Photos and the City

Tag: walk

Stromness Coastal Walk

There is a lovely walk starting in Stromness and going along the coastline toward the Sound of Hoy and some remains of World War II.

Looking back towards Stromness and seeing all the houses nestled into the bay.

The Island of Hoy, the very first and probably the only time I saw it without a cloud hanging above it.

Along the walk, there are remains of batteries from World War II and also from earlier wars and also signs telling more about these times and the protection of Scapa Flow.

Ness Battery is surrounded by a golf club and is one of the best-preserved wartime sites.

During WWII Scapa Flow was the base for the Royal Navy and more than 40000 military personnel were based here.

Ness Battery

07/07/2022
Yesnaby

Wherever I looked, I always stumbled on this walk along the coast of Yesnaby – everyone seemed to say that one shouldn´t miss this one – of course, I had to go there!

Yesnaby is located 6 miles from Stromness and it is a stretch of amazing cliffs, seastacks, rocky beaches and promontories carved out of Old Red Sandstone rocks which were part of the seabed 400 million years ago. (Northlinkferries.com)

The coastal walk from Yesnaby (or Skaill) starts at some wartime buildings and one already gets a nice view of this rugged coastline, formed by the sea millions of years ago.

The result is a spectacular array of cliff scenery where you’ll find towering sea stacks and blow holes created by the force of the mighty ocean. (The Scotsman)

First view of Yesnaby Castle, a 35m high sea stack with two legs. And the first of a few stacks I saw this day, even without going the whole length to Stromness.

Nesting birds everywhere.

The island of Hoy under a cloud, I´ve never seen it without one, except on the day I left Orkney and the ferry was passing by Hoy.

North Gaulton Castle, is another impressive stack about 70 m high.

I turned back after around 1,5 – 2 hours and walked back to Yesnaby.

One can also continue the walk on the other side of Yesnaby towards Skaill, I went for a bit but didn´t even make it to the Broch of Borwick – another time.

21/06/2022
Broch of Deerness

It was a sunny day, perfect for a little walk to the Broch of Deerness, or better said, another day, another broch.

It is a lovely walk along the coastline of the Deerness Peninsula right in the East of the Eastern side of Mainland Orkney.

Starting at “The Gloup” – a collapsed sea cave – the walk

winds its way along the craggy coastline, offering beautiful views out over the North Sea, the island of Copinsay. (Orkney.com)

First view of the Broch – can you spot it? Today it lies on the top of a large rock stack standing detached from the nearby cliffs, with only low remnants of the narrow neck of land that once connected it to the cliffs.

There is a (very) narrow path leading down the cliffs and then up the rock to the broch, but it was closed due to landslides.

So what exactly is the Brough of Deerness? That’s a very good question that no one has yet fully answered. Some feel it started life as an iron age clifftop fortification. Some feel the focus was as a pre-Norse Christian settlement and point as evidence to a number of circular features found in the 1930s: (Undiscovered Scotland)

Excavations in the 1970s unearthed the structure we can see today, the ruins of a chapel dating back to the pre-Norse period.

It was re-established on the same site in the Viking era, in the years around 1100, and continued in use until the 1500s and still later as a place of pilgrimage. (Undiscovered Scotland)

The Brough of Deerness is a well-preserved Viking Age settlement set atop a c. 30 m high sea stack in Orkney’s east Mainland, Scotland. The summit of the stack is crowned by the ruins of a c. tenth- to twelfth-century chapel and the earthworks of approximately 30 associated buildings. (Department of Archeology)

I continued my walk along the coastline for a bit before cutting back towards the start of the walk.

03/05/2022