What brought us to Orkney?
Serendipity the first time, I have to admit :-)
It was 2007 and a Scottish Holiday Cottages brochure had just fallen through the letterbox (as it did every year) and I was keen to try an island break. My grandparents often spoke of a much-loved holiday spent in Skye, my uncle had visited Iona, my parents had been to Mull, but fate had different plans for us. The brochure fell open onto a page highlighting cottages in Orkney - with the promise of a wealth of Neolithic archaeological sites, an abundance of natural history to explore and a population in the low hundreds of people, we found ourselves drawn to Rousay as our very first experience of Orkney.
When the time came to travel, it was a day of long waits and plane delays culminating in an exhilarating taxi ride from Kirkwall airport to Tingwall in an almost vain attempt not to miss the last ferry of the day across to Rousay. We literally hung onto our hats as the taxi driver fairly flew through the Orcadian landscape and, thanks to his efforts, we just made time. The ferry ride was a welcome half-hour of calm contemplation before we were warmly greeted and taken to our charming holiday let.
Rousay was an absolute delight - well and truly off the beaten track. The local shop was an Aladdin’s Cave of local produce, pantry staples, hardware supplies and anything else you can think of. The post van was also the bus service, although anyone passing would kindly offer a lift. The natural beauty, folklore and archaeology (the island is known as ‘the Egypt of the North’ as there are so many highly valuable sites) kept us out and about exploring throughout our visit and left us wanting to return and find out more.
After a decade of being drawn back to the islands for repeated holidays on South Ronaldsay and in Birsay as well as visits to Hoy and Westray, and with our 20th wedding anniversary approaching, we decided to jump with both feet and treat ourselves to a ‘Grown-Up Gap Year’ to see if moving more permanently to Orkney was something more than just an impossible dream.
