Island Paradise: Ward Hill, South Ronaldsay

On Saturday, after various other adventures previously discussed, I decided to head as far south as I could, to the southern tip of South Ronaldsay - as one person termed it, "the furthest point south in Orkney without getting your feet wet".

The tip of South Ronaldsay is home to a little boat landing and the Tomb of the Eagles, as well as an old, seemingly abandoned kirk and kirkyard. As I was driving away, I saw a location that looked like South Ronaldsay's answer to Wideford Hill: Ward Hill.

As I mentioned in that post about Wideford Hill, many of the hills in Orkney - notably the tallest point in Orkney, located on the southwest island of Hoy - are called Ward Hill because they hosted warning beacons, as noted in the Orkneyinga Saga. South Ronaldsay's Ward Hill offers a stunning panorama of South Ronaldsay, and even on a fairly drab day you can see out to Flotta and Hoy. It also features a "trig point" like Wideford Hill. At some point I'd like to get to the top of a few more of Orkney's hills and see how common these actually are. this website has some of them, but the list obviously isn't comprehensive because it doesn't include Wideford Hill. (That said, it appears to be a good website to have accidentally found while working on this post.) The grid for Ward Hill is:

30V WL 03268 15787

The top of Ward Hill includes some transmitters like Ward Hill, and what appears to be a bunch of farm junk that's sort of endearing. It appeared to be adjacent to a couple of active farms. To be quite honest, South Ronaldsay strikes me as the kind of place where I could see myself retiring, and hiking up to the top of Ward Hill with my trusty Scottish Terrier or Labrador (or both?) each day. In fact, there's a busted up settlement down near that southern tip, near the boat landing and abandoned kirk, that would make a great remote cottage. It's not hard to imagine rugged Viking warriors standing watch on a cold, windy Orkney night, hunched over a fire and singing songs about Odin and Thor.

At any rate, Ward Hill also became the site of another self portrait, along the same lines of the ones I took at the top of Wideford Hill earlier in the day. My Orcadian hosts were repeatedly apologetic about the weather, but I couldn't have been more thrilled to be pelted with rain, swept by the wind, and chilled to the bone. Maybe it's because I'm from a comparably cold and rainy part of the States - in fact, it's definitely because I'm from a comparably cold and rainy part of the States - but as far as I'm concerned, inclement Orcadian weather is definitely one of the elements of an island paradise.

Island Paradise: Wideford Hill

In 2004, Captain John took me up to the top of Wideford Hill, which overlooks Kirkwall. I'd had a really hard time figuring out where it was using Wikimapia, but with the help of Gray 1 and a couple of maps, I was easily able to find it. I plotted my course - the A965 - and set out in my intrepid chariot to conquer the hill, which is apparently 738 feet high. It's also home to the chambered cairn, but that wasn't on my agenda this time around. On the dirt road up the hill, I saw and spooked at least one sheep into sneaking back under the gate it had snuck out of.

Aside from providing a fantastic view of Kirkwall, the summit of Wideford Hill was cold, wet, and windswept. As the highest point above Kirkwall, the location is dominated by big radio antennas. There's also a "trig point", and a big disc showing the direction to a bunch of other locations within a few hundred miles of Kirkwall. I remember Captain John telling me in 2004 that on a clear day, you could see from Wideford Hill to the Scottish mainland and Shetland, but October wasn't forthcoming as far as clear days go. (I didn't mind, though, because I'm actually most comfortable when it's cold, windy, and rainy - that's why I came to the University of Aberdeen instead of going to Namibia State Polytechnic Institute or the Saharan Postgraduate School.)

A few yards from the summit, there's a sign from the Orkneyinga Saga Trail. As I've mentioned before, I read the Orkneyinga Saga in 2008 or so. It frequently discusses beacons that were readied at the top of hills like Wideford for use as warning signals in the event that one group of vikings attempted to move against another. The sign recounts an incident from chapter 74 of the Orkneyinga Saga in which a spy on Fair Isle (between Orkney and Shetland) doused the beacon. According to the saga:

But that man was set to watch the beacon in the Fair Isle whose name was Eric. And when Uni had been a little while in the Fair Isle, he came to Eric and said: “Wilt thou that I watch the beacon? since I do naught else, and I may well sit and spend all my time on it.” Eric accepted that. But as soon as ever no men were near to the spot, Uni threw water on the beacon, and made it so wet that fire had no hold of it anywhere.

This act of sabotage allowed Earl Rognvald and his forces to sail to Westray unopposed, at which point he moved against the territories held by Earl Magnus. To this day, many of the hills in Orkney and Shetland are known as "Ward Hill" or "Wart Hill", and this denotes that they hosted beacons of their own.

I left Wideford Hill on Saturday morning and came back on Sunday night to get a grid - 30V VA 98425 38585 - and take a few night shots. Unfortunately, none of them turned out - a true shame, because despite the nearly overwhelming wind that night, the moonlit view of Kirkwall and Scapa Flow was truly breathtaking - truly one of the great experiences of my life.

