Iona and Mull - The Necessity of Taking Turns

The first time we came to Scotland, I looked at the single track roads out on the islands and absolutely refused to rent a car. We planned our whole trip around trains (which were mostly cancelled due to flooding and track damage) and buses. Now that I'm rated for left-side driving, left-side stick shift, and roads from motorways to A roads to smaller B roads to single track - we were ready to drive across Mull to Iona. Here's my favorite photo from the day (which I'm listing first just so it becomes the thumbnail of this post):

Mull

Mull is the large island just off the mainland - clearly visible from Oban. There are many ferries from Oban to Mull every day - the crossing takes around an hour. The fare for three people and a car, one way, was 31 pounds - or around $35. Alternately, we could have taken the ferry as foot passengers then caught the local bus across Mull. Later I wished we'd done that, but the bus was both more expensive and more limited, we would have had to take the earlier sailing. 

Mull was a surprising mix of forested areas, coast, and big baren hills. 

I don't have many photos of he 35 mile single-track road across the island from Craignure to Fionnphort because driving took ALL of my attention. My job was to drive like a bat out of hell - as fast as I reasonably could - watching like a hawk for oncoming vehicles. As soon as I saw one, I had to quick figure out if there was a passing place ahead (or behind me) - or if they were going to stop. I learned to flash my lights, and I did that steering wheel wave at every car. The road was NARROW and the oncoming vehicles were tourists, locals, RVs, vans, or full sized buses. I must have passed 50 vehicles on the way there - it added almost 30 minutes to the trip. 

The trip back was almost restful in comparison. That's when I stopped and got that picture of the highland cow. And these sheep that let me slowly squeeze by without giving up their place on the road....

Iona

There's evidence of human habitation of Iona as far back as the Bronze age, 2,000 BC, but the island is mostly known for the monk of Columba who arrived in 563 from Ireland - one of the first Christian communities in Scotland. The island still hosts religious communities. Otherwise, it's kind of a small, baren rock off the coast of Mull. A pretty rock - but not much room for farming. We joined the throngs of people off our ferry to see the ruined nunnery, the Abby, the heritage center, some shops, and back to the harbor to take the ferry back to the mainland. That's Iona, sorted. 

John O'Groats to Oban

John O'Groats
John O'Groats is the most northerly part of the UK/Scottish mainland. Lots of people talk about John O'Groats as sort of the northerly end of the world. So when we were nearby, we decided to stop. 

I was expecting this signpost. I was not expecting a huge parking lot, souvenir shops, cafes, ice cream shops, a Christmas shop, and more! However, I have to say it was fun - and the ice cream cones were delicious. The wind was still blowing like mad - and dramatic waves were crashing against the shore. 

Loch Ness

The next morning dawned bright, sunny and with almost no wind! We were so excited. We resumed our drive south, passing Inverness and turning southwest along the Great Glen, the fault that bisects the highlands from Inverness to Fort William. The Caledonian canal is the series of lochs, rivers and canals that follows the fault - and allows boats to traverse from one side of Scotland to the other. 

Driving along Loch Ness is tricky, because the mountains plunge right into the loch, which just enough room for a twisty road on one side. But we found a road-side stop with stairs down to the loch. 

Later we stopped at Oich bridge to stretch our legs - and marvel at the bridge. 

Oban

And finally, we made it to Oban, on the western side of Scotland. We stayed here in 2019, and I have to say, it's a cute town. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and warm - so it was *covered* in tourists - but cute. 

And while the view from this apartment isn't as good as last time (w were in one of these waterfront buildings last time) - we're still enjoying watching the boats come and go. 

Old Man of Hoy

From almost any place we visited on Orkney (or the north of the Scottish mainlan), we could see the tall "hills" on the island of Hoy. It's no wonder that we wanted to visit them! So finally we drove our car onto yet another ferry, headed for Hoy. At least this time I just had to drive forward, unlike the time I had to back the car down a narrow ramp onto the ferry for the island of Rousey. After that - driving forward down a narrow ramp is a breeze!

The absolute best spot on the island of Hoy is the Old Man of Hoy - a 400 foot sea stack. That's a place where part of the cliff has worn away, leaving a tiny island of a cliff just off shore. So we drove across the island on a single track road along the coast, then up through the hills to the hamlet of Rackwick. The hills weren't exactly beautiful - but they are very striking. They're covered with low scrub - heather - and look pretty baren. The hike to the Old Man was another 3 hours from Rackwick - so outside our range this trip - but we did get to see the pretty beach. 

Back at the ferry terminal, we had time for a quick visit to the Scapa Flow museum. Scapa Flow is the fairly protected bay in the south part of Orkney, which was used as a naval base during both WWI and WWII. At the end of WWI, a number of boats from the German fleet were captured and held here. After six months, the Germans scuttled (sank) their own ships to keep them from the allied forces. Most of the ships have been removed by now, but people still come here to dive and see the remaining wrecks. 

