My sister Margot, her son Tuna (yes that's his name!) and I went to the Orkney Islands in August 2001. I picked my sister at her commune. She lives between Edinburgh and Glasgow.We headed north to the Highlands. We visited Clava Cairns on the way. We camped at Inverness for the night.
We then visited Camsten Cairns in the Western Highlands. We stayed at Thurso for one night.We rode the ferry to Stromness in Orkney. The ferry rode past the Old Man of Hoy. It is an impressive 450 feet sandstone stack.
We staid in Oarkney for 3 days. Close to Stromness are the Ring of Brogar and the Ring of Stenness. We were lucky to have beautiful weather all the time. I heard that Orkney has 360 days of bad weather in a year!
The next day we went north to Kirkwall. There is an ancient viking cathedral there. It had interesting tombstones inside. Opposite the church was the bishop's palace. This is a huge castle ruin. You can wander inside the ruin on all 3 levels. That was a lot of fun!
We drove along the north coast of Scotland East bound. There is a beautiful sand beach there, unfortunately I misplaced the camera so you'll have to take my word for it.
We got lost in the highland roads on my way back to Edinburgh. These are are one track roads with passing points every quarter mile. The locals drive at 50mph and it can be quite unnerving after a while.
All the pictures will now be blurry because Tuna stuck his finger in my camera lens!
My friends Simon, Allison and I went to visit Traprain Law hill close to Edinburgh.
Back in Edinburgh, my father and I decided to visit the South of Scotland. We stayed at Langholm for one night. We visited Samye Ling, a beautiful buddhist center.
We then drove to the North of England. We visited Hadrian's wall. This wall was built to keep the Picts away from the Roman empire. It goes from coast to coast. We were lucky to be able to visit the Housestead Fort. The site was closed for 6 months before we came in because of foot and mouth disease.