Literary Adventure through Scotland: North Highlands and Orkney Islands, with Poet Kim Stafford

We will meet in Inverness in the afternoon. We’ll drive north along the east coast of Sutherland to Lybster, our base for the next three days.

We travel to Dunbeath in south-east Caithness, which is the birth place of Neil Gunn. We hike into Dunbeath Strath along Dunbeath Water. and the scene of Neil Gunn’s book Highland River. The path runs along a gorge through fine woodland of lichen-encrusted downy birches, rowans and hazels before reaching open ground. There is a lot of historical interest along the walk, including an old mill built in 1850/1860, the site of a monastery, an Iron Age broch, a deserted settlement from around 1800 and various chambered cairns. We’ll end the day with a visit to the Dunbeath Heritage Museum.

4.5 miles and 425 feet of ascent.

Today, we drive even further north into Caithness to explore the wealth of historical and archaeological sites in this part of the north Highlands. Most of Caithness is now uninhabited or very sparsely populated due to the Highland Clearances, but the remains show that it has been much more densely populated in the past. There are a large number of Neolithic and Iron Age sites. Short walks will take us to some of the sites, including the Grey Cairns of Camster: two Neolithic tombs - a long cairn and a round cairn - built more than 5,000 years ago. We’ll also visit what used to be a fishing village perched on a cliff and have a short walk to the ruins of Badbea clearance village where crofters were forced to settle after being cleared from the land – an important theme of books by Neil Gunn and Iain Crichton Smith.

Up to 5 miles, limited ascent.

We will leave the east coast and travel across the north Highlands to the west coast, entering the North-west Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark. We will learn about the unique geology of this part of Scotland on a hike at Knockan Crag. Here are statues of very different writers: Benjamin Peach (1842-1926) and John Horne (1848-1928), pioneers of the modern geology, who wrote one of the classic works of geology that established the whole concept of thrust faulting to explain repeated strata.
Our last stop on the way to Lochinver is at the ruins of Ardvreck Castle, 15th century stronghold of the MacLeods of Assynt, on the shores of Loch Assynt itself. Overnight in Lochinver for two nights.

Total of 4 miles and 885 feet of ascent.

Handa Island is a short boat ride from the mainland. More than 100,000 seabirds breed on the island, including puffins. The island also has a fascinating history with the last 64 residents forced to leave the island for Nova Scotia following the potato famine of 1847. The islanders grew crops but also harvested eggs and seabirds from the cliffs. We will pass the remains of the village and the old burial ground. Our afternoon walk is in Little Assynt, which is owned and managed by the community of Assynt. This is the scenery that inspired Norman MacCaig. A very pleasant hike with great views of the Assynt mountains, lots of wild flowers and many remains of old settlements including farmsteads, shieling huts, a corn mill and field systems.

Total of 6 miles and 890 feet of ascent.

We’ll travel further north to Durness and then follow the north coast to Scrabster for our ferry to Orkney, but not before a hike on the beach and in the dunes near Durness itself, visiting Smoo cave, another geological feature, and a clearance village at Ceannabeinne. Our ferry from Scrabster to Stromness sails past the Isle of Hoy and the Old Man of Hoy, sea stack which we’ll hike to on day 8. Overnight in Kirkwall for 4 nights.

Total of 5.5 miles and 395ft of ascent.

We start the day at Skara Brae; possibly Orkney’s most exciting archaeological site, it was buried by a sandstorm in about 2450 BC and then revealed by another storm in 1850. We will then walk south along spectacular Old Red Sandstone coastal cliff scenery with geos, natural arches, caves, and sea stacks. In the afternoon we will visit Stromness, where George Mackay Brown lived most of his life. At its heart a distinctive huddle of tightly packed houses hugs the shore, each with its own access to the water, reflecting the intimacy of the town’s enduring relationship with the sea. It is the second town of Orkney and has its own museum and arts centre.

3 miles and 300ft of ascent. 

We have seen the sea stack known as the Old Man of Hoy from the ferry to Stromness and we’ll now hike to it. This means that we take the ferry to the Isle of Hoy, the second largest of Orkney’s islands. Hoy is different from the other islands in that it mostly consists of, high uncultivated land. On arrival, we drive to Rackwick, on the island’s the west coast, from where we will walk along spectacular cliff-top scenery to the Old Man of Hoy, a vertical pillar of red and yellow sandstone rising 450 feet from a sea-level plinth of lavas and volcanic ash. In ‘An Orkney Tapestry’, Rackwick is the focus of an account in poetry and prose by George Mackay Brown of the imagined arrival and settlement here of a group of Vikings.

5.75 miles, 720ft of ascent.

We will visit several important Neolithic sites on Mainland Orkney, from the Ring of Brodgar, via the Ness of Brodgar, to the Standing Stones of Stenness and Maeshowe, which is Britain’s largest chambered cairn. This, the ‘Heart of Neolithic Orkney,’ with the inclusion of Skara Brae, which we visited on day 6, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
We then travel to the far north-west of Orkney Mainland to the Brough of Birsay and the Earl’s Palace, both mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga. The Brough of Birsay tidal island can only be visited at low tide via the 240m causeway over the Sound of Birsay. Now uninhabited, it is the site of Pictish, Norse and medieval remains and is thought to have been a Pictish power centre. The Norse settled on the island 200 years later, in the 9th century. Later, a small church and monastery were built on Birsay and the site, became a focus of pilgrimage in honour of the memory of St. Magnus and the many miracles attributed to him (See George Mackay Brown’s ‘Martyr’ chapter in ‘An Orkney Tapestry’.) Our walk also includes a visit to the Earl’s Palace, another Orkneyinga Saga site.

Total of 5 miles and 150ft of ascent.

The day starts with a visit to the Italian Chapel. It was built during World War II by the Italian prisoners of war who built the Churchill Barriers to the east of Scapa Flow. The chapel was made from two Nissan huts joined together and leftovers from work on the barriers. Kirkwall is our last stop on Orkney. We’ll visit St Magnus Cathedral and the Bishop’s and Earl’s palaces.
We take the ferry back to the Scottish mainland in the late afternoon and travel back to Inverness, arriving in the evening. Dinner will be en route.