Of course, any spot in Orkney is a good spot for a bit of self-photography, so I snapped a couple of shots of myself looking every bit as windswept as the hill upon which I was standing. When I've completed a few more months of long walks up Aberdonian hills, I'd love to put on my Marine Corps combat boots and a rucksack and hike to the top of the hill. (Yes, I realize it's only 738 feet, and that even if I do hike to the top of it, Big Brother Caleb will still make fun of me.)

Island Paradise: St. Magnus Cathedral Interior

One of the measures of a "city" by British standards is that cities contain cathedrals. (For the record, Aberdeen's is the Cathedral Church of St. Machar, which was the site of my first attempt at geocaching.) The most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen - and I've seen quite a few of them - is St. Magnus Cathedral in the Royal Burgh of Kirkwall. On my second full day in Orkney, I went into Kirkwall. I had several errands to run: buying an Orcadian sweater (unfortunately, knitted in Orkney, but not from Orcadian wool - I still love it!) from a shop on Victoria Street, grabbing a Giddy Limit 2013 calendar from the Orcadian bookshop, and of course, a trip back to St. Magnus Cathedral.

St. Magnus is constructed from gorgeous red sandstone, and contains many, many epitaphs from the kirkyard outside. A lot of them have the skull and crossed bones icon visible in the attached picture. There are also numerous other items from Orcadian history, plus the crypts of William Balfour Baikie and Dr. John Rae. (I actually remember Captain John telling me the story of Dr. John Rae back in 2004 when he took me there during our grand tour of Orkney.) There's a memorial to the men lost in the 1939 sinking of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow, which contains the ship's bell. Originally erected in 1137, the cathedral is named after St. Magnus of Orkney, whose life, martyrdom, and legacy are recounted in chapters 39 through 60 of the Orkneyinga Saga. He's also the subject of the novel Magnus by Orcadian author George Mackay Brown, and let me tell you, the book shops in Orkney are quite fond of George Mackay Brown.

If you take the tour on Tuesday or Thursday, you'll find yourself led up into the into the central bell tower. In addition to seeing the bell apparatus and some of the older bits of the cathedral that have since been shored up or added to to preserve the structure, you'll get to see one of the original glass windows (pictured) dating back to the cathedral's early days. My tour was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Orkney. Unfortunately, I took sixty pictures of the St. Magnus Cathedral interior alone, which is too many pictures even for one of my blog posts. Hopefully I've given some of you the motivation to go check it out for yourselves! Oh, and for anyone who's interested, I got a grid for the front steps of the cathedral: 30V VA 98425 38585.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I posted a Mumford & Sons video in The Songs That Remind You 3? Well, Gray 3 told me that when Mumford & Sons performed in Orkney, they didn't want to perform in a sports venue, so they actually performed in St. Magnus Cathedral. I can think of a few bands that I'd love to see perform there, so I have no doubt that it was a truly amazing night for everyone in attendance.

Coming up later in the Island Paradise series, I'll post some day and night pictures of the St. Magnus Cathedral exterior, because it's every bit as gorgeous as the interior. There are reasons why it's my favorite cathedral of all time.

Once I'd finished with my missions for Kirkwall, it was off to Wideford Hill.

What's Your Grid, Edinburgh?

For reasons that I'll expand upon later this week, I found myself in Edinburgh this weekend. There were a lot of things on the agenda, but one of them was to go back to the hostel where I'd stayed in 2004 and get a grid. From my perspective, all of Edinburgh sort of revolves around Waverley Station, since that's where I've arrived both times I've visited. The hostel where I stayed, as booked through a service on the stairs leading up to Prince Street from the station below (which apparently isn't there anymore), is down the hill that leads northeast from Waverley. I think it must have changed hands and been renovated since I was there, but I found it, and it's currently known as the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel. Here's the grid:

30U VH 88551 01604

Among other items on the agenda was finally meeting sweetthesound and some of her friends for dinner and a Haunted Vault Tour. (Just for the record, the cheesy smiles are the result of an agreement that we should smile like our mutual friend, Brittany, who's the Queen of Cheesy Goodness.) We ate at The Holyrood 9A, and I may or may not have flipped out about how much I hated my trip to Beirut earlier this year to a guy I barely knew who was/is/probably still is considering a trip there. Aside from that little outburst, it was a great dinner, and the haunted tour was a lot of fun, with a fantastic tour guide.

More details of my excursion to Edinburgh is yet to come.

Around Aberdeen: Geocaching Part 1

I've talked a bit about my adventures in GPS ownership. One of the cool things to do with a GPS is called geocaching. Basically, people hide stuff - a "geocache", put the coordinates on the Geocaching website. I've wanted to start doing it since about 2006, ever since I bought my first GPS and my friend Howard AKA "Father Time" told me about geocaching. Now that I'm in Aberdeen, I figured that geocaching would be a good way to practice my land navigation skills prior to my next deployment to some exotic locale, as well as giving me an excuse to do more walking.

