Orkney & S Hetland Islands

Hiking Scotland's © Julie Danek Orkney & Shetland Islands June 27 - July 7, 2020 (11 days | 15 guests) with archaeologist Val Turner © operator "This was my fifth trip with the AIA and one of the best ever...I loved every minute of the trip [and I] cannot recommend it enough. No wonder it sells out each year." - Leslie, California © operator © Operator © operator Archaeology-focused tours for the curious to the connoisseur. his is the perfect opportunity to explore all that Scotland’s "I found the archaeology absolutely Northern Isles have to offer: prehistoric stone circles, fascinating though I'm not an burial chambers, and settlements; quaint villages; huge Tseabird colonies; and remarkable plant life—all amidst dramatic archaeologist. Each site we visited had landscapes. This will be Scotland seen slowly, with time for in- its own unique character and interest." depth exploration at each site. The Orkney and Shetland islands - Nancy, New York have an amazing wealth of archaeological sites dating back 5,000 years. Together the islands have more than 18,000 known sites, with new discoveries being made every year. This archaeological saga is Archaeological Institute of America worth the telling, and nowhere else can the evidence be seen in Lecturer & Host more glorious a setting. Dr. Val Turner has been Highlights: Shetland’s Regional Archaeologist since the • The UNESCO World Heritage site on Orkney, which includes the post was created in 1986, chambered tomb of Maeshowe, estimated to have been constructed and she lives in Shetland around 2700 B.C.; the Stones of Stenness; the 4,000-year-old on a small croft with Ring of Brodgar, one of Europe’s finest Neolithic monuments; her husband. She has Skara Brae settlement; and associated funerary monuments and Project Managed two big stone settings. These are unquestionably among the most important excavations and public Neolithic sites in Western Europe. access projects on behalf • “The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland”—including Mousa Broch, of her employers, Shetland Amenity Trust: the best-preserved known broch in the world, Old Scatness, and Old Scatness Broch saw the twelve-year Jarlshof—where the lack of intensive modern farming means that excavation of an Iron Age Broch and the preservation of these sites and their landscapes is exceptional. Village, which has rewritten the story of Scotland’s Iron Age; and Viking Unst saw • The Isles are a birdwatcher’s paradise, and one of the major seabird the excavation of three longhouses and the breeding and feeding areas in the North Atlantic. More than a construction of a replica longhouse and million birds breed in very large colonies. restoration of a replica Viking longship. Val • All meals are included, and you will enjoy comfortable is currently working on the nomination accommodations: four nights at the elegant Lynnfield Hotel, a for Old Scatness, Jarlshof, and Mousa comfortable overnight ferry from Orkney to Shetland and from to become UNESCO World Heritage Shetland to Aberdeen, a night at the Scalloway Hotel, and two nights sites. She is a member of the Society of at the remote and charming Busta House Hotel. Antiquaries of London, a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and an Honourary Research Fellow at the University of Stirling. Her publications include a book about archaeology for children, accessible guidebooks and articles, as well as a wide range of academic publications about Shetland archaeology. Val writes an archaeology column regularly for the local paper and has presented, and currently co-presents, monthly programs about archaeology and the environment Scotland for BBC Radio Shetland. She loves surprising visitors with Shetland’s wealth of archaeology and she has been guiding walks and tours in both Orkney and Shetland for over twenty years, including three previous departures of this very AIA tour since 2015. Cover: AIA Tours travelers explore the Isle of Mousa; Left side: (top to bottom) travelers walk in the fields of Scotland, seals on the shore, sunset in Lerwick, puffins. his unique tour is more active than our usual land tours and North ORKNEY ISLANDS features daily hikes that are easy to moderate in difficulty. To Atlantic fully enjoy and visit all the sites on this itinerary one should Ocean Tbe in good walking condition and, obviously, enjoy walking! Midhowe Isle of Rousay Two minibuses, each with a local driver/guide, will accompany our Skara Brae (2.5|360) 1 group, which is limited to only fifteen participants. Our guides will (5|360) explain in advance the difficulty of each day’s walk(s) and, if you Mainland Orkney prefer, you can opt out of any walking excursion and be driven to the next stop; but, bear in mind that some sites can only be visited if you Ring