We did finally get to see the Old Man of Hoy from the Northlink on our way back to the mainland. What you can't see very well from these pictures is how VERY windy it was! The wind was blasting us, we could hardly stand up, and after I took the picture below, after Wendy went inside, mom and I got totally soaked by a rogue wave. The passengers further down the rail were dry, but we had wet hair, coats and pants. Ugh. No pictures were taken!

Skara Brae and the Broch of Gruness

At home, I don't think or talk about the neolithic very often, but it's top of the mind here in Orkney. The neolithic is the new stone age - the last age before bronze and then iron. It lasted from around 6,000 years ago (4,000 BC) to 4,500 yeas ago (2,500 BC) and during that time period, the Orkadians build a lot of houses, tombs and standing stones that survive today. 

The top site in all of Orkney is Skara Brae, a complex of interconnected houses from the neolithic that amazingly preserved. Seeing sites like this in person makes it even easier to imagine that real people, who looked almost identical to us, lived in these houses a very long time ago. On average, they were 2" shorter than us - so you wouldn't even be able to pick them out of a crowd now. 

But my favorite part of this site was the re-enactment house they built. It wasn't dug into the ground at all - just a round stone house built to the same plan as the old ones, with a thatch roof and filled with likely pots, furs and even a coracle boat. It was cozy! It was out of the wind and was probably nice and warm. 

We also visited Gruness broch. Brochs are usually from the iron age, but this one had old stone houses surrounding it. 

The Best Airbnb Ever

I have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs (last count - 37). This one now tops the list of my absolute favorite - ever. 

The house is in Stromness, right on the water - the edge of Scapa Flow. And by on the water, I mean that we have our own anchorage/ramp into the water, and that we have an enclosed porch on the front of the house with views at the water in three directions. We watch the weather, the boats, the birds, the tides, and today a human swimmer. It is gorgeous and endlessly interesting. Which is good, because it's been windy and rainy and hard to be outside for too long. 

We brought our own binoculars - and they provided a whole basket more for watching boats and birds:

The Northlink ferry is my favorite - and we get to see it coming and going to the mainland six times a day! Plus the Gramsae ferry to the nearby islands and assorted fishing, diving, and cargo boats. We've all got the Marine Traffic app on speed dial. 

At night - the lights are gorgeous.

The RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that maintains lifeboats all around the UK. This boat is coming back from a "shout" - we don't know what happened. 

We've seen a bunch of female Eider ducks - which are a lovely but unremarkable brown color. We finally saw some of the males - which are much more distinctly colored. 

The shags are a hoot to watch, because they're diving ducks, and they almost jump out of the water as they dive down. A whole flock of them clustered in front of our porch earlier today.

The water level changes dramatically with the tides. Obviously, the top picture is high tide - by low tide, the ramp is completely exposed along with a lot of sea weed. 

 

Standing Stones

It turns out that there are standing stone circles all over Europe - and definitely all over the UK. But there's some evidence to suggest that the oldest standing stone circles are the one we visited today - here in Orkney. They are significantly older than Stone Henge. It seems possible that the tradition of stone circles was brought to Orkney before the rest of the UK. That would have been around 5,300 years ago. Can you imagine what it would take to build something now - anything - that would still be around 5,000 years from now? 

We've been watching documentaries about these sites - it was pretty exciting to see them in person. 

Ring of Brodgar
This perfect circle is 341' in diameter. It originally had 60 stones - 27 remain. It's so big that I couldn't get a good picture of the whole of it. 

Stone of Stenness
Less than a mile away is another site with standing stones. Twelve stones were originally laid out in an elipses - four are left. It was a really informal site where we could walk right up to the stones and even touch them if we liked. There's a hearth in the center, implying that neolithic people used it as a gathering place - as it's used today. 

Barnhouse Settlement
Across a field was yet another site - this time houses. Remains of at least 15 neolithic houses were adjacent to the Stones of Stenness. 

Bird Hide
And a stones throw from Barnhouse Settlement was one of RSPB's bird hides - a small building set on the edge of a loch, with narrow horizontal windows, perfect for watching birds out on the water. Wendy and I loved getting out of the wind and the rain for a few minutes, and sitting on the benches to admire the swans out on the loch. 

Unstan Chambered Cairn

We carefully bumped the rental car along a short gravel road just past a farmhouse to see Unstan. It felt like we were pulling up in someone's yard, but there was an official Historic Scotland parking area, and the route to the mound was carefully fenced off. 

When we got there, we moved the grate aside and were free to crawl inside. And ... none of us quite wanted to do that. It felt quite claustrophobic! So we just took pictures. 

Beaches!

You might not think of Scotland as a great place for beaches - but they are stunning. Cold, windy and often rainy - but stunning. 

A five minute drive from Kirkwall brought us to this beach on the edge of Scapa Flow. Scapa Flow is a fairly protected bay in the center of the Orkney island. The Vikings used it, and it was a big deal during both World War I and II. 

Another favorite for us is Dingieshowe Beach, which is in the small spit of land east of Kirkwall, just before a piece of land that would be its own island if the water level were a bit higher. We walked through sand dunes to get to the beach. I waded in the water, we watched the shags and gulls on the water, and were intrigued by the seaweed shapes.