The North Atlantic and The Iron Age

It was a wonderfully sunny day for a time, we realized we could see the Ring of Brodgar from our accommodation window, previously it had been shrouded in mist. We headed out to Marwick Head on the North Atlantic coast for a walk to Kitchener’s Memorial. The BEF in WWI was often called Kitchener’s Army because he was instrumental in recruiting the volunteer force. In 1916 he was aboard the HMS Hampshire when it struck a mine off Marwick Head, Kitchener, the officers and nearly the entire crew were lost.

This is one beautiful place, farms dot the rolling landscape and yet there are areas on the sea that are wild, treacherous and simply stunning.









The Earl’s Palace, Birsay Built between 1569 and 1579



The Broch Of Gurness

A broch is an iron age circular two-story dry stone structure, they are common in north and western Scotland. The broch has double walls with a narrow passageway in between. At certain points the walls are joined by stone slabs, this allowed the builders to gain greater wall height than with single stone walls.

Most broches were fortified dwellings, Gurness was likely built between 200 - 100 BC. There is a main chamber and several other smaller dwellings nearby.





Today we were reunited with our friends from Belgium, we looked very forward to seeing them and now they are here. They had a very long day of flying so we cooked them dinner and we have a full day planned tomorrow visiting ancient sites on Orkney.