Once upon a time . . . . .

---

On Friday, the 3rd we began our adventures by driving on the left (wrong) side of the road by driving North from Edinburgh across that long suspension bridge and on through to Perth. From Perth it was North-east to Aberdeen, then North-west to Inverness. Inverness is definitely in North Scotland but we still had to go further North. By-passing Wick we continued North and on to Thurso on the North Coast. From Thurso it was West about 20 miles to Strathy Point, then a right turn and a little further North to Aultivullin where we ended at the gate to the greatest B&B, the Catalina B&B and Guest House.

Robb and I had stayed here for one night a couple years ago. I knew it was the type of place that Heather would like and that Peter and Jane Salisbury who run it were the type of people that Heather would like too. Greeting Pete and Jane when we arrived was like meeting up with a couple old friends. They are the perfect hosts and their B&B is unlike most. Here you have your own dining area, lounge, and sleeping area almost like having your own suite and not just a bedroom in someone's home.

We had arrived a little later than we had expected so we took Jane up on her offer of an evening meal. The food here, like the accomdation, is excellent. After we had eaten Heather and I went for a walk out the front gate and up to the top of a hill to a cairn we could see from the B&B. Walking up this hill was not like walking up just any hill. Here we were treading our way across this springy bog-like surface, hopping over small ponds and trickles of water, until we reached the cairn. I have no idea what the cairn was for, it was just a basic pile of rocks, but once at the top of a hill the only thing to do is to go down the other side.

So we went down the other side to the cliffs at the very edge of the North of Scotland and about 100 feet straight up from the Pentland Firth and North Atlantic. From here we could see the outline of the Orkney Islands to the North-east and our destination for tomorrow.

After our "traditional" Scottish breakfast we were off to John O'Groats, about 20 miles back to the Thurso and a little North, past the Palace of Mey where HRH Phillip was in residence, and on to John O'Groats where we would catch the 10:30AM ferry for our tour of the Orkney Islands. We arrived at John O'Groats about 9:40 and found out that the last tickets for the tour had been sold about 20 minutes earlier. Oh well, stuff happens. Last time Robb and I missed this tour because a large windstorm had moved in overnight and the ferry had been cancelled. This time the tour was sold out unusually early and it was a good day weatherwise. Maybe because it was a 'bank holiday' there were more local tourists about for the weekend. Same as the long weekend break we have on the first weekend in August. Forgot all about it!

So we sulked about a bit, had a coffee, and decided to opt for Plan B. We had planned to do the Orkney tour on Saturday, (Plan A), and on Sunday we would do some museums including the Gunn Clan Heritage and Museum we had seen about 20 miles South on the way and the Museum and Heritage Centre in Wick , (Plan B).

On our way South we took a short sidetrip and hike to view the 'Stacks of Duncansby" - - great standing pillars of rock as a result of erosion by the waves. Besides the 'stacks' there are also, for lack of vocabulary, deep gorges eroded into the cliffs and in these cliffs are all sorts of nesting seabirds. You had to look carefully to see them as these birds and their chicks blended in so well with the cliff face. It was quite windy up on these hills we shared with the sheep here. They seemed pretty used to having people traipsing through their pasture to look at the birds and rocks.

We made our way back to the parking area and continued South and East to the small community of Wick. In Wick there was a small market and entertainment being set up in the town square and we had lunch in a small cafe where we had soup and sandwiches, or "toasties" and my toasted ham and cheese was called. The sanwich was nothing to write home about but the soup was delicious. A genuine Scotch broth full of veggies and flavor. Excellent. After leaving the restaurant we wandered about a bit then asked for directions to the museum. We've found the people in Scotland to be so friendly and the man we asked for directions was no different. He was genuinely enthusiastic about "his" museum and telling us how worth while it was, and "just walk over the bridge, keep going straight and you'll run right into it."

Seemed like pretty simple directions so over the bridge we went and about 5 or 6 blocks along at a 'T' intersection there was the Wick Museum and Heritage Centre. The museum itself is in one of the ususal couple hundred year old stone buildings. Actually two or three of these buildings have been joined together so the museum is a long narrow building on the inside. When you walk into the museum you are greeted by a couple of nice old ladies at the entrance and they summon another elderly lady who takes you upstairs and to the far end of the building where the display starts. The museum has a vast collection of artifacts and is laid out like a time line. Starting at the end with a depiction of early fishing activities and a home from the early 1800's.

One of the displays was a list of "Boats Registered at Wick Custom House 1886". Interesting for me were a couple entries; WK259, the Britannia, a 50' boat skippered by John BANKS, and WK911, the Queen, a 50' boat skippered by George BANKS. Just made me wonder if there might be some connection with the BANKS who married into my family ancestry since they (The Banks) were all seafarers before emmigrating to the USA.

