My friends left today, heading home to Oxford via Stirling & Lindisfarne (they love history). We had a great visit – their first and last days here were sunny (!) and no rain the entire time (!!!). We went to tourist sites I’d seen before, as well as some I hadn’t. The most remarkable of those was Maes Howe.
I had walked around it before, but never gone in (that’s actually been the theme of more than one of my holidays in the past: Saw It, Didn’t Go In). But this time, I did go in. It is accessible by tour only – a tour guide drives your group to the site, a hillock in the middle of a field; then unlocks a tunnel that you hunch your way through; and gives a 40-minute talk on the amazing chamber inside. Cathy & Mike say it was the highlight of their trip, and I think I have to agree that it is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen since coming to Orkney. It was built 5,000 years ago, in such a way that the sun on the winter solstice shines directly into the chamber (assuming it’s sunny on the 21st of December, a hit-or-miss proposition). It was then sealed and forgotten for a few millenia until Norsemen found and plundered it – there is actual Viking grafitti, some of which is quite vulgar, and one or two which basically translate to “Thor was here“.
But the best part of the tour, bar none, was our tour guide, Sarah. Really, a tour guide can make or break your experience, and she was amazing.
** Note: I think my friends would agree on the worst part of their visit to Orkney: my shower. It was a roller-coaster of a rinsing ride this week; their showers ranged from boiling to frosty, with little opportunity for the user to make changes to the temperature. Not a very nice way to start each day.