The World’s Shortest Tog!

Woke this morning about 6:30 am to a gray day, but no rain as of yet. In fact, the forecast now says not until about 2-ish, which gives us plenty of time to get into town and tour the two palaces as well as the Orkney Museum. Our host, Denise, who has been providing us with friendly and helpful hints during our visit, sent word that today, being May 17^th, it’s Norwegian Constitution Day (commemorating the signing in 1814), and being that these are the Orkney’s, it is celebrated here in Kirkwall as well! Who knew?! Well, we certainly didn’t! Turns out, though, that the Orkneys belonged to Norway for about 400 years in the ages long gone, before they became part of Scotland. In fact, the Orkney flag very strongly resembles the Norwegian flag. Not being a noticing sort of person, I hadn’t really seen it, but Robert certainly had. The second day we were here, when we were visiting Skaill House, they had the Orkney flag in their gift shop. The only real difference between the Orkney flag and the Norwegian flag is that where the Norwegian flag has a white stripe, the Orkney flag’s is yellow! And folks, that’s just about it! I had thought that the blue was almost black in the Norwegian flag, but it appears not to be so; at least not in the flags we saw today. So – a Tog (Norwegian for Parade) downtown in Kirkwall at noon, from the pier to St. Magnus Cathedral, and then a ceremony, led by the local bagpipe band!

We headed out about 9:30 am, as that was opening time for both palaces – the Bishop’s and the Earl’s, both now being in ruins, that we walked past the other day. We had purchased Scotland 7-day Explorer Passeswhich were still valid, so no charge for us, and in we went – along with a group of school kids who were dressed up in costume for the occasion. It turns out that, annually, the older kids put on a play at the palaces for the younger students – apparently it has been going on for years – that tells the stories of the various palaces and their occupants, and I guess it is quite an honor to be chosen to play one of the historical characters who used to inhabit these parts. It seems that both the older “actors” and the younger watchers, as well as the adult “helpers” and various chaperones all were enjoying themselves hugely. Some of the boys were definitely throwing themselves into their parts, especially those “roughing up” some of their counterparts; I imagine they may have been waiting all year to play some of these parts!

Love the costumes!

Me inside the ovens/fireplace in the kitchen

Main dining room

Main bedroom ... brrr...

At any rate, a good time was probably had by all, from what we could see. The Earl’s Palace was originally built in the 1200’s and expanded by Earl Patrick Stewart, who apparently liked wealth and very rich living, even though he vastly overspent his means – and then took it out on the locals by unfairly taking land and punishing people with excessive taxation. He didn’t have too long, though, to enjoy his ill-gotten gains, as he was charged with treason in 1615 and subsequently “lost his head” as it were – quite literally -- after a short term of imprisonment. His palace was then handed over to the Bishop of Orkney, who apparently was a much better money manager. There wasn’t much left of the original Bishop’s Palace, which was right across the street from the Earl’s Palace, but I can only imagine they made interesting neighbors, if only for a while!

Consisted of several floors

with some beautiful stonework

From the palaces, we walked down the street to the Orkney Museum, which is housed in Tankerness House, where the original St. Magnus Clergy lived. It’s rather a rambling building, and honestly, without very good signage, there were several occasions when we wound rather up and around and had to backtrack and couldn’t find out way out!

The exhibits do begin “at the beginning” with some wonderful finds from the Neolithic age. There was an excellent film on the Ness of Brodgar, which we tried to find the other day, but couldn’t. Turns out, the reason we couldn’t find it was because at the moment, they are covered up! It is a working archaeological dig – or at least it will be, once summer comes, and the archaeological teams arrive once more for the summer season. (Although to look at the video, these folks were basically wearing what I’m wearing now – long jackets and scarves, although there were the occasional brave souls who ventured out in shirtsleeves but those were the rare exceptions!). Schools end here about the end of June/mid-July, so that’s when they will get started digging once again. It’s an interesting site, and from the narrative on the video, they have only excavated about 1/10^thof what’s actually there. It lies between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar, and is quite an operation. (If you’re interested, you can Google to find out more about it; they also have set up in summer stands of bleachers so that spectators can sit and watch what they’re doing! I’d love to see that, for sure, but I’ve certainly neither the back nor the patience to work with either pick or brush for those long periods of time, but certainly want to applaud the people who do!). If ever fully excavated, the site will be huge!

