The Old Men of Orkney...................or five go off to five islands...................................September
 After the success of last years trip to the Orkney Islands we decided to make a return visit. On Saturday August 30th five gadgies (Ben, Dave, Harry, John and me) squeezed into a Ford Mondeo and left Newcastle for Scrabster on the north coast of Scotland. Rather than stay in the YHA at Kirkwall we rented a holiday cottage named Loretto, in Stromness. Leaving home about 9 am we arrived at the ferry sometime after 5pm and after a crossing of one and a half hours docked in Stromness. Limited space in the boot (one rucsac, one small bag and one boot bag each) meant our first call was at the Co op supermarket to load up with essentials for the next few days.
Once settled in to the cottage, which had four bedrooms we headed for the bright lights and enjoyed a couple of pints, one in the Ferry Inn and one in the Royal Hotel.

                                                Loretto, rented from Mary and George, 
                                                  teacher and dry stone waller respectively
                                                 and poker players on Thursday.
Sunday, August 31st.
Although we did not have tickets for the ferry to Rousay we took the chance of getting on without booking and arrived at Tingwall in good time.

Sure beats the jolly jock on Look North

                                                                                 Fortunately there was car space on the small ferry to the pier near Trumland so we took it. From the landing stage we drove to Westness, walked down towards the sea across a few fields on the Heritage trail until we reached the settlements and old church of St. Mary's.

                                                     

                   Church, information and a ruined broch
A little further on, in what at first appeared to be a farm building, we came to the Burial Mound at Midhowe. Protected by a modern building this is certainly the best burial mound I have ever seen, not that I've seen too many. Sectioned off into stalls it apparently contained a fair number of skeletons when first opened.

Midhowe burial mound, divided into stalls and about 5000 years old. Like the pyramids!
There was a broch too. Sitting by the ancient ruins we declared the day's Herbie Spot. After lunch we returned to the car and drove all the way round the island before visiting two burial mounds, The first at Taversoe Tuick was a special, a double decker, room on both floors for a good number of neoliths who had passed on to the great stone yard in the sky.

Entrance to the lower level at Taversoe Tuick. Of course the ladder is modern, the grave is stone age.

Black Hammer burial mound, with stalls

The Rousay ferry.

Back on the Mainland we headed to the chip shop for a fish supper. 

We had wandered about five miles and not surprisingly the bird watchers had had a good day:

Hen Harrier, Fulmar, Buzzard, Redshank, Gannet, Turnstone, Hooded Crow and Lapwings, plus LBJs.

Monday September 1st.

Breakfasted, healthily I might add, on cereal and fruit, toast and tea, we headed for the island capital, bustling Kirkwall to book ferries for several of the days to come. (Scotland is very generous to gadgies, fares are low for folks and the car was reasonable too.)

Booking complete we headed for the Broch of Gurness, which had been visible across the water from Midhowe. Disappointingly for Yorkshire folk there was a charge to see this one. Had we waited a few minutes we could have sneaked in like an American did because the warden cycled off for his lunch, but gadgies are honest. 

A well preserved broch it was and we got our money's worth, declaring it a Herbie Spot too. dining with the spirits of long gone bronze age warriors.

                                                 Gurness Broch. The stones before the wall
                                             are the remains of houses, similar to Skara Brae.

                                     Neolithic Harry contemplates his domain.
Broching over we drove north to the Earl's Palace at Birsay. Built by an illegitimate son of JamesV of Scotland the ruins are quite impressive.

                                                   The Earl's Palace, impressive but

                                                so is this real tractor.

                                             Somewhere here is a seal

View of distant Marwick Head.

As the tide was in it was not possible to walk the causeway to Brough Head so we walked the cliff tops towards Marwick before turning and returning.    

Adding to yesterday's list the ornitholos watched Tysties(Local for Black Guillemot), Banxies(Arctic Skuas), House Martins Little Ringed Plovers and a Raven.

Back at the ranch we dined well on Harry's pasta.

Tuesday September 2nd.

