Note: Really, this was the 17th of August 2012
Westray is the largest north isle of the Orkney islands. And really, I didn’t want to take the 1.5 hour ferry there, and the same back.
But some people didn’t want to stay on the Orkney mainland instead. Which would have been a little more relaxing.
So off we went to Westray, taking the car and all our luggage. We had to check out of our lovely chalet/apartment Atlantis Lodges – and now, with the trip over, it really was one of my favourite places that I stayed at – because we were going to return on the last ferry from Westray and catch the 2345 ferry from Kirkwall back to the mainland.
The morning started out cloudy, but at least the rain held back.
The ferry to Westray had at least 15 passengers, a few cars, but mostly, the ferry was carrying equipment and supplies.
As we arrived to the island, a driving drizzle began. This would turn into a driving rain.
It was impossible to do anything on that island. Nature is its calling. There are more cows on the island than people. 3000 vs 600. And, if it’s wet, you stay out of nature.
Still, we managed to visit a crab processing factory at Gill’s pier at Pierowall, the main town on the island. We asked a lady for directions and she ended up inviting us in.
Basically, the crabs are drowned overnight and then boiled the next day and they have a machine that helps them get the meat out of the legs. The rest is pretty much labour intensive work.
I would argue if Peirowall can be called a town. It’s more like a collection of buildings on one road.
Yet it took us four drives up and down the main road to find the Pierowall Hotel where we had seafood. And the definition of seafood in Scotland is fish and chips. Luckily though, this hotel also offered squid and chips. Thankfully, the squid wasn’t battered and was not overdone.
We visited the Heritage Centre, which was quite interesting. But already by then, we were so wet and cold, it was hard not to begin to resent Westray.
Still we persisted and visited a potter and an art gallery, but both were disappointing. I suppose to be fair, with art, you’d have to say that it wasn’t to our taste. But truthfully, the potter’s standard was not high.
Persisting on, we headed out to Noup head. Along the way, we found Noltland Castle, that was never completed.
Driving along single carriage roads that soon became tracks, we arrived at a lighthouse with more cliffs. This was Noup Head. I tried at least to walk around the lighthouse, but meeting some sheep chewing on grass and looking more warm and at home, it was clear I was the idiot walking in cold wind without any fleece and headed back to the relatively warmer car.
It was 4pm by that time and we headed back toward the ferry terminal to return back to Kirkwall.
We had time to do a little bit of a walk when the rain seemed to peter off, but it was useless. The grass was long and made my jeans dripping wet.
By the time we got to Kirkwall it was around 7pm. It was clear from the wet streets that it had been a very wet day in Kirkwall as well. But at least here, there was more places – cafes and shops – to hide from the elements.
We were going to eat in town, but on the way back from the petrol station, we spotted a Chinese restaurant and gave it a try. It was not too bad. We had bamboo clams, that they call razorback clams due to the pattern on the clams.
Then it was off to the ferry at around 10pm and we boarded around 11pm for our trip back Aberdeen on the Mainland.