I have to say, I’m incredibly impressed by the amount of interesting things Paddy and Plunkett have found to see and do on Orkney! For some relatively small islands, there’s a lot going on!
After their visit to Skara Brae, they decided to pop down the road to visit Skaill House, which is the “big house” of the Breckness estate, where Skara Brae is located. In fact, it was the 7th laird of the estate who first started excavations at Skara Brae back in 1850. According to this article I found, he used the house’s dining room table to display his finds from the site! Skaill House has been open to visitors since 1997, and it is just full of treasures, including this rather fearsome tigerskin rug…
Hey Plunkett, watch out for those teeth!
The boys also got to see the actual dinner service from Captain Cook’s ship! These well-travelled plates made it back from the famous explorer’s ill-fated final trip to Hawaii, and ended up here because Orkney was the ships’ first port of call in Britain on their return journey.
Am I the only one who’s having a hard time imagining intrepid explorers and salty sea dogs eating their dinner from one of these pretty floral plates? It certainly looks like the Beasties are bemused by them too!
After a spot of lunch, the lads thought they’d check out the Ring of Brodgar, which is part of the same UNESCO World Heritage site as Skara Brae.
This stone circle (officially described as a “Neolithic henge and stone circle) is the third largest in the British Isles, and the most northerly. It’s quite a mysterious place – its age is still uncertain, and although an archaelogical excavation took place in the summer of 2008, many questions about the site, such who built it and why, remain unanswered.
Unfazed by unsolved historical riddles, Paddy and Plunkett were at least able to establish a purpose for one of the stones now – as a handy viewing platform!
Then they rounded off their day with a visit to the working blacksmith’s workshop in St Margaret’s Hope…
… And a wee dram*!
Uh-oh… Too much, perhaps?
Let’s hope this doesn’t spoil their holiday! I wouldn’t like to be in their woolly little shoes tomorrow morning…
* “A wee dram” = “A spot of light liquid refreshment”
I love everything about this post – the herringbone tweed, the cable sweater, and a wee dram. LOVE!
Ha! Thanks! Although it looks like a wee dram when you are small yourself adds up to a whole lot of trouble…
I’m envious! These cute guys seems having a really great time! Beautiful places indeed and I had the luck to have met a person who was in the Orkney and described them to me…. I’m dreaming to go there one day….
It looks amazing, doesn’t it? I’m sure any human visitor would enjoy it as much as these Beasties did 😉
I couldn’t agree more!!
Dear Helen,
How have you been?
You are giving a hard time those poor creatures 😛
You made them so drunk that they fell asleep, woke up and threw up? Ufff..
You are a certified archeology buff now: I am releasing this certificate today for you, hope you would soon receive it and accept it. I have also been interested in the mystery of Stonehenge for a long time now.
Have a wonderful time,
Anand 🙂
Hey Anand, I’m well thanks… Been another busy week! I’m sure Paddy and Plunkett are back to their usual cheerful selves by now – honestly, this is the last time I let them go anywhere by themselves!
I look forward to getting my archaeology buff certificate soon 😉
Enjoy your weekend!
H.
Hahaha, yes certificate is on the way. Though I feel I might have to update it to ‘expert’ soon 😛
I was missing your comments. Can’t blame you.
Have a great weekend
Anand 🙂
That’s so funny! I wasn’t great at history in school… I’ve only really become interested in it in the last few years. And I might have been a bit slow off the mark with my comments this week, since I have a heap of orders to get through. I’ve been knitting and stitching like crazy! 😀
Love love love your boys adventures LOL
The last photo is priceless 🙂
Thank you 😀 Poor Paddy and Plunkett… I think they got too into the spirit of the holiday!
I’m glad they managed to go to Orkney, it looks really beautiful. We have just got back from our holiday, sadly the weather was too bad for the little tender boats to dock, so they sailed us on to Belfast instead, at least I got to see the Giants causeway, I did keep a look out for the intrepid pair, we must have missed each other.
Who knows, they might end up in your neighbourhood someday! That’s a shame you didn’t make it to Orkney, but the Giant’s Causeway is a pretty good stand in… Did you get to go on the rope bridge as well?
I’m afraid not, we just got to look at it from the view point, but considering we only had 1 day & we had a short tour of Belfast . I can not complain, Ireland was beautiful ,very green, sunny & warm.
Heehee! Sounds like you were lucky with the weather at least! I’ve never been on the bridge either… One day, hopefully 😀
Yes we seem to have had better weather than everyone at home.
Hahaha! It’s not often visitors to this island go home saying THAT! You must have been very lucky… Plus the north coast looks stunning on a sunny day 😀
The weather has been so wet & cold here in Kent that the weather in Iceland was better than here. I bet not many can say that
Yikes! It’s been a bit hit and miss in Dublin too this summer… Maybe I’ll book a sun holiday in Iceland next year 😉