Four seasons in a day at Peterhead

22 Jun 201722 Jun 2017

Okay, I'm exaggerating a little there - we didn't get snow and we didn't get a heatwave.  But we did get pretty much everything else, from flat grey skies to…

A Wet Friday in Lerwick

21 Jun 201721 Jun 2017

A quick bounce down the coast saw us moored up in Lerwick, capital of the Shetland Islands, on Friday morning.  We grabbed a quick breakfast, donned boots and waterproofs and…

Thursday: Discovering Fetlar

20 Jun 201720 Jun 2017

Things gradually calmed down overnight after our exciting trip to St Kilda, as we chugged steadily north-westwards for our first ever visit to the Shetland islands.  The heavy swell still…

A Wild Wednesday on St Kilda

15 Jun 201715 Jun 2017

Overnight from Orkney the weather really started to deteriorate.  This shouldn't have mattered, as our itinerary showed us heading north to calmer waters, before turning south-west on a course for…

A rushed Tuesday on Orkney

14 Jun 2017

By Tuesday we were due at Kirkwall on the Orkney 'mainland' (ie, the largest island).  Overnight, though, the problems with the ship had really started to show themselves.  We were…

If it’s Monday, it must be Hoy

13 Jun 201713 Jun 2017

After our undignified departure from Leith, we chugged steadily northwards overnight and arrived on Monday at the Orkney island of Hoy.  More specifically, the quay at the village of Lyness…

Cruising Orkney, Shetland & St Kilda

12 Jun 201712 Jun 2017

We set off last Sunday on a week's cruise courtesy of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) around the islands of northern Scotland: Orkney, Shetland and St Kilda.  This was…