25 June – St. Magnus & Highland Park

Today we had a leisurely morning and then drove to Kirkwall to attend worship at St. Magnus Cathedral, known as “The Light of the North”.  It’s the only cathedral on Orkney and is old… founded in 1137 by the Viking Earl Rognavald.  Today, although a member of the Church of Scotland,  it reaches out to an ecumenical group, reminding us of Iona Abbey.  The worship used contemporary language and the prayers and sermon by Rev. Fraser Mcnaughton, were inspirational.  It was interesting to contrast this outwardly focused (in mission and welcome), vibrant church with the small, inward looking congregation we attended last week.  An additional joy was hearing the Cathedral Choir of Bergen, Norway, with whom the St. Magnus congregation has a “sister-church” relationship.

After lunch in a café near St. Magnus, we drove to Highland Park Distillery on the outskirts of Kirkwall.  Highland Park is so named because it sits on a hill overlooking Kirkwall and ‘park’ meant “field” back when it was founded in 1798.  It is also the only whiskey distillery on Orkney.

It was a good tour, explaining in detail the process of making good whiskey.  The tour guide was a loyal fan, explaining why Highland Park mildly peaty scotch was better than the “overwhelming” scotches of Islay.   After the tour we tasted four different scotches, a new 10 year old, 12 yr (the work day scotch), the 18 yr (for special occasions), and a version called Valkyrie, the first release in a series of three celebrating  the island’s Viking Heritage.  (As a matter of fact, we were expecting a stronger Viking emphasis in Shetland, but the tour guide started off his talk by telling us Orkney was more Viking than Scot, and was still trying to decide, after 500 years, if the “marriage” with Scotland worked.  He said more babies are named Norse names than Scot names.)

Barley drying after the initial soak.

Stove where peat is burned 9 hours to give "smokey" flavor.  Then 2 days burning with smokeless coal.

One of 4 pot stills... scotch flows through them twice.

One group of the 46,000 casks on site in 23 warehouses.

Now that we’ve been here a couple days we can see the difference between the Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands.  Orkney is flatter, with much larger farms.  Quite a bit of farming here on the southern end.  There are also more cattle, sometimes grazing with the sheep.  Orkney has straighter roads and more trees.  Both have wind, and we’ve been subject to serious wind our first days… holding in the mid-40 mph range, even up to 50 mph.  Hard to walk!