlantic Ocean meeting the North Sea. Perhaps the most interesting occurrence was crossing the low causeway and bridge over the Kyle of Tongue. Much of the route is lined by dry stone walls and flatish hillsides devoid of any substantial flora.

"Get a life for yourself, Bryan," says Val, "this is so different from Burrum Heads, ENJOY." I stand admonished for my momentary lapse into ennuie!

The causeway over
 the Kyle of Tongue

Oats seem to be the main crop although there are 3232 acres of turnips, 1929 acres of potatoes, 19 acres of rape and 1 acre of mangold in this Northern-most County of Sutherland, where we actually are today. Isn't that simply facinating? (Mangold: a relative of beet, if the reader, like your diarist is unfamiliar with this veggie. can't be much chop, there is only 1 acre.)

For those aficionados of great boring road videos and who are following this blog, go HERE for the trip of a lifetime from Durness to J O'G. The background music, though, does have  some good songs.

Enough of this trivial nonsense taking the mickey out of (warning, stereotyping coming up) our dour Northerners, lest they send the ghost of Domhnull MacMhurchaidh after me.

John O'Groats. Finally here, a bucket list ambition, and 1410km from Land's End. Quoting from some source whose name I've lost: "The population of John o' Groats is about 300. The village is dispersed but has a linear centre with council housing, sports park and a shop which is on the main road from the nearest town of Wick." Our accommodation for two nights ($396 inclusive) is the Seaview Hotel, offering a double room (with a good breakfast), cosy bar and dining room "with panoramic views of the Pentland Firth and the Orkney Isles".

About the only place we could go for "fine" dining was the Seaview itself. The "Storehouse' which did take our fancy closes at 4;00pm and "The Cabin" just did not stack up. So £70 for fish and chips; well we are at the restaurant at the end of the galaxy.  Been saving up for this.

Anyway, we are dining and we need some authentic Orkney music, so here the local school band plays just for you . I hear echos of Tennessee backwoods blues tunes, possibly the Orange Blossom Special, part way through! But really I should say that Tennessee has the echos of the old tune Orkney "Hoi".

"The Cabin" actually gets good TripAdvisor reviews

John O'Groats apparently is named after a Dutchman, Jan de Groot. Way back in 1496 King James IV granted De Groot the ferry franchise between the harbour here and Orkney, which was at the time still a relatively new acquisition by Scotland. Hopefully old John made a killing out of the franchise.

Now for the really good bits. We are off on our Maxi Day Tour  Orkney, just £70 each, entry fees and lunch extra. And if I didn't already own a hand-knitted, extremely cosy, white wool jersey (you know the sort) purchased in County Sligo, Ireland, I'd have to buy one here at Orkney, just to say off-handedly, "Oh, I bought it in the Orkneys".

Weather wise its a fine day here in the Orkneys, almost a summer heat wave. A balmy 17 degrees with sunny intervals and only very light rain. Sunrise at 04:10am and Sunset at 22:30pm. Perhaps the locals will cavort in bikinis and Hawaiian shirts, perhaps not.

 

Dear reader, brace yourself, you are in for a delightful smorgasbord of historical information and wonderful stories; all I can offer is but a small selection of what Orkney has to offer.

Orkney Islands have been inhabited for at least 8000 years, a mere day or two compared to the 60,000 years that Australia's indigenous people have inhabited our great land, but creditable never-the-less. In the late iron age, these islands were part of the Pictish kingdom, the Picts eventually being absorbed by the Norse "immigrants". Here we can throw in such lovely Norse names associated with the islands such as Magnus Barelegs, Sigurd the Mighty, Eric Bloodaxe, and, best of all, Thorfinn Skull-Splitter.                                     

In 1468 Orkney was pledged by Christian, King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland. Old Christian welched on the deal, the money was not paid and James grabbed Orkney in 1472. Probably not a bad outcome for James!

