Homecoming Scotland 2014 Orkney islands local information snippets
Orkney is the principal island in an archipelago of nearly 70. The main town on Orkney is Kirkwall.
Scapa Flow brought the island into modern times after two wars as this was a major point for an important naval base.
Orkney is an example of old and modern living with connections via air services.
Costa Head on the northern tip of Orkney was the site of one of the first type of experimental wind-powered electricity generators, wind velocities there sometimes reach 100 mph.
Orkney boasts the impressive 13th century cathedral of St Magnus, not forgetting the great mound of Maeshowe and the Standing Stones of Stenness. The greatest of Orkney antiquities, however, is Skara Brae, a Neolithic settlement long buried under the dunes, but now excavated for all to see.
The island of Rousay is a noteable archaeological treasury, with an excavated broch and the two megolithic tombs of Taiversoe Tuack and Midhowe.
Hoy island has immense vertical cliffs rising over 1,100 feet from the sea, and a strange isolated rock 450 feet above the waves, known as The Old Man of Hoy. See also the Dwarfie Stone, a tomb cut out of the rock.
Orkney islands are well worth a visit into the past and present, remember to take your camera for amazing snapshots found only in Orkney.
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