Orkney, skies and seabirds

I’d read about Orkney for years and finally got here. Fascinating landscape — very few trees, long views, neolithic sites every few miles. I drove most of the Mainland in two days and did one evening on the cliffs at Marwick Head.

The cliffs are the highlight. Auks stuffed onto every ledge — Common Guillemots, Razorbills, Black Guillemots in smaller numbers, a scattering of Kittiwakes, and a single Great Skua that turned around over the cliff and barreled past at head height. That was a moment. Skuas are the cartoon version of a pirate and it was as intimidating up close as advertised.

Puffins were on a separate cliff about a mile along the path, in small numbers. I saw two on the rocks and one flying in low with sand eels. Fulmars glided in that rigid way they have, never flapping, like an assembly line.

At the neolithic sites there was a very different feeling — Maeshowe, Skara Brae — and I put the camera away for a while. The Ring of Brodgar at the end of the day, with soft light coming across the stones, is something I will think about for a long time.

Ate haddock and chips at a pub in Stromness. Excellent. This whole archipelago feels like somewhere time runs slower.