Ferry from Houton to Lyness. We drove north to Rackwick and followed the well maintained path to see the Old Man of Hoy, that famous stack 450 feet high (137 metres to the rest of the world) first climbed in 1967 and shown live on television. I found it quite frightening just looking at it.

Sadly the walk was ruined by trillions of midges, ( but that's Scotland this time of year).

                                         Thought you might get away with it? No chance.
                                          This is the car park at Rackwick.

 And this is the view looking south from Rackwick, looks like a ship coming round there.

                                                                   

                           And this is the famous Old Man of Hoy, all 450 feet of it.
Herbieing in the car park after a 6 mile walk, but hurrying because of the midges, we then left to see the Dwarfie Stane, a large slab of rock in the middle of nowhere which had at one point 5000 years ago been hollowed out to act as a burial mound. Easier to build one I would have thought.

                                                The Dwarfie Stane of Hoy

The squiggle bottom right was written in the tomb by a pretentious Victorian who found patience here. He wrote his name in Latin too, Biggus Dickus.
Outstaned we headed for Lyraway, a viewpoint overlooking Scapa Flow. The flow was used by the Navy in both world wars,the German fleet was self scuttled in 1919,  HMS Royal Oak was sunk in 1940 by a U-boat that sneaked in before the Churchill Barriers were built.
Having admired the view we went to the Lyness Naval Museum, the remains of the once vast base that serviced ships in both wars. Very interesting but we were short of time, must return.

                                                  One of several guns at Lyness

This memorial is quite recent. Behind it were the flags of the UK and Russia although I thought it should have been the flag of the USSR. I also think there is a spelling mistake in the Russian inscription. Any Russian, or other, who agrees could let me know. We all agreed ours is the luckiest generation.
From the ferry deck on the journey back to the Mainland we saw porpoises, more of the same birds as yesterday, and a heron which, of course, has special significance for gadgie days out. On the way home we stopped in Orphir to see a heritage centre, medieval church and graveyard.
Dinner in the pub.

Wednesday September 3rd.
Another ferry trip, this time to Westray from Kirkwall, a journey that took an hour and a half,and we caught it at 7am.
Westray was closed at 8.30 am and we could have murdered for a cup of tea. We drove to Noltland Castle, built in the late 16th century by Gilbert Balfour, one of Mary Queen of Scots advisers. Great castle too, lots of holes at all levels for shooting anyone coming too close without permission. It also had a fine spiral staircase although a bit of it was concrete.
From the castle we walked to Noltland Links which has a golf course, and a prehistoric site that looks as if it could be bigger than Skara Brae when it is fully excavated. An archaeologist working on the site gave us a tour of what has been recovered so far. I think Dave, our pet archaeologist could have stayed, but we walked on and returned to the castle for a Herbie.
 The heritage centre had a display for WWI and some stone from the Noltland site, plus the Westray Wife, a small piece of carved stone representing a female and considered to be some thousands of years old, also from the Noltland site. (Apparently Noltland refers to cattle in Viking).
To finish the day we went to the Cross Kirk  Medieval Parish Church, ruined of course, followed by a stroll along cliff tops  at the Castle of Burrian. Not a puffin in sight.

                                            Noltland Castle, Balfours are still in the building trade.

                                                   Cross Kirk Parish Church

                                           Near Castle o' Burrian. A whole geography lesson. It is really a stack.

Thursday September 4th.
A day on the mainland. We returned to the Earl's Palace at Birsay and walked across the causeway to Brough Head which has the remains of a Viking settlement, and a lighthouse by the Stevenson family. They built most of the lighthouses in Scotland and produced a good writer too.

                                                            Decorated by Stevensons, now automatic and sun powered.

                                              Brough Head Viking Settlement. 
After walking back across the causeway we drove to Marwick  and walked the cliff tops to the Kitchener Memorial. Lord Kitchener was sailing to Russia in 1916 for tea with Nicholas and hoping to encourage him and his army to try a bit harder when HMS Hampshire hit a mine and sank with the loss of nearly all the crew, and the Earl. The grateful islanders built a large memorial......