of Brodgar walk to them. The distance of and height climbed during each walk Stenness North is estimated within the following itinerary. Maeshowe Kirkwall 4 Sea (6.75 | 100 & 720) Dwarfie Stane Shetlands Isle of South Ronaldsay Hoy Orkneys Itinerary (3.5|825) (B)= Breakfast • (L)= Lunch • (D)= Dinner Old Man of Hoy Windwick Saturday, June 27, 2020: Depart home Aberdeen Sunday, June 28: Aberdeen, Scotland | Ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney Scotland Upon your arrival at Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ), at no later than 2:00pm, you will be met and transferred to the ferry terminal in Aberdeen, # of Hotel Nights where our group will board the ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney. We will have dinner Hiking Location aboard the ferry, arrive in Kirkwall at about 11:00pm, and transfer to our hotel. (miles/elevation climbs in feet) Overnight at The Lynnfield Hotel for four nights. (D) Ferry Monday, June 29: Skara Brae | Broch of Borwick | Ring of Brodgar | Stones of Stenness | Maeshowe | Welcome dinner Distance total: 5 mi. Height climbed: 360 ft. We start the day with a visit to Skara Brae, possibly Orkney’s most exciting archaeological site, which was buried by a sandstorm in about 2450 B.C. It was well preserved and then revealed by another storm in 1850. This, the “Heart of Neolithic Orkney,” which also includes the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, and Maeshowe (sites we will visit this afternoon), was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. Walk south along the spectacular coast with geos, natural arches, caves, and sea stacks, visiting en route the Broch of Borwick, perched high on a headland. In the afternoon, we will walk from the Ring of Brodgar to the Stones of Stenness and Maeshowe, which is Britain’s largest chambered cairn. Return to our hotel in Kirkwall and gather for a welcome dinner this evening. (B,L,D) Tuesday, June 30: Isle of Rousay Distance: 2.5 mi. Height climbed: 360 ft. Today we will take the ferry to the Isle of Rousay, where we will wander the most important archaeological mile in Scotland, through 5,000 years of history, visiting a number of burial cairns including Midhowe, Pictish © Op brochs, Viking settlements, and remains of the period of the Earls and Above: Skara Brae, a late Neolithic settlement. Below: The the troubled crofting times. Excavations will be in progress at the Knowe Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle that is 341 ft. in diameter, of Swandro, and we will get a private tour of the site. Return by ferry to is the third largest in the British Isles. Kirkwall and gather for dinner at our hotel this evening. (B,L,D) © Op SHETLAND ISLANDS Wednesday, July 1: Isle of Hoy Distance total: 6.75 mi. Heights climbed: 100 & 720 ft. Hiking Location Take a morning ferry to Hoy, the highest and wildest of all Orkney Islands. (miles/elevation climbs in feet) Hermaness Our walk will take us to the 5,000-year-old monument known as the # of Hotel Nights Dwarfie Stane, an immense block of sandstone lying within a natural Ferry amphitheater. This is the only example in northern Europe of a rock-cut (5|165 & 525) tomb similar to the chamber tombs of the Mediterranean. Drive through Isle of Unst a glen, along what could be burial mounds, to Rackwick, from where we will walk to the world famous sea stack (at 450 ft.) known as The Old (6|1000) Man of Hoy. Return by ferry to Kirkwall this afternoon and gather for Fethaland dinner at our hotel this evening. (B,L,D) North Atlantic Thursday, July 2: South Ronaldsay | Windwick | Ferry from Kirkwall Ocean Brae 2 to Shetland Distance: 3.5 mi. Height climbed: 825 ft., lots of ups and downs This morning we will check out of our hotel and travel across the Churchill Mainland Barriers—a series of causeways built during the Second World War by Shetland Lerwick Italian prisoners of war to defend the naval base at Scapa Flow from attack from the east—to South Ronaldsay. Our first stop is at the Tomb of the Eagles, a 5,000-year-old Neolithic tomb that was discovered in 1958. From 1 Scalloway 1 here we will walk along the coast, with some fine coastal cliff scenery, to Isle of Mousa Windwick. The route leads around the back of several geos and a massive, (2.5|215) fenced gloup (collapsed sea cave). In Windwick we will visit the Cairns excavation, an Iron Age settlement on the hillside overlooking the bay. St. Ninian's Isle The site includes buildings and evidence of use surrounding a large broch, which has been the main focus of excavations for the past decade. After a Old Scatness Jarlshof private tour of the excavations we will return to Kirkwall, stopping along (1.25|130) the way at the Italian Chapel, built by Italian prisoners of war.

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