October 8 -- Orcadia

Best day of our vacation, possibly.  Worst weather of our vacation, definitely.

We got our car late again, about 11 am.  I was worried we wouldn't be able to fit in all we wanted to see.

I wanted to see a Cairn.  Thanks to Stephen R. Lawhead, and The Song of Albion Series....I have a romanticized attachment to Cairns.


I wanted to see the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae, and Maestowe.

I am not asking too much...right?

We found Maestowe first.  We wandered a little, realized we were in the parking lot with a tour bus, we decided to head out.

We then went to the Standing Stones of Stenness.  And we beat the tour bus.  Excellent.  The most amazing part of being there is knowing that Kent's family were there....they were from the area of Stenness and Firth, and the stones are right on the Loch of Harray, (Horie is spelled an many different ways on the Island and in Kent's genealogy search....all of them pronouced like Hurry with a bit of Wh sound at the beginning)

 Kent at the Standing Stones, Loch of Harray in the background

Dang tour bus...

Archaeology dig at the Stones of Stenness

We moved on to the Ring of Brodgar, again, beating the bus by not much, but enough so that my photos weren't all filled with strangers.

 We moved onto Skara Brae, and spent most of our time there.  Probably because it was inside.  On the top of Skara Brae the wind was so harsh, it was pushing me across a little bridge.

Inside the replica of Skara Brae, Kent went into a hole...I stuck the camera in, this is what we got...

Inside the replica of Skara Brae

Pretty fancy lock for 4000 BC

 The REAL Skara Brae

 The Bay of Skaill

The Bay of Skaill

After all our sight seeing was done for the day, we headed back to the Kirkwall Hotel and had dinner in the dining room.

One of the most amazing things about being away is the amount of kids we saw in the pubs.  This night, was no different.  There were little kids in the bar--so sitting in the dining room sounded amazing.

One of the bucket list things I have -- is to be a part of an archaeological dig...we've decided, next time we go back--we will be signing up for a dig.