The Old Man of Huy's key travels: June-July 2022 Glasgow, Arran, Orkney, Shetland (Part 4 -- Orkney)

Day 6 -- Tuesday, the 28th June

The Scrabster-to-Stromness crossing is uneventful. The red cliffs of Hoy are as marvellous as ever, with the Old Man and John's Head being particularly impressive. The seabirds that accompany us are a welcome reminder that we are truly on holiday.

We land in Stromness on time, and reach Lindisfarne shortly afterwards, where we will spend four nights. It is the best accommodation of this trip, we all agree later. From the front room, the view towards Stromness and Hoy is wonderful.

But we are tired and need some rest. However, first, we need to book things for the rest of our stay. Orkney is remote, but everything has to be booked ahead, something that is even worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Day 7 -- Wednesday, the 29th June

We start early again and dress to hike. Today is supposed to see the best weather of our Orkney stay, and we plan to take advantage of it.

It is a short walk to the harbour where we board the ferry to our destination: Hoy!

This wonderful 1966 Daimler V8 250 sits proudly
in the parking lot of the ferry terminal

Our mode of transportation for the day (left)

Despite those warnings that booking ahead is essential and all, the service is as relaxed as I remembered and hoped. Ah! well, we have tickets already.

It is an easy, quiet crossing, as far as the sea is concerned. We spot guillemots, cormorants, and... gannets! adc is over the moon. Ha! Ha! She has no idea what is coming. :-)

Our destination looks glorious

Hoy is windy and cold-ish. We spot black-headed terns, grey seals in the bay west of the landing, then oystercatchers, then hooded crows, as well as sheep aplenty.

Looking back towards the ferry landing

Local flora

We follow the same route dom666, JS and I took in 2012, a pleasant, low-demand hike through RSPB Scotland Hoy.

I am surprised by the number of skuas: there are a lot fewer, this time. We are also a couple of weeks later, so that might be the cause (more on that later). Yes: we see great skuas, fulmars, stonechats, green tiger beetles, common sun beetle, and curlews.

A green tiger beetle

A common sun beetle

A unique specimen of JS

We arrive in Rackwick around 10:00, and I start to feel like we are doing this too quickly. Rackwick seems more built up than a decade ago, though it is hardly a busy town, what with its dozen houses.

Approaching Rackwick

From there, we continue to the see the local Old Man whose name looks so much like mine that one may think he nicked it from me.

Dedicated to JD

The visibility is better than ten years ago, when he only appeared once we were face to face. Today, we spot him a couple of kilometres away.

That is him, there, just above JS

There, the wind, which had been strong since Rackwick, becomes ridiculous. It makes taking dramatic pictures risky. We have a dram near it -- of The Old Man of Hoy, of course. :-)

(Thanks for the dram, adc; I cannot believe you did not guess
our destination when I asked you to pack some of this!)

The warming-up effect is welcome!

To your health, Old Man!

A less-usual angle

Northlink Ferries' promotional picture for next year!
(Can you see the ship?)

Just as the Northlink vessel disappears on the horizon,
this curious eider comes greet us

After a wee while, we trace our steps back. As was the case a decade ago, we will not hike on the edge of the cliff to the top of John's Head again: there is a path, we probably even have time, but we do not know the way and the duration, and, most importantly, the wind is dangerous enough to not make me want to attempt the potentially-risky hike.

Rackwick's back alright

On the way back, we come across dozens of people; it is now way too busy for me.

We stop in Rackwick for a bite, fail to visit the beach (again), but do visit the local museum, in the old school building.

It is surrounded by farming machines

The museum tells the life of the Rackwick community
over the ages

In the RSPB reserve, the sun is shining, and we need to shed layers, down to t-shirts. To think that thirty minutes ago, we were wearing scarves, gloves and hoods!

Insects know when to come out and enjoy the sun: butterflies appear out of nowhere.

This beautifully-coloured one is particularly photogenic

We also spot a mallard with two ducklings in a stream by the road, not far from Moaness.

As a side note, Peat & Diesel - Co-Dhiu Dot Com is stuck in my head the whole day. Great song, but it sort of distracts me from the enjoyment of the nature reserve.

Looking towards the ferry landing in Moaness.
Better weather than this morning!

We arrive at the Beneth'ill Café around 15:00 for a bite.

Lovely, hearty food. Pity they are not offering the legendary scallop on a roll, this time, but it does the trick regardless.

Lentil and tomato soup for all

Served with bread and butter

Egg mayo and tomato sarnie for JS

Cheese and olive toastie for me

We take the 16:30 ferry back to Stromness, then walk back to our place for a shower and a laundry.