Oh! The very first room you enter has an exhibition of Orkney furniture, which is fascinating! As wood is definitely a rarity in these parts, the Orkney “chair” was made basically out of straw woven into a continuous rope – with a small wooden frame underneath. Hopefully R was able to get a photo of a typical chair – with a drawer on each side – it is said that one put a Bible on one side and a bottle of Whiskey on the other! Very handy, I’m sure!

Examples of Orkney chairs

Chair with drawers; bible and bottle

Rune carving

Carved stone

Carved Pictish symbol stones

From the Neolithic, one wanders first into the Picts areas and from there into the Norse. The Picts, it turns out, were native Orkney peoples who banded together as Christianity came into the area, as a way of keeping the Romans out (not that there would have been much to interest the Romans here, I’m sure! I had thought they stayed firmly behind the walls of Hadrian and Antonine.). Then, came the Norse, about 1000 AD, who took control and built the Broch’s – those high, windowless towers along the coastline, especially between Mainland and Rousay Islands with villagers living in small houses next to them, ostensibly for defensive purposes.

Here come the bagpipers!

Note Orkney flag on the right!

Excellent ice cream cone!

Norway on top; Orkney on the bottom!

The museum goes all the way up to the 20^th century, with various displays about technology as it made itself felt here on the islands – first with telephones, and then of course with computers and to the modern day, along with transit of trains to airplanes and the automobile, each making such differences in the lives of the islanders and bringing them ever closer to the rest of Scotland. Although, as R asked out today, “Are these folks more Scot or Norse?” Hard to tell.

By the time we finished with the museum, it was actually time for the Tog! So exciting! I went to get myself an ice cream cone – chocolate chip cookie dough, as a matter of fact – and by the time I was walking back to Robert, I could hear the bagpipes coming down the main street! So! The Tog! And that was about it! The bagpipe band had probably 30 or so members, playing Scotland the Brave as they passed us, and following was a contingent of both Scots and Norse wearing native costumes and everyone carrying flags – mostly Norwegian, but some UK, some Scotland and some Orkney, followed by lots of ordinary people, of all ages. And that was it! The town’s mayor made a speech of welcome, followed by a reciprocal speech by a woman from Norway, who spoke in both England and Norwegian, and then they broke up for a concert in the church. And we came home! Shortest parade ever, but we did enjoy the bagpipes, brief though they were!

Napped in the afternoon as the rain moved in. Dinner in an hour or so at Lynnfield Hotel, which is just down the road at 6 pm, so, as I tend to say, more later!

xxx

And when I say “just down the road” I truly mean it! In non-rainy weather it would have taken us about 10 minutes to walk it – but as it was pouring, we drove it instead. But it was SO close that it took us three passes to actually find the right turning … but we were still a few minutes early! Lovely hotel and a very nice dining room. We ordered a bottle of very nice Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, that was excellent. For starters, Robert ordered a cheddar cheese souffle with walnut, apple and grainy mustard dressing, which was excellent. I had their pea soup with bacon, which was also excellent. For mains, R had their cod on top of mashed potatoes, in a lemon cream sauce, topped by salmon ribbons. I had their monk fish wrapped in parma ham and served on a bed of sweet pea risotto and topped by a poached egg. Actually, the poached egg was a bit too poached for my liking, but everything else was fine. For dessert, R had their cheese selection with crackers, and I had their wonderful sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish my pudding, because it was wonderful, but I did the very best I could!! R finished off with a glass of Highland Park single-malt whiskey. The Highland Park distillery is right next to the hotel and apparently is quite a quality operation.. The hotel whiskey list has 5 pages of Highland Park selections! R needs to read more about this place. Anyway, he was very satisfied with his choice. Then, home about 8:30 pm (still in the rain). Hoping that the storm moves through tonight, so that we can get to Rousay Island tomorrow!