The Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands are magnificent. And surprisingly populated. Since this trip required going even further north, I thought it would be wise of us to go during the 'summer'. Now, at home, 'summer' means 85 to 105 degrees. It is not summer at home until it gets to and stays at 85 degrees. And some years, summer does not arrive until the end of June. But when it does, it arrives and says, "I'm here. You wanted me. Stop complaining about the heat."

But since being here, I am realizing that 'summer' means different things. Because what I hear from the locals is that it is pretty much like this year round. The temperatures vary (they stay between 30 and 60 degrees, and so the winter probably stays down in the 30's), but there is rain and there is always the wind. And it will be darker (right now the sun is still in the sky at 10 pm).

this was taken at10 pm from our apartment

 We have had a handful of BEAUTIFUL days here. Not quite 'summer' in my book, but very nice. One could wear Capris and a light sweater. But I don't think I would go so far as to have bare feet. Not me, anyway. And sunbathing on the beach is completely out of the question. Ever. Forget the water being cold - the AIR temperature is only in the 50's.  But I did not realize how pleasant 54 degrees could be. And comfortable. Without the wind, that is.

But mostly it has been 52 degrees - both day and night when I check - and WINDY.  Some days 52 degrees feels wonderful - when the sky is clear and sunny. But most days, 52 degrees feels COLD. Mostly because it is cloudy and windy. But on some days, I feel optimistic and I put on my Capris anyway. And I am very comfortable inside my house.

Saturday morning dawned bright with a blue sky and no clouds and just a small breeze. I said, "Wow. The temperature is to get to 59 tomorrow! I think we should take advantage of this 'heat wave.'  Let's go see the Orkney Islands!". So, I got online and booked a bus tour.

Mike golfed that day (Saturday) in a double tournament. He was the only American amid about 80 Scots. He had a wonderful (read that as frustrating) time (with the course). The course was long. There were drainage ditches. And there was the WIND. He has some great stories about the greens and the social parts of it and I hope he gets a chance to tell you in his own words. Of course, it is much more entertaining when he is telling it in his baroque imitation.  All of that is to say, that by the end of the day - that beautiful, sunny, optimistic weather had changed. I swear they were gale-force winds. They definitely rivaled some of the winds we get in the Tri Cities. It blew HARD all night long.

And I was sad. To get to the Orkney Islands, we start by taking a ferry. Imagine the waves with that kind of wind. And the Orkney's are further north. And they are islands. I was not happy. But what were we going to do? We had paid and we were committed.  But as luck would have it, the winds died down significantly, and somewhere in the afternoon, the sun shone through and the tour guide said, "You are lucky. The weather has been terrible lately."

We were not on the ferry 10 minutes when the 2 women sitting in front of us turned around and said, "We heard you say you were from Washington. We are from Spokane!" Seriously? What a small world!  These two widows were on a 3 week trip traveling around Scotland. Between them, they were very well-traveled across Europe and we spent the rest of the ferry ride learning about where we should go in France and Italy. And later in the day, one came back to tell me about the necessity of a daypack when traveling, and the pros and cons to using a small carry-on suitcase vs a Rick Steves kind of backpack.

The Orkney Islands were beautiful. The pictures will not do them justice. The tour guide was excellent. In fact, when Mike asked me at the end of the day what I liked best, I said I appreciated everything we saw, but the commentary by the guide was the best part.

We learned that there are 25,000 people living on the islands. The further north you go, the fewer numbers of people, of course.

We learned that they have flying sheep in the windy season. The wind can get to gale-force there and apparently, the older, wiser sheep have learned to stay against the fence. But the young, strong-willed sheep try to cross the field in the middle and get picked up by the wind!  I bet that is a truly funny thing to see!

We heard about extreme golf at St. Margaret's Hope. We heard about the Orkney Autobahn (a straight stretch of road - the straightest stretch I think I have seen here - that was built during the war by the soldiers. The reason was because they wanted to build it fast!)

We learned that they sunk German ships in the water between the islands to keep the German boats from going through to the bay. We learned there are 5 seasons in Orkney - summer, winter, fall, spring, and all 4 in in day. We learned that 'twat' means 'idiot.'


We saw the sheep pigs - named Peter and Brian. And we heard about the Kirkwall Ba' Game. It is played twice a year on Christmas day and on New Year's day. It's considered an extreme sport. I won't take the time to tell you about it, so I will just say, "check Wikipedia." I just looked there and it matches up pretty well with what I heard.

So, to end this post, let me just share a few signs with you that I found on that trip.

I love this one. What does it mean?

And P.S. The weather has changed since I started writing this a couple of days ago. It is currently 59 degrees and has been sunny most of the day with a slight breeze. My weather app says it will get to 68 tomorrow!!!  Oh my!  I think this is summer!   (But then, again, my phone app did say on Saturday that Sunday would be 59 degrees. Hmmm.)