I have only one day at Orkney so I have to get started fast. The breakfast was as always, all those Guesthouses do have the same routine, full English or a subset .. not very special. An American family was rather talkative and I met them several times during the day. Orkney is not very big and people tend to go to the same sites.

I checked the tourist office again after doing a small tour through the town, looks rather nice, much more interesting compared to Lerwick. Actually the Shetlands including Lerwick are rather grey, here it is very green. Also the sun is shining making it a better experience.

There are many archeological sites, from which I visited several, some are free, for some I could use my Explorer pass.

The first tow were the most interesting one; the Stones of Stennes, the second the Ring of Brodgar:

Stones of Stennes:

Standing at a maximum height of six metres (around 19 feet), the sheer scale of the megaliths that make up the Stones o' Stenness, make the monument visible for miles around.

Located by the south-eastern shore of the Loch o’ Stenness, only four of the ring's stones remain. These are considerably larger than those found in the nearby Ring o' Brodgar, approximately one mile to the north-west.

The Standing Stones o' Stenness were originally laid out in an ellipse. Although it is commonly written that the monument was once made up of 12 megaliths, excavations in the 1970s suggest that the ring was never "completed", with at least one - possibly two - of the 12 stones were never erected.

Radio-carbon dates from the excavation show that the site dates from at least 3100BC, making the Standing Stones complex one of the earliest stone circles in Britain .

Like the Ring o' Brodgar, the Stenness ring has been classed as a henge monument. The stone circle was originally surrounded by a rock-cut ditch (four metres across and 2.3 metres deep), outside of which was a substantial earth bank.

With an approximate diameter of 44 metres (144 feet), the earth bank had a single entrance causeway on the north side, facing the Neolithic Barnhouse settlement on the shore of the Harray loch. Little remains of the bank, or ditch, today, although traces remain visible around the stone circle.

Ring of Brodgar:

The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar, or Ring o' Brodgar) is a Neolithic henge monument consisting of a henge and stone circle in Orkney, Scotland. Most henges don't contain stone circles; Brodgar is a striking exception, ranking with Avebury (and to a lesser extent Stonehenge) among the greatest of such sites. The ring of stones stands on a small isthmus between the Lochs of Stenness and Harray. These are the northernmost examples of circle henges in Britain. Unlike similar structures such as Avebury, there are no obvious stones inside the circle, but since the interior of the circle has never been excavated by archaeologists, the possibility remains that wooden items, for example, may be present. The site has resisted attempts at scientific dating and the monument's age remains uncertain. However, it is generally thought to have been erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, and was, therefore, the last of the great Neolithic monuments built on the Ness.

Skara Brae:

Skara Brae (pronounced /ˈskɑrə ˈbreɪ/) is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BC–2500 BC. It is Europe's most complete Neolithic village and the level of preservation is such that it has gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and been called the "Scottish Pompeii".

After visiting these monuments I went back to Kirkwall to listen to the lunch concert in the Cathedral. It was a mix of Scottish, Irish and Celtic music played by young and older musicians, not that good, but overall I could not helping tapping my feet.

Every piece had a small intro. The one I remembered well ... "Two Irish were having a bit too much to drink and walked home. One of them fell in the ditch next to the road and said .. Patty I fell in a graveyard, and this guy is really old, 104 years old. Patty asked ... that is really old, who is it? It is "Miles from Dublin" :-).

After lunch I went to Stromness, where I will depart again tomorrow morning early. Very nice small harbour village, but almost no people in the streets.

Last for today the Broch in the North, you can only visit when the tide is low.

Tomorrow to the mainland again, starting the west coast.