                                       

                                   

                                                        Plaque on the Kitchener Memorial

                                             The Kitchener Memorial, and Ben

                                                    Is this deceased creature the fabled Orkney Vole?
                                                   Answers please.
Back in Stromness we visited the Battery, a wartime base that has been converted to a museum. Unfortunately it was closed!
Back at Loretto we had another of Harry's Pasta dinners, and very good it was too.
Total walking for the day about 7 miles.

Friday September 4th.
Another ferry, this this time to the pretty island of Eday. The journey from Kirkwall took about an hour and a half.  I talked to a young lady on the voyage and discovered she had been to University with a girl I taught some twenty years ago! Small world, and both doctors, good things come from Blyth.
We followed a heritage walk at the north end of the island which, surprisingly, included several burial mounds and a standing stone. One of them, Braeside was a double decker, but without access. But Huntersquoy was big enough for us all to fit in.

                                                               The Stone of Setter on Eday

                                              Shadow over Huntersquoy

                                                       Inside Huntersquoy
 We walked past another Stevenson lighthouse and back to the car which was parked at Mill Loch, a smallish stretch of water which supports red throated divers, but not today.
After visiting another heritage centre (with a WWI display) we drove  to the Bay of Greentoft and walked round War Ness through miles of Lauder Grass before returning to the ferry jetty and sailing home. It was Friday and a number of children were on the ferry from Kirkwall where they board during the week at school and come home to the islands for the weekend.
Back in Stromness we went to the Ferry Inn for fish and chips, and beer.

Saturday September 6th.
We caught the ferry to Scrabster and drove the 370 miles back home after a good week away.
A few more pictures:

                                                       Cut away of the Midhowe Broch

                                                    The Earl's Palace, Birsay

                                                          Figures in a seascape at Marwick

                                            Aboard the ferry

                                          Lyness, the tank holds part of the museum

                                               On the cliffs near the Old Man of Hoy

                                                     Arctic Convoy Memorial

                                                    Anchors Awestray

                                                  Whale skeleton, Westray

                                               There are many cattle on Orkney, mainly for beef

                                                 Is it a bird, is it a plane?


See also, Tomb Raiders, The Orkneying Saga August 2013 for more about Orkney

Dear sir, your Czech has been returned.
Our Czech friend, Helena, has made a return visit to the United Kingdom this week so I have not been out walking with the lads. I'm not sure they have been out walking either as some are still on holiday and some have family events to attend.
I am entertaining our guest and this blog is a free advert for some of the places worth a visit in the north east of England.

Saturday August 16th.
Although Helena has seen the Roman Wall before I decided to take her to Housesteads, the fort on the wall itself and known to the Romans as Vercovicium or Vercovicivm to be precise. An English Heritage /National Trust site, therefore entry is free to members of those organisations and £5.80 to concessions like us. The car park is £4 for the day but you can pay with a credit card and even better, you can use the ticket at any of the National Trust car parks along the wall.
There is a museum/visitor centre selling serious books about the wall, fun books about the wall, plastic swords and armour and essentials like chocolate. Plus a lot of pressure to join the National trust and display the sticker on your car to show you like a bit of culture.
A Roman soldier, Flavius Monthius, in full kit with pilus and gladius announced he would be giving a short talk on life on the wall if we would like to accompany him to the fort itself, so we did.

                                          Flavius has a little trouble with his helmet, it was a windy day.
Flavius was pretty good, describing how, although in the army, he had spent a lot of his time building the wall, drinking local beers and carousing with the local women. He gave a demonstration of a one man, Roman style, tortoise with his shield and explained clearly the use of the Roman short sword, used mainly for thrusting in very close combat. The pilus was thrown but the head then broke off to prevent the enemy returning it. Crafty Romans, what have they ever done for us?

 The foundations of the grain store at Housesteads, underfloor heating kept the supplies dry.

                                                The wall near Steel Rigg.

The best bit of the wall, Crag Lough taken from

Steel Rigg. The wall runs along the cliff edges, almost.

