Drawn to the Edge

Apologies in advance for the length. I don't want to forget this day.

We woke up to sunshine! Wednesday had been overcast and a bit chilly which, in retrospect, was perfect for a day spent largely indoors resting. Today, however, called from those early rays saying 'get out here, it's gorgeous!'

We first went to the standing stones of Stenness. They were impressive in the way that any standing stone is, once you get your head around the fact that they've been put up using pretty primitive technology thousands of years ago and have stayed up. These particular stones are disadvantaged by being so close to the Ring of Brodgar which is what we think standing stones should look like, in a henge to boot. The Ring is truly an impressive sight.

We then headed off to Birsay to go to the Brough, an island connected by a causeway at low tide. We got there about an hour before low tide and it was clear that Neil from the Tourist Information Office had given this advice to other people, too... In fact, many of the other people didn't venture over to the island and stayed splashing about in the warm water (on the edge of the Atlantic) and really, who could blame them? It was gorgeous right there.

We did go over and up and for much of our time on the island it felt like we had it to ourselves. I'd forgotten how much Dr T likes to go to the edge of things. We came across a gorge where the water had cut right through to the bottom. I thought I could get a pretty good shot from the top. Dr T thought 'let's see if we can get to the bottom'. And we did get to the bottom. And it was magical. This is where today's blip was taken.

The views from the tops were pretty spectacular - Neolithic filing systems of rocks stacked on other rocks for more years than I care to know. We were wandering about, admiring how the gulls were gliding about on the air currents looking like airplanes when we came across puffins. I'm sorry, I like gulls but puffins are adorable! We weren't expecting to see any but there they were, occasionally taking a wee flight off shore and back again. We were entranced. At one point a family was coming over the hill. I waved my hand to get their attention, put my finger to my lips to signal to be quiet and then beckoned them over. When they were close I whispered 'puffins!' and then we changed places so they could get a better look. The expression on the children's faces was magical. We strolled off in the sunshine, glad that someone else could see such beauty up close.

Did I mention it was sunny? It was baking hot with no breeze so we made our way to one of the best tea rooms I've ever been to (thanks Neil!). We rehydrated on water, limonata, coffee and Orkney ice cream milk shakes. It was delicious.

After this we went meandering about, making our way to the famous Skara Brae only to find it was after hours. No matter. We headed off to Yesnaby for more spectacular views. Then we went to Stromness to wander about the town. It's 'Shopping Week' evidently and we stumbled across a beer drinking competition in a main area. It was oddly compelling and we found ourselves guessing who would get the best times. We watched a young woman drink a half yard of ale in 7.3 seconds. I don't drink much and I think Scotland has a troubled relationship with alcohol but that was really impressive! Turns out she's won the trophy every year since 2009.

We then followed Neil's advice again and headed back to the Ring of Brodgar towards sunset. It was certainly lovely to be there with so few people on a beautiful night.

Thanks for listening. Some more photos are over here. xx

LATER EDIT: I think I've fixed the link to the flickr set. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Also, if I may be so bold, I think this looks even better in large (and I would do the magic to give you a link to go large if I knew how...). ;)