It was a beautiful clear, calm,sunny day for the first trip of the U3A archeology group. Thirteen people of varying degrees of fitness met at Kirkwall pier and took the boat to Eday.
On arrival at Sanday we met the Eday ranger and climbed abourd the minibus which took us to the north of the island to the start of the "heritage trail" at the Setter Stone.
Several members of the group are also members of the birdie group and it was a bonus to see a pair of red throated divers with young on the loch near the setter stone.
The group immediately got strung out as some of the good walkers forged ahead and a couple of the ladies were finding the going difficult. Being a good samaritan, I stayed back with one of the ladies who was having a hard time. ( I must have earned some brownie points).
From the Setter Stone the path wound up a fairly steep escarpment and then levelled off a bit. There were three neolithic tombs in a very short distance of each other and each of a different type.
This is Braeside cairn, a stalled tomb and although fairly well ruined you can still see some of the uprights dividing the stalls.
Also close to the three tombs was a large bronze age enclosure the circular banks of which could still be plainly seen even after all this time.
Huntersquoy tomb was a bit further up the hill and although I am told that it is quite well preserved, I shall have to take their word for this. It is waterlogged and almost totally submerged except for part of the entrance and so is inaccessible to air breathing mortals.
At the top of the hill, Vinquoy tomb is quite spectacular.
This is a Maeshowe type chambered tomb with 4 chambers. It is entered through a long low passage which discouraged many of the group from entering but they missed a superb experience.
( It seesm a bit pointless joining an archeology group if you do not want to have to crawl around in wet muddy conditions)
Unfortunately the flash on my camera has broken so I could not get any ood photos of the cells or the inside of the tomb except for the roof and the entrance.
(I think that I will have to get a cheap camera with a working flash just for the archeology)
Vinquoy Hill cairn is right at the top of the hill and the views over the north isles are speectacular. We could even see the silhouette of Fair Isle beyond North Ronaldsay.
It was then down the other side of the hill to the cafe. The cafe is set in a lovely position with great views which was really fortunate as we were absorbing the view for a very long time while waiting for our tea and sandwiches to be served.
Eventually we were all fed and ready to go and then we found that the mini bus driver had wandered off to check the grass in a field somewhere close by that he was thinking of mowing. He eventually returned having decided that he could mow it tomorrow and we all clombed aboard.
We were due to go and look round a submarine (explanation later) but on the way I made them stop so that I could take a photo of the airport.
Yes folks, LONDON AIRPORT is on Eday and what is even more exciting is that it is Wednesday and this is the day when the weekly aircraft comes in. We missed the flight though as the aircraft was delayed because they had a lot of people aboard and so had gone to Westray first to off load some passengers.
The other airport that you may have heard erroneously refferred to as London Airport is actually Heathrow airport and has the official code HEA. The real London Airport is on Eday and has the code LON.
Anyway back to the submarine. This is not, as you may have thought, a second world war wreck but is a reconstructed actual submarine rescued from a scrapyard and re-assembled in a shed by what you could either call an "enthusiast" or a "nutter".
Nutter or not, he has done a brilliant job job and everyone was fascinated by it. He has had to scrounge or buy gauges and bits and pieces from all over and although not yet fully complete, all the controls and most of the gauges are installed and it looks good. The pericope unfortunately does not go up, possibly because of the shed roof but he is thinking of putting a computer virtual reallity fitting on the periscope so that you can look through it and it looks realistic.
Ten out of ten for the bloke who has done it though. We need more eccentrics like that.
Then it was back to catch the 5:15 ferry and then return to Kirkwall via Stronsay
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