I know it may surprise some readers but your diarist is no scholar of the royal coats of arms of Scotland, England or indeed of the United Kingdom. However, although the image at left is supposedly of James III and Margaret about 1468, and, whereas, the lion is a major part of the Arms of Scotland, your diarist can find no illustration of the Royal Arms of Norway from 1200's on that feature the fleur-de-lis, so favoured by the monarchs of France.  So why this feature in this illustration? Tis a mystery!!  

Anyway, where was I?

Trivia: "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay" was incorporated with a royal charter in 1670 and given a monopoly on a huge area centered on the Bay, actually about 1/3rd the size of modern Canada. The Company recruited most of its trappers and explorers from the Orkney Islands for a fairly obvious reason.

Prehistoric Orkney. 

I don't think any gardener could dig a hole in Orkney mainland without creating an

The Ness of Brodgar

archaeological site. I quote from  "  https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/orkney-prehistory/ " 

"There is no doubt that Orkney was a very special place during the Neolithic period. Its remarkable range of prehistoric structures and ceremonial sites bear eloquent witness to this. And at its heart lies the Ness of Brodgar."

Absolutely incredible...go check the link above. The dig shown on the right is The Ness of Brodgar, a 2.5hectares site between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness. Its  situated on a inland isthmus between two lochs on Mainland isle, a truly astounding sight.

A cosy home at Skara Brea, circa 2500BC

Why is it called Skara Brae, you may well ask? Let me quote Doc Google: "The name Skara Brae is a corruption of the old name for the site, "Skerrabra" or "Styerrabrae" which designated the mound which buried the buildings of the village." That says it all, very illuminating don't you think!

Stone circles feature from the far North, here at Stormness
to Stonehenge in the deep South
Photos: courtesy of Kaye and Noel Kuskopf who have actually been there!

Two Remarkable Naval Events (not including anything the Vikings got up to):

The Isle of Flotta was the Royal navy base area overlooking Scapa Flow. It now is a terminal for the extraction of North Sea oil. Scapa flow was a huge anchorage for the RN in both World Wars. Following on from Germany's defeat in WWI, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet were interned at Scapa Flow pending a decision on just what to do with them. By June 1919 the negotiation period for the grand peace treaty had lapsed with no word of settlement on the ships. Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to scuttle his fleet, probably out of sheer boredom. No one had thought to let the good Admiral know that there had been a late extension to finalise details, so he ordered the plugs be pulled. 53 ships were successfully sunk in the shallow waters of the Flow.

An astonishing sight. The German High Seas Fleet
at Scapa Flow. Can you believe the national 
treasure spent on building this ultimately useless fleet? 

Second sea story: On 14 Oct 1939, a mere 14 days after Britain declared war on Germany Kapitanleutnant Gunter Prien, 30 years old and only just married, sailed his UB 47 on the surface at night through a 50 foot gap between the Scapa Flow defensive block ships and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak much to the delight of Hitler and mighty embarrassment for Churchill. UB 47 had been seen lit up by car headlights inside the Flow, but nobody took any notice. Young Gunter himself was sunk with all hands in March 1941 after sinking 31 ships over just ten patrols.

Farewell to Scotland

Well folks, that just about winds up our visit to the Highlands and Orkney Island. We leave to the lilting music of massed pipes and drums Ballater Highland games with very recognisable tunes right HERE.

And the Royal Regiment of Scotland bid us farewell at the annual Linlithgow Marcheses, precisely on time at 12:30pm

Cheerio, see you all 

un bientot en France

 

North West We Go...Oh its Windy!!

A musically  literate reader with a long memory has admonished me, your diarist, for a truly terrible lapse. Well, not really an admonishment, rather a kind comment reminded me of a particular Scottish treasure and I must admit to a lamentable dereliction of research and outright failure of memory on my part (too many a wee dram perchance).

OF COURSE, we speak of none other than Andy Stewart and his grand song "Donald, Where's Your Trousers?" So as we come down from The Isle of Skye lets all join in the chorus: Let the Wind Blow High, Let the Wind Blow Low . Turn up the VOLUME too.

