Day 58: Kirkwall, Orkney Mainland to Scalloway, Shetland

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

3rd March 2021: 95.35km walked today taking the total to 5977.59/8868km. 14% of 94 entries submitting 681.12km.

Today we visit Kirkwall, the largest town in Orkney before flying to Shetland and walking round, Jarlshof and Sumburgh Head before walking northwards to end the day in Scalloway.

Route 18: Orkney

Route 19: Shetland

Kirkwall, sitting on Kirkwall Bay on the Mainland’s northern coast, is the administrative centre and port for the islands. It was founded by Vikings over 1000 years ago and called ‘Kirkjuvagr’ meaning ‘church on the bay’, as St Olaf founded a church here in the 11th century; its name was later changed to Kirkvoe or Kirkwall. The town seems to be a very remote place today, but it was at the heart of the Norse kingdom and, as we visit, you will still feel the Scandinavian influence here. It became an important port, farming and marketing centre and expanded under Norse rule. James III acquired the islands in 1472 after his wife’s dowry remained unpaid; a charter and Royal Burgh status followed in 1486. Kirkwall is home to the most northerly of the Carnegie Libraries; the building still exists but the library has been moved to bigger premises. Kirkwall is mentioned in ‘The Orkneyinga Saga’, an Icelandic saga written between 1192 and 1206, which has been an important document for revealing Norse history on Orkney, despite the fact that it combines oral traditions and artistic license with true history. In the saga, much is told of the people and places that occupied the land at that time. Given the importance of what has been found on Orkney, the Research Institutes for Archeology, Agronomy and Northern Studies (all part of Orkney College UHI), are based here. Ola Gorie, Scottish jewellery designer, and one of the founders of the modern crafts movement was born here in 1937.

We enter Kirkwall on Grainshore Road, which takes us straight into the Kirkwall Harbour ferry terminal area. We turn right into Scott’s Road, an industrialised part of the town, to visit Grain Earth House. The keyholder has agreed to meet us here as a one-off, as usually, people request the key at Judith Glue in Broad Street. Before us a door in a mound which, once opened, reveals steps down into an Iron Age souterrain or ‘underground’ chamber. It is an exceptional example of its type, and as we, mobile torches on, make our way down through the 5 metres of curved, sloped passageway with our backs bent, certainly feel like we are on an adventure. We arrive at a small oval chamber with exquisite stone walls, whose stone slab roof is supported by 4 pillars. It was used during the first millennium BC as either a food store or a hiding place, the first being the most likely, and was part of a settlement of stone roundhouses which were also found in this area. Discovered in 1827, on farmland at that time, the chamber came into state care in 1908 and is now looked after by Historic Environment Scotland.

On our return to daylight, and enjoying being upright once more, we return to the harbour area. The harbour, as well as the usual vessel support, also has a marina, ferry terminals to the northern islands and the Scottish mainland, and deep sea harbours, which allow the docking of cruise ships bringing much prosperity to the town and other attractions on the island. We continue along the seafront passing the Peedie Sea (small sea). This body of water was once part of an inlet which stretched inland to the front of St Magnus Cathedral. Over the centuries the land has been reclaimed as Kirkwall has expanded. Where we pass, we are on a shingle bank built to hold Ayre Road leaving a small pond, great for watching birds in an ‘urban’ environment. A little further on we reach the Orkney Distillery, established in 2016 when the craft gin scene became popular in Scotland. Kirkjuvagr gin is made here, along with a number of special edition gins. Their visitor centre opened in 2018 so we can take a tour and enjoy a coffee or a gin at the bar.

At the roundabout, we turn inland onto Junction Road, where we immediately pass the Orkney Wireless Museum, set up in 1983 by a local Orcadian with a lifetime passion for radio. It’s a great exhibit of the development of wireless communications from its inception to today, taking into account its contribution in defending the naval fleet at Scapa Flow. Walking on, we turn left into an alleyway taking us through to Broad Street and into the heart of Medieval Kirkwall. We are met by the view of St Magnus Cathedral, the most northerly cathedral in the UK nicknamed the ‘Light of the North’. It was founded in 1137 by Earl Rognvald in honour of his uncle, St Magnus, who was martyred here in 1118. It was built in Romanesque style, using red and yellow sandstone to create a chequerboard effect, and St Magnus’ bones were enshrined here upon its completion. It is said that the Vikings dried their sails on it! The cathedral went through a number of extensions in the next few centuries, one of which was overseen by Bishop Robert Reid, of Beauly and Edinburgh University fame.

