Today started a bit later than normal. The Maeshowe Chambered Cairn is available for visit only by tour and the first tour of the day didn’t start until 10AM. As I had visited all of the other close sites yesterday I took my time getting up before heading off to visitor center.

To keep traffic down you take a shuttle bus to near the Cairn and then a short walk to the Cairn itself. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside the the Cairn; much to my disappointment. That being said, our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the site and its relation to the other sites nearby.

A unique feature of the site is the vast quantity of Viking graffiti, around a third of all that found in the UK. Apparently, a group of Vikings broke into the Cairn during a blizzard to use it as a place of refuge. The scratchings are very visible inside the Cairn and have been translated with relative accuracy. Some are simple, stating ‘this Viking wrote these runes’ but many of them are a bit more on the rude side, they were bored Vikings after all.

My second stop of the day was the Broch of Gurness. A broch is a tower like dwelling built in large numbers in Scotland over a relatively short period of time. All of the other brochs I’ve ever seen are a single tower with nothing around them. The Broch of Gurness is surrounded by a small settlement making this an unusual broch. When I was there, volunteers were working on some light preservation work to keep the site up for future generations.

My final stop of the day was the Brough of Birsay because I had heard it was possible location to spot puffins. It’s also one of those fun islands you can only get to at low tide! I really liked the sign on the ranger building giving you instructions on what to do if you get stranded on the island, so much fun.

I did get to see puffins and took loads of pictures! I think 2 or 3 even came out ok.