Day 20 - Stromness and Finstown

We took the bikes back today to Stromness and then explored the town.  The weather was sunny and warm but clouded over at lunch time.  

Stromness has a lot more character than Kirkwall and most of the buildings in the town centre are in good cared for condition.   Many buildings have a blue plaque and are have some historic importance.  There are no high street stores here except the Co-op and just local shops, most of which are selling souvenirs or local crafts.  There are only 2 restaurants and 2 coffee shops, all on the harbour front.  Cruise ships do stop here as well as Kirkwall and there was one due in at 2pm today but we left before that.

 

 
Main Street in Stromness - no-one about.
Cobbles in middle of the road

 
Stromness Baptist Church

 
Houses in the main street


 
Main street in Stromness - no one about
Cobbles in centre of road

 
The Town House

 
Harbour building

 
The Stromness Hotel

 
Stromness Parish Church

 
Fitzroy Fisheries Barometer - one of 100 located around the UK coast from the 1860's

 
Strangly named street in Stromness

 
One of the plaques on a house -  Actual house is in next photo

 
House of Eliza Frazer, 

 
One of the plaques on a house -  Actual house is in next photo
 

 

Mrs Humphrey's House

 

One of the plaques on a street -  Dr John Rae's statue in next photo

 
Dr John Rae's monument

We came back to the lodge after lunch and had a short rest before going on a walk around Finstown.  On the hill in front of the lodge are some standing stones and Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn.  We walked up to them.  The standing stones were layers of sandstone built up high.  

 

 
The front of Atlantis Lodge from top of hill.  
Ours is on the far right, upstairs

 
This has fallen over at some point. Paul was helping to rebuild it.

 
Small storage hut made from layered sandstone

 
Sandstone column

 
Standing layered stones

When Cuween Hill Cairn was excavated, remains of humans and dogs were found.  We could crawl into the main chamber via a 5 m long entrance that was only about 50cm high and once in could stand up comfortably.  There were then other chambers leading off which had much shorter entrances.


 
Entrance to Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn

 
Inside the main chamber looking at entrance

 
Looking inside a secondary chamber

 
Looking from a secondary chamber to main chamber and entrance

 
Paul in main chamber
secondary chamber entrances at the back and right of him

 
Main entrance to Cairn

We walked back to the Finstown and around the other side of the bay where we could see the back of the lodge.

 
Finstown Church - as other churches in Orkney, 
absolutely huge for the population it serves

 
Derelict Cottage but the grass has recently been mowed


 
The village Post Office

 
Cemetary and little stone building

 
Solitary swan in the bay.

 
The lodges from the other side of the Bay of Firth


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