The sky is the key to Orkney, as George Mackay Brown always emphasizes in his superb stories set in this northerly archipelago. At breakfast we could see gray clouds scudding across the sky, high enough to suggest a dry morning in prospect. And a dry landing by Zodiac on Shapinsay where we were greeted by Captain Zawadski, the present owner, who guided us through the walled gardens that supply the castle’s guests with fruit and vegetables. The castle, built in the 1840s, is still a family home, in which we were made most welcome, admiring the furnishings and library of a bygone age, and taking a delicious morning tea beside an open fire.
Over lunch the Endeavour repositioned off Kirkwall, the principal town on mainland Orkney and our point of departure for a tour of the spectacular archaeological sites for which this northerly island group is famous. The late Neolithic village of Skara Brae (in the photo) was first revealed to an astonished local landowner following violent storm one night in 1850. By the following morning he had become the bewildered owner of one of Europe’s oldest preserved settlements, with stone wall homes replete with dressers, box beds, quern stones and cozy hearths. The Ring of Brodgar, our next point of call, is a remarkable megalithic stone circle, some sixty stones in all, that archaeologists believe was orientated to the lunar cycle. Our final visit on the tour was to the Maes Howe passage grave. This grave has solar alignment, and squeezing inside we could appreciate the remarkable social and architectural achievement that enables the setting sunlight of the winter solstice to stream along the passage onto the burial site.
Returning to Kirkwall, we had the opportunity to explore the town at our leisure. Its principal building is St Magnus Cathedral, the existence of which for the past eight hundred years confers city status on little Kirkwall. The relics of St Magnus, who has his own Norse saga, have a place of honor in the Cathedral. And the cathedral glowed pink under that Orcadian sky.
