Orkney

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Our final Scottish port of call was at Orkney. Our tour was called Orkney's Archaelogical Wonders and it more than lived up to expectations. We visited several World Heritage pre-historic sites in only a very small area of the mainland and not far at all from our port of Kirkwall. First though we drove past Scapa Flow, an extremely large sheltered bay which played a key role in both the first and second World Wars. Its history was so interesting, I'd like to find out more.

Then we stopped at The Stones of Stenness, a site where work on it had started by 3100 BC i.e. over 5,000 years ago! We drove a short distance and past the Ness of Brodgar which is still being investigated, but is thought to be of even more significance. And a short distance further on we stopped at The Ring of Brodgar, a classic henge site where 27 of the original 60 possible stones are still standing. Then on to Skara Brae, where you can still see the remains of a neolithic village which is thought to have been inhabited for some 600 years between 3100 and 2500 BC. Then a short walk to Skaill House, first built in the 1620's. 

After the tour we had enough time to pop into the town of Kirkwall, peruse some lovely shops and look at the outside of the cathedral where work started in 1137. 

I've never seen so much wonderful history and so many interesting things in such a small area, and that's not to mention the wonderful scenery or the wildlife that Orkney is known for. This is absolutely definitely somewhere I'd like to visit again and explore at my leisure.