When Orkney became part of Scotland, the cathedral came under the control of the Archbishop of St Andrews, and when the town was granted a charter in 1486 this transferred ownership of the cathedral to the Kirkwall Council; it belongs to the people of Orkney today. The cathedral continued on after the reformation unaffected, though it had a few close calls in the 17th century. During renovations in the early 1900s, a hidden cavity was discovered in a column in the original part of the cathedral where the choir is situated today, containing bones which match those of St Magnus himself. We have a fascinating visit, some take the upper area and tower tour, although it is quite tight and confined in places, to see the great views over Orkney. It is the only cathedral in Scotland which still contains the bones of its patron Saint. Still an active church today, but they do hold concerts here as the acoustics are exquisite.

Returning to Broad Street we pass Kirkwall’s Mercat Cross. It has the same symbolic meaning as anywhere else, but this cross plays another important role in Kirkwall culture. On Christmas Day and New Year’s Day the ball game, the Ba, begins here between the Uppies and Doonies. A tradition once belonging to the men of Kirkwall and St Ola only, players can now come from all over Orkney. The ‘Ba’, a cork-filled leather ball made in Orkney, is tossed into the air at the Cross when the church bell strikes 13:00. A scrum begins, of around 350 men, and moves through the streets and alleys of the area, with the aim to get the ball to the Uppies goal on the wall at the junction of Main Street, or to the Doonies goal in the water at the harbour basin. There are no official rules, the game is fairly rough, though tempers stay in check, and the shopkeepers place boards across the bottoms of their windows...just in case! It can take several hours before a goal is finally scored; once achieved a decision is made on a winning individual to receive the trophy - the Ba itself! It has been played this way since the 1850s; when it started is a mystery, but it has similarities to other games played in other parts of Scotland.

We wander across the street into the Orkney Museum at Tankerness House, Orkney’s finest townhouse. The house was built in 1574 and mostly owned by the Blaikies of Tankerness, successful Kirkwall merchants. The family lived here until 1951 when it was passed to the Council who converted it into the Museum. which opened in 1968. It has a fantastic collection telling the story of Orkney from the Stone Age right through to present day. The museum sprawls through the house rooms which skirts an inner courtyard.

From the museum, we cross the street onto Palace Road to visit The Bishops and Earls Palaces, standing side by side across the street from each other, in the shadow of St Magnus. The Bishops Palace was built by Bishop William ‘the Old’ at the same time as the cathedral, using the same sandstone. King Hakon IV of Norway died here after a period of illness in 1263; he had come here after defeat at the Battle of Largs. The Palace had fallen into disrepair by 1320 but was revived with the arrival of Bishop Robert Reid in the 1540s. After the Reformation, the building was acquired by Robert Stewart in 1568, a tyrannical 1st Earl of Orkney, whose son, Patrick, remodelled it in 1600. Patrick then decided to build a new Earls Palace next door which wasn’t completed until 1607. However, he was arrested shortly after and all his property seized. His son, Robert, led a rebellion resulting in his capture and they were both executed in 1615. The Palace became home to the Orkney Bishops once more until 1688, when it became Crown property, and by the turn of the next century, it was in disrepair once more. The roof was removed to use on other buildings by 1745 and neither building was ever lived in again. Today the properties are both in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Looking at the Earls Palace we can still appreciate its grandeur; the tyrants clearly had good taste.

Leaving the palaces behind, we follow our route out of Kirkwall on a 4.5 kilometres walk to Kirkwall Airport at Inganess Bay on Shapinsay Sound. The airport was built in 1940 as RAF Grimsetter, a defence for the Scapa Flow fleet anchorage. It was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1943 to become HMS Robin and then returned to civil aviation in 1948. Today it provides services to major mainland Scottish airports and Shetland...the latter is precisely where we are heading next!

We arrive at Sumburgh Airport for our tour of Shetland. Sumburgh Airport used to have a single runway and a person was employed to chase the sheep off it, but with the arrival of North Sea Oil, the airport expanded to have 2 runways, a new terminal, and a fence to surround it!

Shetland lies nearly 180 kilometres north-east from the north coast of Scotland and is a group of just over 100 islands with traditions that are more Norse than Scottish. Only 29 of the islands are populated with the largest island known as Mainland. These islands are indented with many sea lochs giving over 2500 kilometres of coastline with lots of high cliffs and stunning beaches. The islands also tend to be treeless, windswept and peat covered.

There is not much known about the Pictish people that lived in Shetland before the Viking invasions began around 800 AD. It could be that the Pictish people were forced onto the poorer land by the Norse settlers. As well as controlling Shetland, the Norse also at one point controlled much of the Scottish west coast and the Hebrides. However, within 3 years of the Battle of Largs, which was in 1263, Norse control was confined to just Orkney and Shetland. The Norse controlled Shetland for another 200 years. Their rule ended when James III of Scotland and Margaret, the Danish princess, were married in 1469. The failure to pay the dowry, the same in Orkney’s case, saw Shetland annexed to Scotland in 1471; although the Danish have repeatedly tried to have the islands returned to them, the Privy Council in Edinburgh hasn’t agreed to their requests.