On the ferry, one is never far from the toilet discharge

This beautiful Morgan is now waiting to board a ferry

Since we had a late lunch or early supper, we are not hungry. We decide to do a late excursion to the Ring of Brodgar, aware that it is probably much too crowded, during the day.

En route, we spot a lapwing in a field. Yay.

Also, this curious flower

The stone circle is still not deserted, but it is bearable. The light is magical, the atmosphere is esoteric, and the whole experience is special.

The inner-ring walk is closed, worn by heavy tourism. Touristic attractions of the world, be careful what you wish for! That is the result of increased tourism: attractions that can only be seen from a distance, lest their deterioration is accelerated. Case in point: the tomb of Nefertari, in Egypt, which had to be closed in 1950 and whose access is now severely restricted to limit human impact.

As we leave the site, four (local?) girls and a dog splendidly ignore the sign to keep out, jump the fence and go straight to the inner ring, then the centre of the circle. Of course, it infuriates me.

Our next stop is at the Stones of Stenness.

Where sheep greet us

It is lovely, yet not as impressive as Brodgar: although the stones themselves are bigger, the circle is much smaller, and only four stones remain, here. It is also very windy and, with the fading sunlight and growing clouds, it is soon too cold to remain enjoyable. We go home for a dram and sleep.

Day 8 -- Thursday, the 30th June

Today, we explore the east of Mainland Orkney, an area that is terra incognita for tOMoH. We drive to Deerness to see the Gloup and hike to Mull Head (incidentally, a Mull Head wine would come in handy: it is damp, today).

The Gloup -- it is a sea cave whose roof has collapsed

It is a nice, unchallenging walk with stunning views over bays, geos, and birds' nests; fulmars, black guillemots (yay! A first), guillemots, skuas, skylarks, great black-backed seagulls, razorbills, but also swans, lapwings, eiders, curlews, mallards, and a pigeon. What the flip it is doing on a cliff is anyone's guess. Priced out of the city, perhaps.

Fulmars

A fulmar from modelling school

Black guillemots

Once again, it is astounding how clear the water is

What looks like a dug-out or collapsed peat bog

This looks like fifteen metres' worth of strata
were stripped off the clifftop, leaving an exposed slab

Broken eggs, but where is the omelette?

adc is bothered by her ankles. She ties a sock around them to cushion the impact. They fall off every twenty metre or so, which slows her down to complete the hike.

Once we are back at the car park, we discover it now plays host to a dozen cars of various sizes. :-(

Our next stop is Tankerness, where we arrive at Sheila Fleet Kirk Gallery & Café with an hour to spare.

A jewellery, art gallery and a restaurant
all housed in an old church

We take a nap in the car before the table is ready. The food is worth the wait.

Seasonal Soup of the Day for JS and me
(beetroot)

Orkney Platter for me

Westray Crab Roll for JS

Summer Breckon Fish Soup for adc

Rhubarb & Custard Turnover for me

Sticky Date & Pear for JS

Raspberry & White Chocolate Macaroon for adc

With little time left in the day, we take the chance to explore Kirkwall. Half the streets are closed off and full of tourists: two huge cruise ships have moored in the harbour, and their passengers are now in town, which makes for a horrible vibe.

Carefully avoiding running out of petrol, we stop for fuel, then fly back to Stromness for a stroll. It is too late to visit the museum, but the library is still open.

Stromness is a charming town, as I remembered it -- better, even. It seems to not have heard that the 19th century was over. It is busy, though!

Greetings from the Azores -- oh! Wait...

The site of the old distillery,
with the museum on the right

One can easily imagine casks being rolled to
ships on this slipway

A cannon once used to salute the ships of the
Hudson's Bay Company

Time to freshen up before dinner. We stop at the minimarket, but they have no Old Orkney anymore, sadly. We attempt an incursion to the Co-Op: it has a horribly-generic selection. We were hoping to find local cheeses; there is none.

A little later on, we are back in town for supper at Hamnavoe, which shoots to the top spot in the list of my favourite restaurants. So much so that, when the waiter asks us if we enjoyed it, the conversation goes:

tOMoH: "Yes, In fact, if it weren't fully booked tomorrow, we'd probably book a table now to come back."
Waiter: "Really? Would you like me to see if we can accommodate you?"
tOMoH: "Well, we would love that, but you just told people you have no availability tomorrow."
Waiter: "True, but I know someone who can decide to make space for you, if you're up for it."

