Day 10 - North West Mainland

We were up early as we needed to collect our hire bikes from Stromness.  It was very misty and not as clear as yesterday.  Before leaving we saw some Red Breasted Mergansers as well as cormorants and kittiwakes.  

 
Female Red Breasted Merganser

 
Male Red Breasted Merganser

 

After picking up our bikes, we came back to the lodge and did some washing as we had accumulated a lot since we started our journey over a week ago.  

As the tide times were favourable we decided to visit the Brough of Birsay.  This is an island on the north west of Mainland that is cut off at high tide.  There are remains of a village on the island that was built by the Picts (around 600 AD) and then by the Vikings around the year 1000 AD).  

 
Brough of Birsay village dating from 600 AD

 
Original Pict drawings on a stone

 
Brough of Birsay Lighthouse

 
Sea and rocks off Birsay

 
Wheatear

 
 
Island of Birsay from mainland

We then went for a walk to the lighthouse at the top of the island.  There were a lot of Wheatear and Skylarks there.  

Nearby are the ruins called the "Earls Palace" which was the residence of Robert Steward, half brother of Mary Queen of Scots.

 
Earl's Palace

We then went off on our bikes exploring some little roads in the same area.  We stopped for a while at the Loons RSPB hide.  There were quite a few others there but not a lot had been seen according to the sightings book.  We saw Swans, Geese, Coots and a female Mallard with ducklings.   Whilst cycling we heard some extemely noisy Oystercatchers.  We saw that they were attacking a male pheasant by dive bombing it.  Maybe the Pheasant had got too near to their nest.   There were also hundreds of rabbits around.  They just darted across the road as we were cycling.

 
The Loons, RSPB reserve, taken from the hide

 
Swan at The Loons, RSPB reserve, taken from the hide

 
Rabbit in car park

 
Lapwing on the road - it took some pursuading to move

We were led to believe that most of the Orkney Islands (except Hoy) were flat.  This is not true as we have had to climb so many on our bikes today but going downhill was fun.  It got very windy in the afternoon so we decided not to venture up to Marwick Cliffs (where the Puffins are).  

We drove to the Broch of Gurness instead.  Brochs are large, round towers, around 12m high, that were built by the Picts and were central to village life.  They only exist in northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.  The ticket office was closed but the gate was open so we went in and had a look around.  It is quite amazing to think that the former village that we saw was created over 1000 years ago in the Iron Ages.  It was very well presereved and we could even go inside the Broch.  

 
Broch of Gurness 

 
Broch of Gurness

 
Houses and building around the Broch of Gurness

 
Inside the Broch of Gurness
 

The temperature had dropped a lot and the wind was strong now so we went back to the lodge for dinner.  We saw a seal very close but it soon disappeared underwater but I did manage to get a photo.

 
Seal near the lodge at high tide


 

 

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