Grand Tour of Europe - 2023

Today was a day we were looking forward to and the Orkneys at the very top of Scotland didn't disappoint.

We started at John O'Groats, the northernmost inhabited part of the U.K to catch the 45 minute ferry crossing to the Orkneys. So now we have been to Lands End in the south and John O'Groats in the north.

Orkney history stretches back to the stone age and the Vikings.

After arriving and joining our bus tour for the day, we went to a vantage point to see Scapa Flow, the second largest natural harbour in the world. The British navy fleet was based here in WW1 and WW2.

The Royal Oak, flagship of the British navy was sunk in Scapa Flow by a German U-boat in 1939 with 800+ lives lost.

The British had sunk old ships to block the many entrances to the harbour, but the U-Boat still found its way in, so Churchill ordered the construction of barriers to protect the fleet and these are now used as bridges to join the islands. You can still see the remains of some of the sunk ships.

At the end of WW2, the German navy scuppered 75 of their ships in Scapa Flow so they wouldn't fall into the hands of the British. Some of these are now used as dive sites.

We visited the town of Burray and then went to the Italian Chapel, completed in 1944 by Italian prisoners of war to give themselves a place of worship.

Kirkwall, the main town on the islands was our lunch stop.

It was then off to the ancient Rings of Brodgar. These are from the stone age and are over 5000 years old - older than the pyramids and Stonehenge.

Skara Brae, beside the Bay of Skail and the Atlantic Ocean, is also 5000 years old and is a stone age settlement with houses, rooms and furniture that was only discovered in 1850 when strong winds blew away the sand covering it. Amazing!!

Nearby is Skail House, built in the 1620's and owned by the Lairds of Breckness. It was the laird who first discovered the Skara Brae settlement on his lands.Read more