Explore More UK Winter 2020-2021

TRAVEL
Clockwise from
top left: Kirkwall’s
St. Magnus,
Britain’s northerly
cathedral; wild
Shetland ponies;
an ancient burial
stone; the Ring of
Brodgar, majestic
standing stones
Clockwise from
above: Scalloway
town and its
picturesque
harbour; Fi’s
childhood pony,
Hamish, is on
the far right
about two inches further up my
head than they would have been
without that daily tug of war.
Then there was Hamish. He was
a birthday present, a pony from the
Shetland Islands, I was three, what
could be more perfect?
Almost anything actually.
Hamish had more tricks
up his sleeve for dealing
with under fives than
a whole battalion of
Norland Nannies. He was also
more determined to do things his
way than even Frank Sinatra. We
never had a battle he didn’t win,
these dual formative experiences
taught me that Shetland should be
treated with caution.
I couldn’t have been more
wrong. Shetland is magnificent.
It’s architecturally and emotionally
strong, no frills, muscular and
enduring – the perfect creation
of form and function for a
challenging environment. Suddenly
the sweaters and Hamish’s
Shetland is magnificent – the perfect
creation of form and function for a
challenging environment
intransigence began to make sense.
The treeless landscape is sparse and
spectacular, soaring cliffs, hundreds,
possibly thousands of fabulous
seabirds swirling through Spitfire
skies, rising and falling on Atlantic
thermals, houses huddling into the
landscape and mile after mile of
fields dotted with the providers of
those childhood sweaters. So far so
Shetland, but the music however,
was a complete revelation. Turns
out that Lerwick is basically the
Nashville of Scottish fiddle music;
on the High Street in Lerwick, a
couple of teenagers in
jeans and t-shirts, not
busking, but competing
with each other for fun –
a joyous pair of Duelling
Fiddles, toe-tapping
doesn’t do them justice. Everywhere
modern, melodic music with an
ancient soul drifted out of shops,
bars, pubs, open windows and
created an unforgettable soundtrack
to my Shetland experience.
I may have finally made friends
with Shetland, but with Orkney,
it was love at first sight. The
PHOTOS: © ISTOCK; SHUTTERSTOCK; CATHERINE COLLINS
polar opposite of its Presbyterian
northern cousin, Orkney is a
low-lying riot of wild flowers, wide
open spaces and greenery. So lushly,
verdantly green, the landscape
is enhanced by the soft rolling
curves of gentle hills. In July the
fields were filled with softly waving
ancient grains, bere barley should
you be interested, which has been
grown there since the original
Vikings first paid a visit.
I’m not sure that I have
ever been more aware of being
surrounded by thousands of years
of history than I was during my
brief time in Orkney. Within a few
miles of each other are Skara Brae
(a perfectly preserved Neolithic
settlement built 5,000 years ago),
the scuttled WWI German High
Seas Fleet rusting below the waters
of Scapa Flow, the four WWII
causeways known as the Churchill
Barriers, and an exquisite chapel
built by Italian prisoners of war.
Meanwhile, the standing stones
of the Ring of Brodgar made me
stop in my tracks and weep at their
simplicity and allmighty presence.
There’s something unique
about Orkney itself that helps
you sense the humans who made
and lived all this history – it’s not
just a collection of old or even
ancient things, everything carried
something of its creators, tens,
hundreds or thousands of years
in a future they couldn’t possibly
begin to imagine.
And there’s more, at the very
heart of Kirkwall, there is the
mighty St. Magnus, Britain’s most
northerly cathedral. Whatever your
relationship with God please pay
a visit. Building began in 1137
and finished 300 years later. It is
as humbling now as it must have
been then. I got the sense that
while Orkney is rightly proud
of its history, it has its eyes very
much on the future, and perhaps
that self-reliance is the secret of
its continuing evolution. Today, it
leads the UK’s drive to a carbonfree
future, and is developing
clean energy technology that will
harness the power of the wind and
the surrounding seas.
A 15-day 2022 British Isles
Explorer trip from London to
Bergen starts from £4,840pp.
48 VIKINGCRUISES.CO.UK | WINTER 2020/21
WINTER 2020/21 | VIKINGCRUISES.CO.UK 49