Orkney Recent History Just As Interesting As Its Neolithic Ruins

Days 60-62, 2025 European Odyssey

Wednesday-Friday, Aug. 27-29, 2025; Lerwick, Kirkwall and Stornoway, Scotland.

Sometimes you just need to get out of town, and that’s what I decided to do at the last minute in Kirkwall, the main town in Scotland’s Orkney Islands. I love wandering Kirkwall’s streets and poking into its shops, but I’ve done more than enough of that in recent ports.

In 2023, I visited the ruins at Skara Brae, a Neolithic village dating back to about 3120 BC, and the Ring of Brodgar, an ancient henge and stone circle. It was the first I learned of Britain’s neolithic history, although I should have remembered it from Bill Bryson’s “At Home: A Short History of Private Life.”

On Thursday I jumped ahead by centuries with a tour to Scapa Flow, a large body of water encircled by islands, making it a natural harbor since the days of the Vikings. Most recently, it served as the base for the British naval fleet during World Wars I and II. German submarines were unsuccessful in their attempts to enter the harbor during World War I, but they succeeded in 1939 and sank the HMS Royal Oak. Winston Churchill ordered the construction of causeways between the islands to block the eastern approaches and make the bay easier to protect.

We drove over those Churchill Barriers past the half-sunken remains of ships to visit the Italian Chapel, built by Italian prisoners of war in Nissen huts (we call them Quonset huts). Amid the ornate features (made from everyday articles), I found the wall painting most impressive. It looks like three-dimensional stonework but is a flat surface painted to look 3-dimensional.

Just as interesting were the shaggy Highland cows (coos).

Our short tour ended before noon. Perfect for me, as I took the shuttle from the new cruise pier back to town. Yes, I was once again returning to a shop where I found a favorite dress two years ago in early summer. But by now the summer dress selection had dwindled. Oh well, I did pick up chocolate ginger fudge and some travel bottles of local gin.

We returned to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands off Scotland’s north coast on Wednesday. We were farther north than St. Petersburg, Russia, and the capitals of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

I passed on shopping for yarn and woolens and headed uphill for some exercise, wandering through Fort Charlotte and past churches and the town hall. Back down to the harbor, it was an easy five-minute tender ride back to the ship.

Having been to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis twice already this summer, I declared today a ship day (a port day when I stay on the ship) and got a haircut and color in the ship’s salon while the crew drill involved lowered the lifeboats. They look like our tenders but are smaller.

With most passengers ashore, I spent the rest of the day at the Lido and caught up on my sketching. I loved having time to really work out the perspective on the Stornoway castle, as well as the pencil drawing of the Writers’ Museum sign. I’ll come back to draw it in ink another day, and then paint them later when the ink has dried well. I had fun painting a “Highland Coo” from an earlier stop in Scotland.

Tonight was my once-every-two-weeks Morimoto pop-up dinner. My strategy to get to know some people better by booking a late fixed dining table worked well for the last two cruises. But on this cruise, I’m at a smaller table and the others seldom show up. The advantage is that I feel free to have a light dinner in the Lido or the Grand Dutch Café.