Leaving Housesteads we drove to Steel Rigg.We walked a short way along the wall but it was very windy so we moved on, or back, to Brocolitia to have a look at the Mithraum there. Mithras was a favourite with the soldiers, his temples were small and on a windy day probably best examined in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

From the wall we went to Hexham, ancient market town and site of a fine Abbey. Much of it is recycled stone from the wall, it has Saxon origins (c675), was sacked by the Danes  in 876 and rebuilt by Augustinians in 1113. It is dedicated to St Andrew, of course it has a visitors shop selling serious books, fun books and serious ice cream.

In the evening we went to see an open air production of Pride and Prejudice performed by Heartbreak Productions in Jesmond Dene. Five actors/actresses performed all parts with much gusto and costume changes. They were brilliant, Mr. Darcy emerged from the audience looking damp, just like Colin Firth. Mr Wilkins was hilarious and Lizzy got her man. Mrs B swooned, screamed and worried. Great night and it only rained twice. The woman in front of me insisted on taking lots of photos and videos on her ipad thing, why can't she just watch the play?

Outside and inside views of Hexham Abbey. The font, out of view is possibly a Roman Bowl.

We were shown round by a very kind and helpful guide whose accent was a bit too much for Helena.

Sunday August 17th.

In the morning we paid a visit to "Northumberlandia", the worlds largest earth form. A  vast work just outside Cramlington this fairly new attraction consists of a rather big girl. She was built from the stone and earth extracted from the nearby Shotton Opencast Mine. She has several miles of paths to walk and from her head there are good views towards the sea, the airport and the Cheviots, plus the Shotton Mine. Northumberlandia has a visitor centre which sells a few souvenirs and refreshments, none of them serious.

                                       View from the top of Northumbria's head.

                                            The mine from which she came

                                                   Northumberlandia, sleeping goddess.

In the afternoon Helena went shopping in Newcastle, my wife and I went to watch Newcastle United lose to Manchester City, but they played well and have a shop.

Monday August 18th.

Today's trip was to Durham. There is very little I can add in praise of this World Heritage site. The cathedral, which houses the tomb of St. Cuthbert and also of the Venerable Bede, is a must for anyone coming to the north east of England. Climb the central tower and look over the town, county and prison. Gaze at the cloisters that stood in for Hogwarts. Find the mistake,(hint; it's on a pillar in the south transept). And enjoy the visitor centre which has really, really serious books, fun books, souvenirs and a small restaurant, plus a Lego model of the cathedral under construction.

 Durham Cathedral, World Heritage Site and so it should be.

                                            Helena reaches out to hold the sanctuary knocker 

                                         and claim 37 days of grace to prove her innocence.

Moving on from the Cathedral we visited the Durham Heritage museum in an old church on North Baileyjust behind the cathedral. Originally the parish church of St. Mary le Bow (why does anybody need a church so close to the cathedral?) it now houses a display of life in Durham. Photographs of mining villages, a replica of a prison cell and a mock up of a 1940s kitchen with poss tub and wash board! Great but no shop.

Tuesday August 19th

By Metro to St. Peter's Church at Monkwearmouth across the river from Sunderland centre. This church is one of the oldest in England,  Built about 673 by Benedict Biscop, sacked by the Vikings, neglected for years, covered partly in ballast from ships in the Wear,  the west tower is the only part left of the original building. Our guide, another with an accent difficult for Helena to follow, showed us a Saxon lead coffin with toes! We went through the tower, in the footsteps of St Benedict, the Venerable Bede who started his career here before moving on to St. Peter's at Jarrow, and possibly St. Cuthbert and St. Wilfred. No shop though.

                                                Saxon Tower at St. Peter's

                                                 Carving in the tower, possibly a heron

                                              The Victorian ceiling in the church, badly

                                              damaged in 1984 by an arsonist but carefully

                                                    restored.

Crossing the bridge we visited the Sunderland Glass Museum, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.  In the glass museum we watched a demonstration of glass blowing, remarkable but hot work.

