8
Tuesday
We start the day by driving the ring road around Rousay. All
of Orkney is pretty much treeless and stark, but Rousay seems especially so,
perhaps because there is so little population.
Back on Mainland, we stop
briefly in Kirkwall for last-minute souvenirs before heading down to St.
Margaret’s Hope to catch our ferry. We have just enough time to see the Italian
Chapel on the way. It’s a touching place, a house of worship built from a Nissen
hut (that’s a Quonset hut to us Yanks) by Italian prisoners of war, whose labor
was being used to build the Churchill Barriers during World War II. It’s a thing
of beauty made from virtually nothing, with a false façade and a
trompe-l’oeil interior. The Italian architect who supervised the original
construction returned in 1960 to do some restoration, and a number of surviving
POWs returned a few years ago, on the chapel’s 50th anniversary, speaking
movingly of the kindness of the Orcadians and the place Orkney held in their
hearts.
Had we two more hours, I would take Win down to the privately
owned Tomb of the Eagles at the southern tip of South Ronaldsay. There he would
hold a 5,000-year-old skull in his hands, view a Bronze Age settlement, and walk
along the cliffs to the spectacularly situated tomb, as I did on my earlier
visit. Again, we don’t have the time. Despite my best effort, I have once more
given Orkney short shrift. But I have fallen in love with the place, and know I
will be back soon. Having spent two visits dashing madly about Orkney’s myriad
attractions, I hope to spend some time settling into the slower rhythm of island
life.
We arrive in St. Margaret’s Hope just in time to find out that our
ferry has been canceled. The wind is blowing from the south, with enough force
to make docking at Gill’s Bay impossible. We quickly find a phone and call
Northlink in Stromness. They tell us they are still running. We have plenty of
time to catch the next trip, so we stop at the airport outside Kirkwall on the
way, just to cover the possibilities. Win has to catch a flight out of
Inverness early tomorrow morning. He finds a flight headed there late in the
afternoon and books it—he can cancel if the ferry actually runs. We arrive in
Stromness just in time to find out that the Northlink ferry is canceled, too. A
helpful woman at the tourist information desk helps Win book a B&B close
to the airport in Inverness. I take him back to Kirkwall and see him off. He
will get no dinner tonight, but he will catch his flight home.
Back in
Stromness—I’ve driven through Kirkwall four times today—I call Doris and Malcolm
at the Orca and take a room for another night. Malcolm joins me for a beer at
the Stromness Hotel. The bartender is the woman from the tourist desk. I’m
perfectly happy. There’s nowhere I have to be tomorrow. It’s October in Orkney.
Fin
|