One of the caches listed on the website was "Wells of Bon Accord - Chanonry Well Pump". Since it was near campus, I decided to try it first, and attempted to find it on Thursday morning. Based on the other comments, it appears that this one has been removed, so my first attempt to find a cache was denied.

Since I was headed to campus again yesterday, I decided to try for another one nearby: "The Zoology Building". I found it! I entered it as a waypoint in my Garmin eTrex Vista, signed the log, and then headed for the "postgraduate study room", which has become the de facto Strategic Studies class tactical operations center. (Strategic operations center?) It was a good accomplishment to start my day with.

I think the next one I'm going to attempt is "Snow Kirk", which is in a sort of remote corner of campus. As I seek out and find more caches around Aberdeen and elsewhere (it could be a fun supplemental activity when I travel!), I'll note them on here.

Island Paradise: What's Your Grid, Orkney?

A few weeks ago, I posted about my successful quest to get a grid reference for the SYHA Aberdeen hostel. Having stayed in Orkney previously, my previous digs were on my list of places to get a grid reference for during my return trip. I also had to get a grid for this weekend's digs, and I decided to take some additional data that I'll discuss presently.

Both were great successes. I was already staying at the one place this weekend, and I fortunately remembered to get a grid for it. I found the other place without much challenge using road signs and some Ordnance Survey maps that I found at the Cotswald Outdoor location in Union Square mall. So as far as Scotland goes, that leaves only Edinburgh and Glasgow. I'll be in Edinburgh in about two weeks (sweetthesound, I hope you like Rugby and you're free two weeks from tonight), and I may wind up in Glasgow in early December, so I should be able to get both of those sorted out in fairly short order. To protect my various hosts, I'll refrain from posting the grid coordinates themselves, but pictured are the aerial images from Wikimapia.

I also took some additional GPS data. In August of 2009, I came across an article on the Wired.com Danger Room blog (which I don't actually recommend since the Senior Reporter, Spencer Ackerman, is a dyed in the wool twerp) about "Honesty Traces". An honesty trace is a system whereby the routes used by military convoys are compared in order to identify avoidable choke points that could be used by insurgents to set IEDs. They use USB-capable GPS handsets to record the route data. In August of 2011, I supplemented my existing non-USB Garmin eTrex with a USB-capable Garmin eTrex Vista. I'm not so worried about avoiding IED attacks in Aberdeen, but I'd like to use the opportunity to teach myself the functionality so that I can run honesty traces in the future, or use GPS data for other functions. Once I have some time to download and manipulate the data, I'll try to put it in map form and post it.

What's Your Grid, Aberdeen?

One of the things I'd like to do while I'm in the British Isles and Europe is to revisit all of the spots where I've stayed overnight, and take grid coordinates with my GPS. It's something I've wanted to do since late 2007. I've never had the opportunity or the funding to make that goal happen... Until now.

I started the project on Thursday after class... And a trip to the pub with my classmates. (A guy has to have priorities, right?) I've been looking back at maps for eight years now, but there's a difference between that and finding it on foot. I got close - Rubislaw Terrace - before pulling out my mobile and temporarily enabling the location function to figure out where I was. I hadn't brought a map, but I knew that I'd have the digital resources, so I didn't really need one.

Before I go on, I want to state for the record that I'm adamant that everyone - particularly men - should be able to navigate without using a GPS, and particularly a car GPS. I've used a car GPS on one short trip, and by the time I'd been there two or three days, I was nearly solid on my routes to the point of not needing the GPS anymore. I learned how to use a handheld GPS for more specialized purposes while I was working for the Army a few years ago, so I've continued to use those. Anyone who shares my philosophy may enjoy this article from a few years ago.

At any rate, I took the bus from campus to the vicinity of Union Terrace Gardens, which is adjacent to Union Street - essentially the High Street of Aberdeen. From there, I did my best to follow a route that took me in a general westerly direction, and a touch north. I saw a few things that seemed familiar, and found an area that seemed quite familiar, but I seemed to remember a busy intersection at which I'd had to cross two or three streets in order to get where I was going. At that point, I pulled out my phone and used Google Maps and the GPS function to figure out where I was relative to where my destination was. With that sorted out, I resumed walking, arriving a couple of minutes later at Queen's Cross.

As you can see, Queen's Cross is noteworthy in that the middle of the roundabout is graced by a statue of Queen Victoria, easily recognizable despite the fading light of the early evening.

Once I was through the maze of Queen's Cross, it wasn't long until I found the hostel. The grid coordinates are as follows:

30V WJ 52650 33587
Having eaten relatively little during the day, and being near the area, I headed to what has become my favorite kebab shop (more on that later), back down Albyn Place to Union Street, and then up Union Street to Bridge Street. In total, Google says that I walked about two and a half miles, which isn't bad for a guy trying to drop weight to get back into fighting condition. Here's a map of my route.

Now that I have the grid coordinates for the hostel in Aberdeen, I have three grids left to take in Scotland: Orkney, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. I'm not sure whether I'll stay in Glasgow or Edinburgh or not, but I'll certainly be spending as much quality time in Orkney as I possibly can.