Our last day of driving, from Dornoch to Orkney, was an absolutely beautiful day – sunny and warm (LL advises me it’s snowing back in Calgary). The gorse is in full bloom in the mountains, ditto the rapeseed in the farmers’ fields, so we saw a stunning patchwork of greens and yellows. I am so glad LL is seeing Scotland in this sort of weather – it could go in any direction this time of the year (and tomorrow rain is forecast), so this is a pretty spectacular way to arrive in Orkney.
First stop: Dunrobin Castle. Still in the same family it has been for 400 years, kept up beautifully, and we toured the castle & the grounds. Then on to A.B.C., The Castle of Mey (two castles in one day, oh my). Due to my ‘interesting’ time management this week, yet again we were running late and racing through the highlands. We arrived at Mey late in the day and decided that this particular castle (truly magnificent) deserved more attention than we could give it in the 25 minutes before it closed. It’s only a 6 minute drive from the ferry to South Ronaldsay (Orkney), so we may do a 1/2-day trip next week to come and visit it properly.
Because it is a home belonging to the Royal Family, access and security was interesting. When ordering tickets (must be bought online in advance) I had to provide both names in full, plus contact info for each of us, and select a specific time-slot. When we arrived, we were met by a guard in a military sweater and beret, and the receptionist asked to see my 18-digit online booking number, which she copied down on paper and then entered into a computer (they really need to get a QR-reader). She seemed a tad flustered; a tour bus with 16 guests had gone missing.
Smooth sailing across the Pentland Firth, a nice drive across the Mainland (Orkney’s big island), then home. It was 9 o’clock when we arrived, but the sun was still up – LL’s first glimpse of Kirkwall was a pretty one (before tomorrow’s rain).