All glass

                                               Art outside Sunderland Museum

                                                       A tree on the riverside

Bananas

                                                                                                                                                         Not surprisingly the museum reflects the industry of Wearside, ship- building, engineering, glass making and, of course, mining. The Winter Gardens are a mini version of one of the hot houses at Kew with banana trees and a whole variety of plants fro foreign climes. And there is a shop for souvenirs and serious books too, plus a cafe. And it's free! (The museum that is)

Wednesday, August 20th

In the morning the ladies went shopping in Marks and Spencers, as ladies do. In the afternoon we went to the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle. (£5,80 for concessions, free parking)

The  museum was built by the Bowes family in the 19th century to house their collection of Arts and Crafts. Built in the style of a French Chateau its star attraction is the Silver Swan, an automaton which is wound up at 2pm everyday and performs. Totally mechanical and beautifully made it is the centre piece in a hall which also contains works by Canaletto. (Yes Venice) There are rooms devoted to painting, including a display of the art of the Pitmen Painters. There are rooms devoted to porcelain and china from around the world, although mostly France and Germany but three pieces from Bohemia, mistakenly labelled slovakia on the cabinet. Look carefully and you can see that Czech has been cleaned off, leaving the other half with a lower case letter. And of course there is a shop selling serious books, fun books and other souvenirs. 

                                                        The famous silver swan

                                                     Bowes Museum

Thursday August 21

 I drove Helena to Leeds where we met Graham, her host for the next few days. He and his family took her to Knaresborough and Sutton Bank before handing her over to his parents in Durham where I picked her up on Sunday August 24th. Next day was going home day after a good holiday, I hope.

Durham Coastal Footpath   August 8th
This is a Ronseal* walk, it is exactly what it says in the title.
The holidays have taken their toll of gadgies, only three of us are out today, John, Dave and I. We have chosen to follow the Durham Heritage Coastal Path from Seaham to Crimdon, walking along a well marked route, much of it a National Nature Reserve with several sites of Special Scientific Interest.
It is a linear walk so should you follow it you need a car at both ends, or you can use buses as we did.
I took the metro from Jesmond in Newcastle to Sunderland railway station where I met the other two.

                                           Jesmond Metro Station, in lieu of a car park

Yes, a station.

We walked the few streets to the Sunderland Bus Station, (no picture, sorry) and caught the 60 bus to Seaham where the walk starts.
In the 19th and 20th centuries Durham had a large coalfield, several on this stretch of coast. The pits were closed by the 1990s. When the pits were in operation colliery waste was tipped onto the beaches. See the film Get Carter  for an idea of how grim it was. Once the pits were closed a regeneration programme was put in place."Turning the Tide" and the pit heaps are now restored to natural grassland and the beaches have been cleared and cleaned.
The walk; (Brian warned us there was a lot of ups and downs) You can do this walk without a map as it is well marked, but should you want one OS Explorer 308 covers all but the last mile into Crimdon. Better still try and acquire a copy of the booklet "The Durham Heritage Coastal Footpath" published by Durham County Council. A difficult publication to find but very informative. My copy is available for hire.
Officially the walk starts at Seaham Hall Beach, north of the town, but we got off the bus by the harbour and saved ourselves about half a mile.

                                               The start at Seaham, almost a car park.
(If you start at Seaham Hall Beach you pass the Seaham Time Line, artworks illustrating the history of the area, and a statue of the Marquess of Londonderry who was responsible for the creation of the harbour.)

                                  Seaham Harbour, Durham.
Shortly after having passed the harbour we spotted a signpost leading us to the footpath proper. Soon we came to the site of Dawdon Colliery. Information boards indicated the site of the pit and also provided some indication of the geology of the area on wooden posts with short poems. Dedicated to Bill Griffiths, author of at least two books on the language of the north east: A Dictionary of the North East Dialect and Pitmatic; the talk of the North East Coalfield. Both fascinating works. There are also a number of benches suitable for Herbie Spots, but it was too early, even for us. The frequency of benches diminished with distance.
The imposing cliffs are Magnesium Limestone, topped with boulder clay which has allowed for rich grasslands and a colourful collection of wild flowers lining the footpath all the way to Crimdon, almost. A home for insects too, and possibly small mammals as we saw several kestrels hovering on the cliffs. The beach below is called Blast Beach, presumably as there was once an ironworks in the area, nearby Noses Point was an industrial site too.

