Kirkwall; Monday, 07 August, 2006

One of the things that first planted the seeds of the idea of visiting the Orkneys into my mind is my liking for Highland Park whiskey. The distillery proudly boasts to be the “Northern most Scotch whiskey distillery” (though that crown will fall in three years time once the distillery in Shetland opens!). Its home is on a hill on the outskirts of Kirkwall, and it was to here that I travelled first this morning.

The key point about the location of the distillery that I had forgotten to take into account was the phrase "on a hill", which, given that Kirkwall is at sea level for some reason involving it being a port or something similar, would involve climbing said hill. But despite that I reached the distillery in time to join one of the half hourly tours. Unfortunately, at the time of visiting they weren't distilling. It meant that many of the smells that you could expect aren't there, but it also means you can hear the tour guide. The tour is very similar to those that I have been on at the Old Jameson’s distillery in Dublin, the Old Middleton distillery near Cork and the Scottish Whiskey heritage society in Edinburgh. The key difference is rather than walking around a museum piece you are walking around a living, working distillery.

At the end of the tour there is the customary free sample of the "Water of life". With that coursing through my veins I hardly noticed the shower on my way back into the town centre. After a stop for an early lunch I wandered to the St Magnus Cathedral. The cathedral is an amazing building. Originally built in the 12th Century it's been adapted and expanded as many times as it has changed hands. Originally built as part of the Hamburg(!) diocese it was then transferred to Trondheim (Norway) until the Orkney and Shetland Islands were taken over by Scotland where they transferred to Scottish diocese, all of this before the reformation!

Opposite the cathedral are the ruins of the Bishops palace and the Earls palace. The Bishops palace was built for the bishops of the cathedral. The Earls palace was built for the Earl of Orkney and Lord of the Shetlands, Earl Patrick Stewart (see also Scalloway in Shetland.) He of the evil heart, murderous ways with the locals and eventual execution for treason - at this point I remember thinking to myself in Scalloway castle last summer that I must visit Orkney some time and see the palace there!

To avoid the next shower I dived into the Orkney museum which has displays on life in the Orkneys from the Stone age up to modern day with an eclectic range of items on display. After having looked round the museum, I wandered back through town to the bus station and caught the bus out to Stromness. The next largest town in the Orkneys and, also, the more major port (the long distance ferries from Aberdeen and Lerwick stop there). The town is very pretty and quite reminiscent of Lerwick. I had a wander through some of the streets and stopped at the Stromness museum which has an even more eclectic mix of exhibits on Lighthouses, the sunken German fleet in Scapa Flow (the body of water surrounded by the larger of the islands) and natural history with a large collection of stuffed animals and birds.

I wandered back to the bus stop, caught the bus back to Kirkwall, and then another out to the small island of Lamb Holm. During W.W.II the island was used to house Italian POWs, mostly captured in Northern Africa. They were put to work building the Churchill Barriers, and at the same time helped to build up the camp they were held prisoner in. They were granted two Nissan huts with which they built a small chapel. The chapel (Now known as the Italian chapel) still stands and is an amazing tribute to the work of the people who helped to build it.

After looking round the chapel I walked back to the main road and caught the bus back into Kirkwall for a well earned rest, and maybe a second small Highland Park!