Facts of the Day:
Date: 30/July/2002
From: Kirkwall
Via: Kirkwall
To: Kirkwall
Miles: 8
Midges: none
Weather: Fog, mist, clouds
Mood: OK

After a very nice stay at the Royal Oak House this day was supposed to be my last day on Orkney, as I was supposed to board the ferry to Shetland in the evening. Well, I'll get back to that later... The weather wasn't very good with dense fog and mist reducing visibility to a minimum. I decided to stay in Kirkwall and first visited the Highland Park Distillery. I had a wee dram of the whisky (quite nice), saw a video and did the tour around the distillery. Having visited various distilleries before there wasn't much new to learn and see, but it was nice anyway. Highland Park don't take a break during summer, so it was possible to see the whole whisky making process from start to finish.

Next I visited the Orkney Wireless Museum near Kirkwall harbour. It is run by volunteers and displays all kinds of radio equipment, in particular from the two world wars. I had a nice chat with the volunteers on duty while I was there. A few impressions of the exhibits below:

The last museum I visited was the Orkney Museum opposite of St Magnus Cathedral. It gives a good overview over Orkneys history, although there are not many picture opportunities. And with that I was ready to drive to the harbour and board the ferry. Only, there wasn't going to be a ferry this evening. Unfortunately the ship had engine problems and was unable to keep to the schedule. This meant an unexpected further night on Orkney with a stay at the Ayre Hotel arranged by P&O Ferries. In the meantime a replacement ferry was on its way to pick up the cars, while a flight to Shetland was arranged for the next day.