Leaving the airport, we head south round West Voe beach, a natural harbour, before arriving at the Jarlshof prehistoric settlement. This was not called Jarlshof until Sir Walter Scott visited in 1814 and based his novel ‘The Pirate’ here. At Jarlshof there are remains of 4000 years of settlement from the Stone Age right through the centuries to the 16th century. Earlier settlements were abandoned, and later ones built on top. Sand was blown over these, eventually covering and protecting the whole site. This hidden site was then revealed in the 1890s by storms. Excavations were then done over the years to find all of the hidden layers.

There are Neolithic remains, a Bronze Age village, an Iron Age broch and Iron Age wheelhouses (so-called because their roofs were supported on what looks like the spokes in a wheel), a Norse longhouse, a medieval farmhouse and a laird’s house, the Old House of Sumburgh, from the 16th century. As said earlier, Shetland passed from being under Norse control to Scotland in 1469 and, in the 16thcentury came under the control of Earl Robert Stewart. His son Earl Patrick or ‘Black Patie’ built the Old House of Sumburgh. He was called ‘Black Patie’ because of his oppression of the Shetland people.

From here we walk south along the coast where the cliffs start low but increase in size as we progress. The view ahead is of the cliffs at Sumburgh Head, topped with a lighthouse, the first in Shetland and built by Robert Stevenson. We might be able to see Fair Isle in the distance to the south. There will be lots of sea birds wheeling around including the comical puffins and we might even be lucky and catch a glimpse of a whale.

Leaving the lighthouse, we continue round the coastline towards Compass Head. Here we can see the layers of sandstone which have been tilted up and which were once part of a lakebed. These have been eroded and make great ledges for nesting seabirds.

From Compass Head we will be able to see back across to Jarlshof as well as the Sumburgh Hotel and Farm before we arrive at Grutness, where the ferry leaves to take people to Fair Isle. Skirting Grutness Beach we head back towards the airport, going around West Voe Beach before we head down the grass path on the thin peninsula of the Ness of Burgi. On the east side of the Ness, on a rock promontory, we find the Ness of Burgi fort, probably built around 100 BC. The peninsula ends with the rocks of the Hog of the Ness and offshore are the Hog of the Holm and Horse Island.

We retrace our steps and then head north passing Old Scatness, one of Shetland’s largest and most recently excavated archaeological sites. It is an Iron Age village with many buildings that are at or near roof height and some still have the yellow clay they were covered with. It was buried for nearly 2000 years and the largest feature on the site is the central broch.

After leaving Old Scatness we take the minor road through Toab to the Bay of Quendale before heading back east and reaching the A970 where we turn north. At the sign to Boddam we turn right and soon reach the Croft House Museum. This museum is of a mid-19th century Shetland croft, barn and byre which was actually lived in until the late 1960s. Typically the crofter would be a fisherman or whaler and his wife and family would work on the land while he was out at sea. The croft itself has only 2 rooms, the bedroom, and the kitchen and here the crofters would have survived with only the bare essentials. Nearby there is also a restored watermill with a horizontal ‘water wheel’.

We turn left at the next junction, then right when we reach the A970. We pass the Hazelberry alpacas before turning left on the B9122 to Skelberry. This is a single track road and we walk along until we reach the left turn to Spiggie, which takes us alongside Loch Spiggie, an RSPB wildfowl reserve where Whooper Swans and Greylag Geese pass through in late autumn, and in summer there are Arctic Terns and Great Skuas. It is also good for trout fishing. At the end of the loch, we turn right to reach Spiggie Beach. Just past Spiggie Beach is Peerie Voe, a small rocky inlet facing the Atlantic Ocean with the island off Colsay just offshore.

Retracing our steps along the road beside Loch Spiggie we turn left and pass through Scousburgh and then turn left to pass through Bigton. Just past Bigton we can see the uninhabited St Ninian’s Isle. This is attached to the mainland of Shetland by a tombola beach, St Ninian’s Ayre (Norse for gravel bank), and is the biggest tombola in the UK. This 500-metre beach is subjected to waves from 2 opposing directions breaking simultaneously along its length resulting in symmetrical beaches facing north and south. In winter sand is lost but it builds up again in the summer. It can be 70 metres wide at low tide but when the tide is high it can become completely submerged.

