Early start with the alarm going off at 6am and leaving the hotel at 6:45am to head for the Pentland Ferries terminal at Gills Bay. We arrived there at 7:15am and we were only the second vehicle there.
Waiting to board.
While we were waiting, several refrigerated container trailers were left by lorries, obviously destined for the Orkney Islands. Once the ferry arrived (MV Pentalina), the cars disembarked and then a tug removed three container trailers from the ship. The tug then hitched up to one of the container trailers that had been deposited and reversed it onto the ship. As he drove out to get the next one, a line of cars were permitted to embark. They drove on and then keeping to the left of the ship, drove around the back of the trailer and then down the right hand side to be facing the exit for disembarking at the destination. The tug the deposited another trailer, again reversing it on, before the large motor home next to us was asked to reverse onto the ship and park in front of one of the trailers that had just been reversed on. He was then followed by a rigid truck that had to perform the same procedure of reversing on. Finally, the line of few vehicles that we were at the head of were permitted to embark. The middle of the boat is open, but the part where the cars drive has a headroom of 2.7 meters and given that the Landrover is only 2.4 meters high with the attachments, we joined the rear of the previously embarked cars.. We were one of the last to park and so were at the back of the queue when disembarking, having to drive round the boat as the previous cars had done. The tug the put the last refrigerated container on and we were loaded up.
MV Pentalina arriving.
The moment we boarded.
We departed at 8:40 and the crossing was very easy, no swell to really notice. We spent the journey outside looking at the various views that were offered and also saw many sea birds.
Departure from Gils Bay
The ferry finally docked at St Margaret’s Hope (Orkney Islands) at 10:05. Because of how the ferry was loaded we were the penultimate car to leave, but that suited us as we didn’t want to drive any where in a hurry. We took a spur of the moment decision to head to the south of the Island and headed to Burwick. We had a cup of tea at the Burwick Ferry point – just a jetty with a small foot ferry once in the morning and once in the evening to John O Groats.
Helen found a good seat for a cuppa!
Refreshed, we headed up the island with nowhere particularly to see, just to see what we might stumble across. It was a good move as once we had crossed the Churchill Barriers on Scapa Flow, we took a road that was sign posted The Gloup. It was a fascinating place to see and there were many birds flying around having nested in the rock faces along the coastline.
The Gloup (a collapsed sea cave)
We headed back through Kirkwall and headed to Birsay, stopping at a small car park in Finstown for lunch – pot noodle!
Lunch Setup
Having finished lunch, we drove to Birsay and parked up. We could see that people were walking on the Brough of Birsay so we decided to walk across the causeway to have a look. The causeway does get covered at high tide and there are signs on the Brough telling you to ring the coast guard if you get caught out. Immediately on the other side are the remains of a Pictish and Norse village. Having looked at these, Helen walked back to the car park whilst I decided to walk to the top and see the lighthouse.
Brough of Birsay Causeway and Pictish village remains
Brough of Birsay Lighthouse
Next we headed to Stromness and decided to drive down the high street. What we didn’t know was that driving down it seemed like you were illegally driving through a pedestrianised area and it got very very narrow at times. However, it would appear that this is perfectly legal and ok to drive along. Having done the drive along the high street, we parked on the waterfront and walked back to take a picture as we couldn’t believe you were allowed to drive along the street.
The narrow street we drove down showing a car doing the same
Having taken the photos, we continued on our tour of the Island and decided to visit the village of Scapa as Helen’s great granddad had served here in the first world war, with the base being the Royal Navy’s chief base until it closed in 1956. We had a cup of tea sitting on the sea wall footing on the beach.
The village of Scapa and having a cup of tea on Scapa sea front
Once we had watched a ship leave the oil terminal, we headed into Kirkwall to get fish and chips. After filling up with diesel (27 Litres at 155.9p per litre) we found a chippy and sat in the car on the sea front to eat them. I had a slice of battered deep fried black pudding – lovely.
Lovely deep fried Black Pudding
Once we had finished our food, it was a short drive to Hatston for the NorthLink Ferries terminal to get our ship (MV Hjaltland) to Lerwick. Although the book in didn’t open until 9pm, we were there at 7:30pm and so just sat the time out as the wind blew hard. The ship arrived at 11pm from Aberdeen. Once those who were disembarking for the Orkney’s were off loaded, we boarded to join those heading to Lerwick and were parked on the car deck at 11:36pm. As we had booked reclining seats, we found them. The seats were in the cinema and were the only two in there. People were sleeping on the floor and on the couch seats around the boat, obviously having had experience of what to do.
We departed at 11:45pm and decided to go straight to sleep. We did have to inform a woman with her three children that the cinema was not showing a film at that time of night. She left a little put out that she would have to entertain her children for the journey!
Our sleeping arrangement for the night
We had circled the main Island at Orkney during the day and covered 130 miles.
Route and elevation for Day 4
130 miles on the odometer