Two minutes later, a table is ours for tomorrow, at 19:30. \o/

Crab, prawn and chive dumplings with shellfish and sugar kelp dashi for me

Hand dived Orkney scallops with hazelnut Romesco for adc

Mung bean pancake for JS
(spring onion, fiddle fern, kimchi, perilla leaf)

Seafood bisque for me
(scallops, saffron potatoes, sea trout and plaice)

Roast cod for adc

(white bean, tomato and tarragon cassoulet, confit lemon and garlic relish)

Butter poached lobster for JS
(white soy and mirin sauce, ginger and spring onion noodles)
They are out of lobster, so it is replaced with scallops

Tenderstem broccoli with nduja and almonds

House salad

Crispy new potatoes with chives and crème fraiche [sic]

Lemon meringue pie for JS

Chocolate torte, boozy cherries, Chantilly cream for me

Life does not suck, right now.

Day 9 -- Friday, the 1st July

After a couple of attempts yesterday, I make another early phone call today: Loganair have sightseer trips available today, but the fog is too thick for the airplane to take off. I am told to rock up at the airport regardless, in the hope that it clears up enough later on. We do exactly that, and it is a little difficult to not tell adc where we are going, or why we are waiting at an airport. I value surprises, me, you see.

But it works. And only thirty minutes later than scheduled (9:00 instead of 8:30), we are about to take off. And since the 7:30 flight was cancelled, they decided to combine that trip with ours. That means that, instead of flying to Stronsay and back, we will fly to Stronsay and North Ronaldsay before coming back to land in Kirkwall.

Taking off from Kirkwall

The cute eider from the other day is on the same flight

In such a small craft too, rules are applicable

Landing at Stronsay airfield

Stronsay airport

Overflying Sanday

Approaching North Ronaldsay

It is a fantastic experience, short but smooth and exhilarating. adc is particularly enthusiastic: she saw a documentary about this service and our pilot today is the star of said programme.

In hindsight, we are relatively pleased to have chosen not to spend seven hours on a random island: they seem to offer little to do, and what they do offer is far between. Also, the weather is not exactly great.

Our flying machine, back in Kirkwall

Once we have landed, we drive to Scapa distillery.

They are not doing tours (the still room was gutted to replace the Lomond still -- like for like, phew!), but they are happy to let us try whatever we want from their current selection. Whatever we want!

These are off limit. I will try the 10yo one day, though.
One day!

We try, ahem, nine expressions. In contrast with Wolfburn, the other day, they are not overly bothered that I am driving. It is entirely at my discretion. For the record, I only smell them all, and take a drop of a minority, not more.

We leave poor. Scapa is a trap! :-)

Just as we leave the premises,
this sign is a just-in-time reminder.
Teh lolz.

adc: "I am so pleased we came to Scapa and not Highland Park! This was much better!"

From there, we proceed northwest. On the way to our next destination, a short-eared owl perched on a picket fence by the roadside decides to take off in front of my bonnet. I see it on time to turn the wheel vigorously, thereby waking up JS, who was resting. Fortunately, we are alone on the road, there is no damage to the car, and the suicidowl is unscathed.

We continue to Birsay Bay Tearoom for lunch. It is busy (again, we had to book in advance) and delicious.

Their light fittings are pretty original

Banana milkshake for me.
I am disappointed when they tell me
that the bananas are not locally sourced

Soup of the Day (red pepper) and Cannonball Toastie for me

Soup of the Day and some toastie with Orkney cheese for JS

Soup of the Day and some roast-beefy sarnie for adc

JS has this buttery, caramel dessert, the name of which I failed to write down

tOMoH: "It is not too expensive for what we had and the quality was great."
JS: "It's not Mickey D's." (Of course, a born-and-bred local would have said 'Maccy D's')

tOMoH: "Ronaldsay McDonaldsay!"

With food in our system, we visit the Earl's Palace right before a boatload of tourists have the same idea.

Then, we move on to RSPB Scotland The Loons. There is a hide from which we hope to spot good-looking birds (barn swallows, mallards, fulmar, and a duck we cannot identify, but, in hindsight, might be a female tufted duck).

Who are you?
(female lesser scaup)

This eider is obviously following us

After a while unsuccessfully trying to identify the one duck that is not a mallard (and its ducklings, let us be accurate), we continue to RSPB Marwick Head, where black-headed gulls and fulmars are scouting the cliff line.

On the shore, this strange carcass-like metal... "thing"
litters the beach

From there, we drive south to Yesnaby. There are remnants of a Royal Navy anti-aircraft battery near the car park, and information plaques.

Also a serial midge-killer

JS almost immediately spots primula scotica, a local flower she was hoping to see. We walk along the clifftop in search for a sea stack. A group of Italians are climbing Qui Ayre, and JS reckons that is it.

Qui Ayre

It is an impressive rock formation, but not what we are looking for.