On St Ninian’s Isle, in 1958, a schoolboy helping on an archaeological dig found a hoard of silver bowls and ornaments at the island’s tiny Celtic chapel. The treasure was dated from around 800 AD and is now in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, although replicas are displayed in the Shetland Museum at Lerwick.

We then walk along the length of Bigton before heading inland and rejoining the B9122 where we turn left and head towards the east coast where we reach the main road to Lerwick where we turn left. This heads inland before we return to the east coast and turn towards Sandwick and Hoswick before heading northwards. From here we cross a stile and take the coastal path towards Cunningsburgh Beach. The path returns to the main road and soon we reach the hamlet of Cunningsburgh, whose name comes from the Old Norse meaning King’s Broch. This is where one the largest agricultural shows in Shetland takes place each year.

Continuing north, we will be able to see Loch Fladdabister off to our right, and the hill called the Sheens of Breitoe on our left. We then turn left to head through a glacial valley, the Quarff Gap, which, unusually for Shetland, runs east to west between hills to the north and south between the villages of Easter Quarff and Wester Quarff. Quarff in Old Norse means ‘the portage’, where goods and boats could be transported between the east and the west coasts, avoiding a much longer sea journey around Sumburgh Head.

When we reach the bay at West Voe of Quarff we walk round the head of the bay before reaching Wester Quarff. We then head back towards the east and Easter Quarff, where there is a church designed by Thomas Telford and built in 1830.

Back on the main A970 we head towards Lerwick, passing Henry’s Loch before we pass Loch of Brindister. There is an Iron Age dun built on a small island in the middle of this loch but not much of it remains. We soon pass Gulberwick which we stop at on our way back and then turn left to head towards Scalloway. When we reach the East Voe of Scalloway we head south down to Hamnavoe; to get to Hamnavoe we have to cross over to the Scalloway Islands.

First of all, we cross over a bridge to the island of Trondra, walk down most of the length of Trondra before crossing over a bridge to walk through West Burra to the west coast arriving at Hamnavoe, once an important fishing centre. Although there is still some fishing done here, mainly for shellfish, there are also several mussel and salmon farms. Around 1890 there were only about 6 cottages at Hamnavoe but in the 1920s it was expanded with a series of rows of fishermen’s cottages. It was built to a plan and has been described as Shetland’s only purpose-built fishing village. Although there has been development since then, the original plan is still visible. After wandering around Hamnavoe through tiny alleyways and footpaths we will walk out to the marina before walking around the Bay of Hamna Voe and walking out along Fugla Ness. Fugla Ness is a natural breakwater which shelters the village of Hamnavoe and at its end is a lighthouse.

From Fugla Ness we take the path back to Biargar headland where Neolithic houses and burnt mounds have been found which are about 6000 years old. We then cross the low cliffs of another headland, Lu Ness, before reaching a shingle beach at Urmlee where there is evidence of noosts (hollows dug into the ground where boats are hauled into). Climbing over rocks we then reach the Sand of Meal, a beautiful crescent of white sand before heading back to the B9074 which we follow until we cross back over to Trondra where we follow a path up the coast to Cauldhame before rejoining the road to cross back to the mainland. At the head of the East Voe of Scalloway, we turn left on the A970 and head into Scalloway itself.

We arrive in Scalloway which was the capital of Shetland until 1708 and is named after a Norse skali or hall, however, this is no longer here. First of all, we will walk down the west side of the East Voe of Scalloway, past the Scalloway museum, to arrive at Scalloway Castle. This was built by Earl Patrick Stewart in 1600 to secure his hold over Shetland and who forcibly replaced Norse law with Scottish law. When the castle was originally built it stood at the head of the promontory surrounded by the sea on three sides. This has since changed as it has become surrounded by land reclamation and the expansion of the harbour.

We leave the castle to walk down to the harbour where there might be some cruise ships docked. After leaving the harbour we walk around the bay to the Shetland Bus Memorial. The Shetland Bus was a ferry service operated during the war by the Norwegian Resistance and the British Secret Service. Norwegian fishing boats, crewed by young Norwegians, based in Scalloway made trips across the North Sea between the UK and Norway to smuggle people, weaponry, explosives, and other supplies. The memorial is to the 44 Norwegians who died on these missions. It is built from stones taken from the village or place where each of the 44 crewmen came from and has a model of a fishing boat on top.

We continue around the bay past the Prince Olav Slipway, where Prince Olav of Norway visited in 1942 so he could visit the Shetland Bus operation, to the marina at the Scalloway Boating Club. Retracing our steps, we take Chapel Lane to the Scalloway Public Hall before heading to the head of East Voe of Scalloway and heading north on the B9074 to Tingwall.