As you wander through time in the museum you quickly reach a point where the exhibits seem incongruous with the building they are in. This becomes even more so when you start to see things that were familiar in your own youth. Like many little museums in these towns it is the older people who volunteer their time to keep the museum going and the collection in Wick is sort of like they said to the community, " Got any old stuff to give to the museum?" and people responded by cleaning out their attics and garages with stuff from their parents and grandparents. Really quite an interesting collection and I hope the community is able to keep their museum going.

Leaving Wick we headed back towards Thurso stopping at the Clan Gunn Museum and Heritage Centre. The Robson name is a Sept of clan Gunn so we made a brief stop. This was also an interesting little visit. I think the museum is fairly new but is beginning to get a collection of Gunn history. Heather recalled how she had heard anecdotally that there was some Viking by the name of Olaf the Black in the Robson history and on an earlier visit to Scotland she had found some Robsons in the Borders region of southern Scotland but little information how they came to be there.

Here in the Gunn Museum was a genealogy of the Gunn clan descended from the Norse people hundreds of years ago including an Olaf the Black and through to a "Robson, son of Robert, son of George Gunn, Crowner of Caithness or from John Gunn Robson who lived around 1616." At some point there had been a bit of a family dispute within the Gunn clan with some people following the Gunns and some the Robsons, possibly descended from George Gunn. Caithness and Sutherland in Northern Scotland were the counties in which the introduction of sheep resulted in the Highland Clearances where the people were forced out of homes and off the land to make room for sheep.

Two museum visits of interest and both yielding a few more genealogy traces to be followed up on.

Sunday dawned clear and even better weather-wise than it had been on Saturday when we didn't get on the ferry and had to alter our plans. Before leaving John O'Groats on Saturday we took a gamble that it wouldn't be raining and bought tickets for the Sunday ferry and tour of the Orkney Islands. Perhaps fate had been on our side because when we had returned to Catalina Saturday night and told our hosts about not being able to do the planned Orkney tour and substituting a museum tour they told us that the museums would have been closed on Sunday anyways. So things had worked out well.

The skies continued to clear and when the ferry left for Burwick harbor on the Orkney island of South Ronaldsay we sat outside on the upper deck of the ferry. The trip only took about 45 minutes and our bus was waiting for us. It was the first time I have seen a bus with 3 seats on one side and two on the other. The bus wasn't any wider than most so you can imagine how they made up the space for the 3rd seat. It was a little crowded and tight. Turns out we had a pretty good bus driver who explained there had been a bit of a shuffle of buses and after dropping us off in Kirkwall for an hour or so he would get a better bus.
In Kirkwall we were dropped off by St. Magnus Cathedral which is about 875 years old. Its' construction was begun by the Norse and has continued through the centuries. One of the unique things about it is that it is built with red and yellow rock that is quarried on the islands.

A little over an hour later, which is all the time you need to tour Kirkwall, our bus driver returned with a different bus. True to his word we now had two rows of two wider, more comfortable, reclining seats. Now we were off to Skara Brae. These are the remains of a 5000 year old Neolithic village that was discovered in the 1800's after a severe storm washed away some of the shoreline and exposed the remains. These remains are in exceptional condition and viewed from above you can see the stone furnishing and tunnels from building to building. The structures almost look like they may have been a bit of a cross between an igloo and a teepee. Take a look at the web site below by cutting and pasting into your web browser. The site also has lots of infomation about the Orkney Islands.

www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

From Skara Brae we were off to see the Ring of Brodgar which is sort of like Stonehenge of the North. No one knows why these large stones are stuck in the earth in a circle or who put them there. Then it was on to the Italian Chapel which is as the name implies, is a chapel. The history is that the Churchhill Barrier was built by WWI Italian prisoners of war and that the prisoners constructed their own chapel from scrounged scrap materials. The Churchill Barrier is a series of causeways joining the islands surrounding Scappa Flow that would prevent enemy naval vessels from having easy access to attack the Royal Navy Fleet in Scappa Flow.

Leaving the Italian Chapel we head back to Burwick for the return ferry to John O'Groats. Although we have been fortunate to have better weather than on Saturday, coincidently it begins to turn and start to drizzle as we board the ferry. Overnight this drizzle becomes much more serious and on Monday as we depart Catalina to return to Edinburgh before going on to the Netherlands it begins to seriously rain and pour down. The first real rain we have had so far but it's on a travel day so doesn't interfere with our plans. True to the weatherman's forecast, as we get further south the rain lessens and we arrive in Edinburgh to fairly good weather and dinner prepared by Jesse.

---

Photos

Catalina B & B Guesthouse
Luxury B&B with your own dining area, lounge, and sleeping area.

The Best Hosts
Peter & Jane Salisbury

Stacks of Duncansby
The power of erosion and time

A long way down
What's the right word to describe these "gorges" ?

See the Birds ?
Natures camouflage.

Clan Gunn Museum
Is she descended from Vikings ??

St. Magnus Cathedral
In Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands

Skara Brae
Home Sweet Home 5000 years ago

Italian Chapel
An impressive little building

Italian Chapel Sculture
St. George slaying the dragon.