It is, however, the scene of a killing

A little further on, we find our sea stack: Yesnaby Castle. At 25-30m, The Old Man of Hoy it is not, but it is spectacular all the same. Extraordinarily, said Old Man is visible, on the horizon.

Yesnaby Castle

Hoy in the clouds

On the way back to the car park, we see a dead gannet in a field (more on that later), which fills us with sorrow.

And then we spot a ringed plover with two chicks, irresistible balls of fluff bobbing up and down. Despite the dead gannet, they complete a lovely, lovely day!

Sadly, the chicks never make it onto the picture

tOMoH: "How did you spot those ringed plovers?"
JS: "I started thinking like a bird, which made them easier to find."

Back home to freshen up, then we return to Hamnavoe for supper (and see a Muscovy duck on the way). Remember we gently twisted the waiter's arm for a table, last night.

A large group of Royal National Lifeboat Institution personnel is having a yearly outing. It is rowdy and occupies half of the restaurant, but it is also jovial. We now understand why the place was not taking bookings for tonight.

The food is just as good, if not better than last night, yet I am less impressed, since it is not a surprise, this time. Ah, well.

Crab, prawn and chive dumplings with shellfish and sugar kelp dashi for me

North Ronaldsay mutton w/ seaweed, samphire, cucumber for adc

Hand dived Orkney scallops with hazelnut Romesco for JS

Crispy new potatoes with chives and crème fraiche [sic]
This is slightly less good, today

Tenderstem broccoli with nduja and almonds

Slow braised Orkney beef cheek with buttered polenta, sweetheart cabbage, salsa verde
for me

Butter poached lobster for JS and adc
(white soy and mirin sauce, ginger and spring onion noodles)

...and after

We walk around lovely Stromness to digest and pet its many cats, then go home for a dram and a snooze.

Day 10 -- Saturday, the 2nd July

It is a slow start, today. We pack and check out from Lindisfarne, then fill the tank and visit the Stromness Museum. It is incredibly rich, slightly less of an incoherent mish-mash than Tobermory's, yet it presents just as much variety. It is also dense AF, and is a lot to take in! The highlight is probably the Old Orkney/Stromness memorabilia, as far as I am concerned.

From there, we go buy cheeses from the local grocery shop, then more from the cheese shop. Then, we drive to Kirkwall. The day is shaping up to be grey and miserable, in line with every Kirkwall visit that I can remember.

We are in town around 12:30, which is too late for lunch, unfortunately. I dreamt of going back to Judith Glue, but realistically, it is not going to work. Sadly, they close the kitchen at 17:00, so dinner does not work either -- we have something from 14:00 to 17:00 and need a comfortable buffer on both sides. Instead, we have crisps in the car. Classy. :-)

We have time to take a stroll in the town. It is busy again. A stag-do is circling the centre on a flatbed van, with the (inebriated) protagonists all more or less dressed as Vikings. It is hilarious. They drive past White Stag (our car, remember) as I get out of it and make it clear they want to high-five me with a pole. I oblige, and they erupt as if we had been best mates since school.

14:00 nears, and we make our way to the one place adc does not expect: Highland Park distillery.

After the tasting, we try to find a place to eat. Trip Organiser JS secures us a table in the only place that has capacity: Lucano. We are eating Italian, tonight! We have a couple of hours to kill before that too, but I have a plan.

We drive to Lambs Holm, Glims Holm, Burray and South Ronaldsay (they are linked to the Mainland by bridges) and back. We stop by the Italian Chapel, the Churchill Barriers and their precursor wrecks, and go all the way to Burwick, from which we can see the Scottish Mainland.

Shipwrecks off the Churchill Barriers

Sharing the road with some hot rods

The Italian Chapel

The Earl's Palace
Same earl as the one who built Birsay
different palace

Highland Park have a shop in town

Back in Kirkwall, it feels odd and a half to eat Italian in Scotland. Come to think of it, we do go to Paesano, in Glasgow. We eat seafood, though. It is not quite Hamnavoe, but it is good all the same, and is more practical for us, tonight.

Scapa Special for me

Linguine ai frutti di mare for adc

Trio di pesce for me

Linguine atlantiche for JS

We look at the dessert menu. I am reviewing at their ice cream selection when they bring a tiramisú to the next table. I am surprised they have it; it turns out that is the last one. I make endless jokes and threats to obtain it (but were they really jokes?), to no avail. I opt for a coppa amarone as a replacement. It comes with three scoops of vanilla ice cream. I ask if I can swap one of them for chocolate; I am offered three scoops of chocolate instead of vanilla, as vanilla just came out of the freezer and is rock hard. I go for two chocolate and one fudge.