A Kirkwall Twatt

A Kirkwall Twatt

My plan was to cycle the NCN route one from Birsay up round the northern mainland down to Finstown, Sheila had a different agenda she was heading into town again to buy some flour, then probably head down the main middle road to Finstown and would see me there, all cool except I wanted to get ma photo at the road sign for the town of twat which according to y map was about 2-3 miles in a direction neither of us were going, I coxed Sheila into driving us there so I could get a photo, this would save me a six or seven mile cycle in a direction I didn’t want to go, the problem was we couldn’t find a sign we found the town and went up a couple of side roads but no sign, this was annoying as you can buy stickers patches and postcards of this road sign but there was no actual sign! That we found anyway? I came across one later but it was part of a bigger road sign not the individual one so popular in souvenier shops

I collected the daunder from the camp site and set of cycling the NCN1 upper coastal route, stopping for a photo at the Twatt road sign,(not the famous one) then also I got a bonus not far from there, I came across the swannay brewery! The shop was open, hey its five o’clock somewhere I had a beer in the front of the brewery after a good chat with the shop staff, I got some free pin badges with my beers and left happy, not quite a piss up in a brewery but happy days, I drank one beer and put the other in my bike bottle cage, this has become a habit as my waters in the platypus and I’ve lost/left my silver metal flask on Shetland somewhere

The NCN route can sometimes take a big loop away from the main road to keep cyclists away from busy traffic, whilst I was on one of these back road loops to Tingwall ferry it turned out to be very lucky, as ferry terminals usually have a bus stop and loo which this one had, I got there just as a serious hail shower came on it wasn’t on too long but I was glad of the bus shelter and loo, there was also one of those hand painted weather stone signs, I wondered if it was maybe the first? Sheila text wondering where I was? she had seen an ambulance with lights on and had just wanted to be sure! Strangely I did have a white van man incident at the same time, please people drive considerately for cyclists they are just human beings not in cars, its not our fault there’s no cycle paths and roads were first built for bicycles not cars - we were here first

This was like a return to the Irish end to end cycle holiday days, where Sheila had lunch sorted and all the local info by the time I arrived in town, we discussed route choices and local sights of interest that could potentially be open, this town is a bit of a cycling crossroads between the north and south of the cycle route and also the St magnus way Orkneys long distance walk or pilgrimage, this set my mind to thinking why bother doing the famous Camino which I had considered I could just do this one? I think I will do it hopefully June 2022

We had decided we would use the camp site in town at Kirkwall which was a great wee site I ended up staying there three nights, looking back I wish I had stayed four maybe five there is soo much to see and do around Kirkwall and the nearby areas, the camp site has a code to get in and use the facilities which were ideal for me as they had a seating area with good wifi near a kettle toilets and showers,

Although we were in the biggest town on Orkney it was sadly still during the pandemic, very few of the restaurants were open and none of the pubs for alcohol, after a walk around the impressive cathedral and nearby palace ruins we bumped into Isla that we had met in Hoy, asking her about where for dinner? she recommended the chip shop where you can get a sit in fish supper, fair Braw it was

Sheila was leaving the next day from St Margaret’s hope, I decided I would join her to the ferry pier and then hopefully get the bus back to Kirkwall, that way we could visit the Italian chapel together on route, we had a pleasant brunch in the real food café where Sheila spent a fortune in the shop on local produce and gifts,

We stopped at the Churchill barriers for photos and read up the notice boards, these were actually a phenomenal feat of engineering at the time of construction, Sheila had brought my swimming stuff, there was a cracking beach with what looked like a cool swim through and past some old scuttled ships next to the barriers, after the sinking of the royal oak by German U boat, the admiralty first of all scuttled a lot of old ships over the approaches before the barriers were built, this area is immensely popular with divers not just for these barrier scuttle ships but also further out in scapa flow in deeper water is the famous German scuttled fleet of WW1, (except for the wee bits taken from these ships to be used in the lunar module’s then left on the moon!)

Due to the enormous task of building these barriers that are nowadays great causeways between islands, it was difficult to find enough labour, the allies had made some victory’s against the Italians in their African colonies, Churchill decided he would use these Italian prisoners of war as laborer’s on the barriers, prisoner of war camps were built for them, the Italians being deeply religious turned one of the buildings of their prison camp into a chapel, this chapel is now a beautiful visitors attraction we were lucky it was only recently reopened, everyone that knows me knows I’m not a religious man, who strangely has been to some of the worlds most religious sites Jerusalem Nazareth the Vatican to name a couple, sometimes in far flung cities the religious places are the most interesting things to see! mosques buddhas the dead sea scrolls standing stones! I could make a huge list of religious sites and artifacts I have been to and seen, this seemed different friendly not majestic to be held in reverence,

we had the place to ourselves; it is a beautiful wee place and although I was socially conditioned to mistrust Catholicism, I liked it, we had been given some inside knowledge from Dave on Hoy there is a metal heart down near the alter at a gate, this was made by an inmate who had fell in love with a local lass, but had a wife at home in Italy he placed this here so his heart would always be with her

as we left, we noticed a brewery 58’8 degrees north! Locally made Rum and wine tasting open! Oh yes indeed, I wasn’t driving it was just me and Sheila in the shop I had the full attention of the man, who it turned out he made the rum his dad made the wine, my tasting session was awesome so good in fact I left £90 lighter, Sheila was laden down with her own bottles and mine for the caddy`s journey back to Falkirk, she also had a load of stuff to take I would not be needing along with the swimming stuff that unfortunately I hadn’t used, the caddy was laden full,

once we got to st Margaret’s hope I checked in at the post office just to be sure the bus tied in with the ferry and where the bus stop was, all sorted! Sheila took a photo of me at a propellor with her boat behind me, some divers had given the propellor to the town they had found on the sea bed from an unknown ship, my bus would be leaving long before Sheila boarded, it wasn’t a sad goodbye like some movie, Sheila had much bigger sadder goodbyes to go home to, I was more a see you later keep in touch stay safe have fun and we parted

the bus was empty until the first town where a really loud fella boarded, I wish I had ear plugs in! I was annoyed at myself for not organizing my headphones for a bus journey audiobook which I love, but NAW even with ma tammy doon oor ma lugs his voice boomed all the way to Kirkwall bus station, I avoided eye contact and pretended business on a phone that had no signal but even with that I’m no interested pal demeanor, he still had to engage in meaningless jibber jabber while I telt him I was deaf and couldn’t hear folk wi masks on! Back to phone