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!