15 October 2006

October

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Sunday 15 October 2006--We're off to Birsay this morning. Low tide is at 10:00, and there is a window of a couple of hours either side during which one may walk out the causeway to the brough.

Most of the remains on the Brough of Birsay are from the Norse period, from the 9th to 12th centuries, although it was inhabited for centuries prior by Picts. During the Norse regime, this was a center of political and religious power. For a brief period there was a Benedictine or Augustine monastery adjacent to the kirk.

Back across Brough Sound, we walk along the shore to an old noust, or fishing boat outhaul, and attendant shack. A bit farther along, a whalebone, reminiscent of a seabird, was taken from a beached whale and mounted on a post in the 1870s.

Near Birsay, another Earl's Palace, earlier than the one in Kirkwall, was built by the evil Earl Patrick Stewart's father, the not-quite-so-evil Earl Robert Stewart. Earl Robert was the bastard son of King James V of Scotland, and spent his life trying to make rather more of his royal lineage than anyone would have liked.

We head back toward the vicinity of Kirkwall, cutting across the heart of western Mainland. We stop to examine the Dounby Click Mill on the way. This is an old style of mill with a horizontal waterwheel that apparently made a distinctive clicking sound. I've seen a number of similar mills in Shetland.

We drive up to a carpark on the side of Wideford Hill. The weather has been fantastic while we have been in Orkney, and I have actually managed to get a bit of a sunburn in October. But I'd gladly have traded some of the warmth for some clarity in the air. Normally, it's possible to see pretty much all of Orkney from up here, but today most of it is lost in the haze. Around to the western side of the hill lies the Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn, a fairly typical tomb. It has a very low and narrow entrance passage; a hatch in the top, where the capstone once was, eases entry for us modern folk.

At Yesnaby, the afternoon sun once again lights up the west-facing cliffs, and we walk south this time to view the peculiar sea stacks. The sea is much calmer than it was yesterday.

Back in Stromness, we finally get a nice quiet evening in the Stromness Hotel. After dinner, we chat with Erland, the bartender, and lament that the Stillroom is closed. He offers to take us in there to pick out a couple bottles to bring back to the main bar, and we eagerly accept. We choose two bottles from Gordon & MacPhail's Cask label, a Glenlivet and a Bladnoch. The first we have chosen because Ron has a bottle of Glenlivet from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society that he says is excellent, and we are curious about this malt, widely available in its standard bottlings, but often overlooked by aficionados. The second is chosen as part of our ongoing Bladnoch survey, which started with my visit there at the start of this trip. Both drams are absolutely wonderful. We also try a Highland Park 30, which we are sure has been mispriced, and a Highland Park 25. Both are marvelous, although I definitely prefer the 25.

It's a fitting cap to our sojourn in Orkney, a sublime interlude during which all the little disappointments are forgotten. A good dram will do that. Tomorrow we must be up before dawn to catch the ferry away.

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