A Special Place.

Sunday May 24, 2026

Dounby, Orkney Main Isle, Scotland

Distance traveled: 126 km. Cumulative distance: 2721 km

Weather: The day started with rain. Then by the time we were saddling up, the rain had stopped and before we new it, blue sky all around. Till later. Then rain. Temperature range: 10 - 14. 

Getting ready for departure around 10:30 am.

Breakfast was served and I ordered blood sausage with my scrambled eggs. I don't find the name all that appealing - it is really dark, almost black - and is commonly made with pork blood, fat, grain filler like oats or bread. It is cooked until congealed then cooled, sliced like a slider and fried. I was ok with it but I far prefer sausage or bacon or sausage with bacon.  It has a texture like fine ground hamburger but with a lot of filler. Nan wouldn't try it, which surprised me because she was fine with haggis but then she (accidently) ordered it with an appetizer at dinner tonight. She said she didn't care for it but she ate it all.

We had booked admittance to the ancient village of Skara Brae for 1:30 pm, which would give time for the weather to clear. Not that we were really anticipating it would cooperate but as it had been raining for most of the morning, we thought, "it can't get any worse". Well, maybe I should be more careful but it allowed us to saddle up and get on the road to see some other things before getting there. I devised a little loop around the north of the island, taking us through the village of Evie, named after a good friend of ours,  that would take us by a few other things to see  and maybe explore before having to present ourselves at 1:30.

Our first stop of the morning was at Broch Gurness, an Iron Age village that archeolgists have concluded was originated between 500 and 200 BC. The broch was a series of dwellings dug into the ground and lined with rocks then had a roof with poles and likely animal hides to provide shelter against the elements, with a large, central structure of similar design at the centre. And guarded by a grey cat Tommy. 

Stair case to the upper deck.

The structure may have been as high as 12 stories, though that is conjectrure.

Areas were designated as sleeping areas with rocks to create privacy screens.

Peering inside the wall, which was five feet thick.

There was a fresh water well inside, which decended 5 metres. This is actually the staircase down to the well. I asked the curator when was the last time someone was down there and he said "that was me about five or six years ago, when someone dropped his dentures down the well".

Nan, Sir Tommie and Michael the Denture Fetcher.

Sir Tommy, Laird of Boch Gurness.

We kept riding around in the blue skies and stopped in at an old castle and to see a lighthouse on a hill about five miles away. On the other side of the hill was a small island with an old castle that is accessible only during low tide, which the T-800 predicted would be around 12:00 pm or thereabouts.  What was  not revealed was the 10 mile round trip of walking in motorcycle boots to see any of it. 

The old castle, Birsay Castle

The lighthouse. Trust me, it's there.

Skara Brae was next on the list. This is a special place because it was occupied between 3180 and 2500 BC making it older than the Great Wall, Pompeii and the Pyramids of Egypt. It was discovered in 1850 by the landowner after a wicked storm, which killed 200 people, washed away a lot of the sand covering the structures. The property has remained in the same family since that time and the archeological site is leased and maintained by the government. The family allows tourists to walk through the home and buy trinkets and Orkney ice cream.

One of the dwellings, "House 7" was largely intact when it was excavated and the adminstrators of the site have built a replica to be explored upon entry to the grounds. The foundations are largely sunken with poles and animal hides to cover the interior, then grass was grown on top of the roof to provide further protection.  Many artifacts over the years have been retrieved, some legitimately, some not and remain lost or distributed to various galleries and museums in the UK. Visitors are no longer allowed to walk within the ruins though it was clear that that was a recent development as the grass appeared to be in recovery mode. A pavement sidewalk around the dwellings was for visitors.

Here are some pictures from the replica. I also did a video walk-through but the file was too big to upload, so please feel free to stop by our house and view it.

The furnishings were as you see in these pictures. Not the lighting.

We met a Canadian working as a curator and he gave us some some tips about viewing the site. We saw him again afterwards and he suggested we visit one other site today, the Yesnaby Cliffs and Sea Stack. We decided we would do this but by the time we were leaving the Skara Brae, it was starting to rain lightly.  He did acknowledge that there was some walking involved to see the best sites but we would be able to see the cliffs from near the parking area.

 

Nan and I decided that it was a fitting end to our Orkney visit.