In Kirkwall, Scotland in the Orkney Islands we set off to see archaeological wonders. First, Skara Brae. Part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, it lies near the white beach of the Bay of Skaill. dating from more than 5,000 years ago, this group of prehistoric homes was uncovered by a storm in 1850.
We also saw the Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness. Along with Stonehenge, this henge is considered to be one of the finest of its kind. the enclosure dates to around 2,500 BC.
On to Invergordon, Scotland, which is the port for Inverness. We sailed in through Moray Firth, which is the area that Pati's family from Grandparents and up are rumored to have originated. Some say that the family were stealing sheep for the McLennan clan...but that's not exactly verified. Here, we took a trip to Urquhart (pronounced Uhr-kurt if you want to know) Castle on Loch Ness. We drove through the highlands hills of Dingwall/Beauly to arrive at the castle.
Following our visit, we drove along the loch looking for Nessie, but no luck that day.
On to Edinburgh! Well, we wish it was Edinburgh but really we were docked at Rosyth, a ways up the Firth of Forth from the city. We'd seen all the main sights of Edinburgh the summer before, so we took off for Scone (pronounced scooon if you want to know) Palace, the crowning place of Scottish kings. Beautiful grounds and lovely palace and chapel, still in use today.
Our next stop was Newcastle on Tyne. Here we opted to go into the city and look for a Tesco and a Marks & Spencer. We needed two things: mintoes and fruit sherbet candy from Tesco and Percy Pig candy from M&S. Mission accomplished. After that, we had a day at sea, and by this time we really needed it. We needed to relax and catch up on this blog.