                                                    One of the information boards, they became fewer                                                                     the further  south we walked.
                                                

Magnesium Limestone cliffs

Soon we came to Hawthorn Dene. Nearby the Pemberton family had their own private railway station, at this point the footpath runs alongside the railway track. We took the option of walking round the dene rather than along the cliff tops and called a halt beneath Beacon Hill, sitting on a lonely bench with a splendid sea view for lunch. Dave, disappointingly, had nothing to offer but John provided Chocolate flapjacks and I produced the last of the bars of Czech chocolate.

Moving on we came to Easington, another colliery village which no longer has its pit, although the cage remains as a local landmark. South of Easington we walked round Foxholes Dene, moving some way inland before returning to the cliff tops. The dene did look deep, we should have taken it as an omen.

The next ex colliery is Horden, its site reclaimed  by tons of colliery waste from the beach, allowing the creation of more grasslands. Beyond we reached the first up and downer, Warren House Gill, a steep path down into the dene, followed by a steep stepped climb up the other side.

                                                     More magnesium limestone in a dene

                                               One of several viaducts on the walk

Looking south towards Hartlepool and Teesside

Whitesides Gill was relatively easy but Blackhills gill was a little more challenging . Somewhere in this area we met a party who were setting out a walk, or run, putting direction signs at junctions and adding a few encouraging signs too. "Come on Everybody", "Almost there" and so on.

Denemouth took us briefly onto the beach before another stepped climb but Blue House Gill, near Blackhall Colliery site was a walk round affair. Back on the cliff tops, although they were lower now, we followed the blue and yellow markers to Crimdon.

                                                          Laminated too!

              The path is well marked with yellow arrows, occasional acorns signifying a long distance

                path.

  The final dene was also very steep, a footpath, with stiles, led to a climb down followed by steps leading up again.

                                                             Pretty smart stile

                                                               Steeper than they look, there were 54

                     Finally we walked round the small town that is Crimdon Holiday Park, went under the railway and waited approximately five minutes for a bus to Sunderland.

                                                Crimdon Holiday Park

From Sunerland we took the Metro to Newcastle and called into Wetherspoons pub the Milecastle for some well kept Abbott Ale, or Ruddles in John's case.

THE MATRIX MMXIV

                                                               steps                             miles

LIDL3D                                                23016                           10.33

Dave's LIDL 3D                                    25706                          13.38

Dave's LIDL USB                                 25138                           13.09

GPS                                                                                            10.5

Measured                                                                                    13!

Booklet reckons 11 miles from start to finish, but quite hard miles. 

Gadgie distance 319

For both maps:Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2014

* Ronseal. Protective paints for woodwork, The advertising slogan is

"Does exactly what it says on the tin" 

I can see Deirdre now, Lorraine has gone    Aug 1st
 I was unable to join the gadgies for a walk this Friday as I spent the morning In the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne for a cataract operation. And to those readers in the UK who complain about the NHS I would just say I have nothing but praise for the all staff in Ward 21 at that hospital. From the first greeting, through the preliminary chat and then the operation which lasted thirty minutes from being wheeled in to the theatre to being wheeled out, followed by an excellent cup of tea and discharge, everybody was friendly, cheerful and thoroughly professional. Mind you the surgeon, a young lady, looked about 19 years old. Thank you all.

 I have had this report on the gadgie walk:
  "Four gadgies, Brian, Dave, John and Harry, did the John Martin Trail. It rained gently at the beginning and at the end. In between it rained very heavily indeed, all the time, without let up."
At least I think that' what they meant.
The John Martin trail is a good walk and has been covered at least twice so if you want to know it or refresh your memory try:
  A Happy nook where the willows grow    13/4/13
or
 Martin in the Fields     5/5/12
Normal service next week.