Now we are on for a quick dash, a dream drive, up the wild North-Western coast of bonnie Scotland. Many commentators and travel blogs insist that this drive from Skye up through Ullapool, to Durness on the far North coast is the most beautiful drive in Scotland, but it should be done from South to North to best capture the grandeur of the vistas. A myriad of sea lochs, of islands in the blue-slate shaded waters, of distant bare mountain crests and wayside villages with gorse in bloom. (Not sure about the 

pheasants, though.)

Laxford Loch islands
(Attribution: Anne Burgess)

Laxford River and bridge

We took off on our magic carpet along the A832 but made sure to branch off to follow the surprising good coastal roads through the tiny village of Annat on the shore of  Upper Loch Torridon and savour the view from Poolewe on Loch Ewe. Here is a sample of our Magic Carpet Experience (suggestion: use full screen view). To be very honest, your diarist is not at all sure of this video highway's designation but it is on the NW coast.

Now on the A894 as we approached Laxford Bridge spanning the River Laxford (expecting it, the river, to be called simply River Lax and at this point there being a ford, but no, there you go). We decided to take a look at tiny Fanagmore and even tinier Foidle a few km up a side road on Loch Laxford. A little adventure into the wild. 

Fangamore Bay house and Communications
Centre

Interesting demographic fact on Foidle: population 132, comprising caucasian 131 and Indian sub-continent 1, taken from Scottish census figures (with my alteration of ethnicity description to be more, how shall we say, "PC" these days). The interested reader will find economic diversity facts in the sidebar.

OK, lets keep this epic moving. Your travelling team is now at Durness, really up the top of NW Scotland, and which is self- decribed thus:The village of  Durness 5 miles west provides 2 grocery shops, a campsite overlooking Sango Bay and sandy beaches at Balnakeil, Sango, Sangobeg and Ceannabeinne. Durness is a remote and scattered crofting township spread out along the coast.

We have elected to stay at Glenaladale House, a B&B a little bit out of town, for economic considerations and to partake of their bonzer full Scottish breakfast which includes "porridge (of course) bacon, sausage (um...singular??) black pudding, eggs (ahh...plural)". One presumes that the porridge is served separately. 😋😋

Its time to forage among the myths and legends of this part of mysterious Scotland. About a mile north of Durness is the rocky headland of Faraid Head and on the western side lies Balnakeil Bay, home to Balnakeil House (one of the residences of the chiefs of Clan MacKay) and the ruins of Balnakeil Church. Let us have some lilting traditional music as we read on TRAD times

In a remaining wall of this ruined church is a large niche, dated 1623, there lies the mortal bones of one Duncan MacMorrach or Donald MacLeod or Domhnull MacMhurchaidh or MacMurachie  ( sources do vary).

Apparently he was not a nice man.🙈 In fact, according to some, he was the hit man for the Mackay of the MacKay, the second Lord of Reay, disposing of 18-odd enemies on behalf of the chief. Being such a nasty piece of work he could not be buried either in the church or in the consecrated land of the graveyard. Compromise: put him in the wall! Another source claims that MacMhurchaidh paid Lord Reay the great sum of £1000 (must have been good work if you could get it) to be buried in this special vault so that his remains would remain safe from desecration by his enemies. Our canny Lord Reay obviously did OK out of this arrangement. 

Trivia: Elizabeth Parkes, John Lennon's auntie, is buried at this spot.

Ten torturous mile NW from Durness is Cape Wrath (what a lovely endearing name) a vast and rugged wilderness, the most northwesterly point on the British mainland and home to the Ozone Cafe. One first crosses the Kyle of Durness by passenger ferry from Keodale then takes a one hour very bumpy ride in the minibus to reach the fabulous lighthouse and hot chocolate at the cafe. Dear reader, for your great enjoyment you absolutely must check out the Cape Wrath cafe website at visitcapewrath.com. 

For a mere £13 per head, Val and I are adding a virtual day to our itinerary to visit Cape Wrath....its a no-brainer. See you at the Ozone Cafe.😀

See you lovlies next on Orkney of the North Isles

Cheers Val and Bryan