12 Bus Buspack to Orkney Part One

12 buses, 2 ferries, 2 campsites,1 haircut,  2 concerts, 3 catch-up with friends, 4 library visits, 1 return taxi ride, many ancient sites, a lost water bottle and a new pair of Sheila Fleet earrings.

Tickets

 These are some of the numbers from our latest bus packing trip to Orkney.  Why Orkney?  I thought it would be fun to see how far we could reach in a day with our bus passes.  We had one free weekend in the calendar and I was delighted to find out it coincided with the Orkney Folk festival.

We planned the travel through Traveline Scotland but have now discovered that is not always the best way. The most important lesson we learned was to book the Perth/Inverness/Perth Megabus well in advance. This proved to be a mega busy route.

And we are off!

We left our home in Stirling at about 9.30am last Wednesday morning, jumped on a local bus then caught the Citylink to Perth which takes about 30 minutes. The bus had come from Glasgow and was busy. The woman in the seat behind had an annoying whiny voice which was bearable until we reached Dunblane (ten minutes out of Stirling) when she proceeded to wail on and on about the tragedy that happened in 1996 as if she had some involvement and had exclusive rights to sympathy. I tried to shut her out but couldn’t and was glad when her travelling companion took over the monologue.

Still not half way

We had a good change over to the Inverness megabus and settled back for the relaxing ride. I had made a picnic so we munched while watching the A9 scenery whizz by. I was surprised when the attendant offered us cake and a drink but it was most welcome. Four hours after we left home we reached Inverness bus station. We were still not half way there.

'Driving the bus'

We had left Stirling in sunshine but the clouds darkened the further north we travelled. The next stage of the journey, Inverness to Scrabster, was long but I knew the scenery would be magnificent. It was a double decker and, like a kid, I jumped in the front seat upstairs pretending to be the bus driver, but it was a bumpy rollercoaster ride and maybe not the best seat. 

When it rained the windows steamed up and it grew cold. 

We were both relieved to reach Scrabster and the warm MV Hamnavoe bar for the last leg of our journey.

A welcome Orkney Ale on the ferry

We disembarked in Stromness at 8.30pm, eleven hours after we left home. It was lashing with rain as we scuttled the mile distance to the campsite. We pitched in the rain but were soon cosy in sleeping bags sipping a dram and congratulating ourselves on the successful journey.

Our Peedie Tent

Rain and wind battered our wee tent through the night but it held well. The Ness Campsite has good facilities; a cosy sitting room and a kitchen with kettle and microwave. This meant we could cook and eat our porridge in luxury. The lounge was also a good place to meet fellow travellers.

The bad weather continued throughout the day. We visited Stromness Library, with its open views and fabulous George Mackay Brown Collection; The Pier Arts Centre, celebrating its fortieth anniversary; braved a walk to the trig point on the local hill, Brinkies Brae which proved a strange experience: as the rain was soaking us, the stiff wind simultaneously dried us. After yet one more cup of tea in a café we gave in and headed for the pub.

Binkies Brae

The Ferry Inn was busy and welcoming and although still early evening a traditional music session was in full swing. We shoehorned ourselves into a corner to enjoy the music and a pint of Orkney’s fine ale. The surroundings were so convivial that we ordered fish and chips and settled for a while. We were just getting ready to leave when two familiar faces appeared. Charlotte and Donald are friends from Stirling, they have a boat and are both excellent session players. We had no idea they were coming to the festival. It was wonderful to chat and listen to their playing. I had brought my whistle along on the trip and was sad I’d left it in the tent. They invited us to stay on their boat but we had made plans and were leaving Stromness next day.

Next morning the weather improved enough to allow us to get the tent down and packed in the dry. We caught the 9.10am bus to Kirkwall, jumped off at Pickaquoy Campsite, put the tent up and headed into town.

We first met Orkney residents David and Pattie in Applecross many years ago and have kept in touch. When we knew we were coming to town we arranged to meet in Kirkwall’s Old Library, now Sound Archive and Groove Records, a wonderful establishment with a fine coffee shop, record store, toy shop and what can only be described as an emporium. After a lovely catch-up we were once again let loose to explore.

Orkney Library's famous balls

Colin went for a haircut while I chose a pair of earrings from the Sheila Fleet store. Kirkwall is larger than Stromness, but although dominated by the magnificent St Magnus Cathedral I feel it lacks the charm of its smaller neighbour. But it is home to the now world famous Twitter star @OrkneyLibrary. A visit was a must.  I took photos of the famous library balls and introduced myself to the staff. They were lovely and very proud of their fame.

In the evening we ate in the authentic Italian restaurant Lucano and ended up in The Wrigley Sister's Reel Bar for another Trad session. This time I carried my whistle in my handbag, but the session was a local affair with much singing and I found I could only play a few tunes so didn’t stay too late.

We discovered, while pouring over bus timetables, that a tourist bus left Kirkwall each day. Because we have our concessionary tickets we could travel for free. Next morning we bought a meal deal from the local Tesco and caught the T11 with other tourists, including some from the visiting cruise ship.  The bus was chilly, and there was no commentary but I wasn’t complaining. It took us past ScapaFlow, where the German’s scuttled their fleet in WWI; through Orphir, the home of the Orkneyinga Saga and onto Skara Brae where we had an hour and a half to visit. Skara Brae is an ancient Neolithic settlement that was uncovered by a storm in 1850. It is fascinating to see how the people lived five thousand years ago. The site is by the sea and very exposed so we didn’t linger and like most of the others on the tour, returned to the bus before our allotted time. The next stop was the Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic henge and stone circle. Here we had half and hour to walk around which was perfect for seeing this impressive site and to take photos. The bus returned to Kirkwall early afternoon.

An early dinner in the Bothy Bar was needed before we made our way to St Magnus Cathedral for our first concert of the festival.

More about Orkney and the festival in part two.