Stromness and Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

Stromness

St. Magnus

Earl Palace

Bishop Palace

Bishop Palace

Bishop Palace

Earl Palace

View of St.Magus

Bishop Palace

While Alessio and I were in Scotland we had a mini holiday with my parents to the Orkney Islands. We got the ferry over from Scrabster to Stromness which took 1.5 hours, it was an pleasant journey on the way we got to see the Old Man of Hoy. I will post some photos at a later date.

Stromness is the second largest town in the islands, it has a long winding Main Street with lots of lovely shops and interesting buildings. We visited the Pier Arts Centre and enjoyed looking at the great works of art. There was also a lovely small bookshop which I just had to checkout.

We stayed in Stromness for two nights at the Ferry Inn, which was very nice. We then drove to Kirkwall where we stayed for three nights.

Kirkwall is the largest town in the islands, we stayed at The Shore which was also a lovely place to stay. Right next to the hotel was a bar called The Standing Room Gin Bar, sadly we did not visit it but it did look good.

We visit the magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral, known as the most northern cathedral in Britain, founded in 1137 by the Viking Earl Rogvald, in honour of his uncle St Magus. It is a very stunning building.

We also visited two Historic Scotland sights, the Bishop`s and Earl´s Palaces, both are ruins but in very good order. From the top of the tower in the Earl´s Palace you get a fantastic view of the cathedral. The also had a quick look at the Orkney Museum, there is also the Highland Park Distillery but we did not visit it.

We stopped in at the Kirkjuvagr Orkney Gin distillery, we did not go on a tour but I had a gin cocktail. In fact my father and I tasted all the different gin from the islands over the three evenings and they were all really good.

We did lots more on this trip and will be posting it over the coming months.

Hope you all having a lovely weekend