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In the Orkney Islands off of the northern Scottish Coast they use "Mainland" to designate the principal island of the archipelago. We have just finished a wonderful six-day R&R in Stromness, Mainland, Orkney. This was meant to be a rest, for sure, from our End-to-End push, but it also provided good times, adventure, fellowship, and wonder. We even did a little bit of cycling.
This use of "mainland" is only one of many differences that the Orcadian way of speaking has from ours. The language is influenced by the many years that the islands were ruled by the Norwegians. For one thousand years Orcadians spoke Norn, a variant of Old Norse. Today they speak their own brand of Scottish English, with a large number of words derived from those old Viking days. They use "peedie," for example, where other Scots would use "wee" and we would say "little." Many oher words are different, and overheard conversations between locals often seem to be in a foreign language.
Like islanders everywhere, they just like doing things their own way anyway. If they were in the US they could say "We don't care how they do it on the mainland." But here
they just call their own island "Mainland" and speak and do what they want. History is always evident here, with artifacts and ruins from stone age and bronze age people, Picts form the iron age, Vikings and Norse, Scottish earls, English sailing ships of the eighteenth century, whalers from the nineteenth century, the scuttled WWI German fleet on the bottom of the Scapa Flow (the protected waters inside the islands), and the causeway connecting several islands that's known as the "Churchill Barrier" because he had it constructed to keep German U-boats away from the Royal Navy ships in WWII.
We have all been enjoying reading the poems, novels, short stories, and essays of local author George MacKay Brown while surrounded by the places and people he described so well. Reading his novel, Magnus, about the martyrdom of the Earl of Orkney nearly 1000 years ago compelled me to ride my bike early one morning 12 miles to the Brough of Birsay from where the bishop and the earl ruled the peasants in those days. Later that day all of us went to the islands' current capital city of Kirkwall and saw St Magnus's cathedral, a unique and beautiful structure
started in 1137 to honor the martyred Magnus.
Another fun activity was to see a concert in the local church at Stromness given by a community choir from one of the islands off of the coast of Norway. The singers were incredibly enthusiastic, and actually quite good. It was very interesting to see this connection between Norway and these islands maintained in this way, given the long history of the relationship between the countries. Besides the standard classical and religious selections, the choir did a great job on three spirituals form the US, including "When the Saints Go Marching In," which I found to be an interesting juxtaposition with all of the St Magnus history we had been learning about. The choirmaster ended the session by performing two songs on an instrument he invented, which consisted of a French horn mouthpiece attached to a long hose with what can only be described as the end of a toilet plunger on the other end. This was really funny and a lot of fun. After the concert, the church had refreshments and food, including, to our surprise, beer and wine. It was a lot of fun to meet some of the
local people and the Norweigians in this way. All in all a very fun evening.
These islands are also incredibly interesting geologicaly and biologically. The layered sandstone that underlies the islands and is responsible for the incredible productivity of the soil for agriculture (and thus the millennia of human habitation) shows itself in stunning seacliffs all over. Some of these are the highest seacliffs in the UK, and the tallest seastack in Europe is here as well. On the north end of Westray Island the cliffs are home to thousands of nesting seabirds, one of the most important of such places in this part of the world. We took a bus to a ferry, a ferry ride between islands, and a bus ride on a remote island, to be able to hike to this place and had one of the most incredible days of the entire trip. (And yes, Jim, this also happened to be the northernmost point of the entire trip at 59 degrees, 20 minutes latitude.)
The photos tell some more about our great week in Orkney. Now we are on the way to the Outer Hebrides and more adventures (and sveral more days back on
Brough of Birsay, Mainland
The religious and political leadership of the Orkneys operated from here until the mid 12th Centurythe bicycles).
-- Kit
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Leslie
non-member comment
Orkney
Hi! Thank you for these posts. Jeff and I have fond memories of our adventure in the Orkneys - and your blog is jogging our own stories. I am having fun following you all remotely!