Wednesday dawned fine and bright. Then it clouded over. There is a saying in Orkney that there is no such thing as bad weather … you just have to wait five minutes and it will change. This is equally true of sunny weather as it is of rain, so as the day went on, we alternated from lovely sunshine and blue skies to dark grey clouds floating over. Still, at least it didn’t rain.

We’ve seen quit a lot of Neolithic Orkney, so today we progressed 2,000 years, visiting the 3,000 year old remains of the Broch of Gurness. This amazing Iron Age village (comprising one high class dwelling surrounded by a number of smaller houses. The site has since been used by Orcadian Picts as late as the fifth century. It was discovered in 1959 accidentally when an artist lost a leg of his stool whilst sitting on the top of a mound of grass. The ruins look out over Eynhallow Sound to the island of Eynhallow (Holy Island) where there was once a monastery.

After lunch we moved on to explore a couple of the sandy beaches on the east side of the island, visiting St Peter’s Pool and Bay, but here spending more time on the un-named beach on the south side of the peninsular.

From there we moved to Newark Bay, which was recommended in one of the guide books, where we explored rocks, watched seals and enjoyed the sunshine.

The “mud” in the foreground of this picture is actually rock – presumably formed from mud?

Finally, back home at the cottage (photos still to follow) we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.