Special Interest Scottish Highlands Trips and Tours

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EXTENDED SPECIAL-INTEREST TRIPS IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS

ORKNEY Sunday 25 June-Friday 30 June 2006 and ISLAY & JURA Friday 27 October-Thursday 2 November 2006 - details of these trips immediately below

The summer trip to Orkney described below and the autumn trip to Islay/Jura are among a number of trips I guide (and in some cases outfit) in various parts of the world for the English special-interest tour operator, NATURETREK. I have been leading trips in Orkney since 1975 and lived there for 4 years, 1995-99. I have visited, and walked extensively, on most of the inhabited islands of Orkney and quite a number of the uninhabited ones. Therefore, though the trips below are not cheap, I can assure you of the highest standard of guidance on each one.
Sinclair C Dunnett
February 2006

The Orkney tours - one just after midsummer, the other in autumn - spend 5 and 4 nights respectively in Orkney with 4 full days of outings in the islands and, in the case of the autumn trip, additional guided outings between Inverness and Orkney. Both trips include:

Time spent studying all aspects of the natural history of the archipelago - geology and fossils as well as birds, mammals, and wild flowers;

Extensive and in-depth visits to prehistoric sites normally including Skara Brae, Maeshowe, the rings of Brodgar & Stenness, and the Tomb of the Eagles. We usually also manage a visit to the broch of Gurnness or the Brough of Birsay;

Consideration of Orkney's role in two World Wars. We spend time by Scapa Flow, visit the chapel built by the Italian POWs who helped build the Churchill Barriers, and usually observe the marker buoy for HMS Royal Oak, sunk by U47 early in WWII;

A visit to one of the North Isles of the Orkney archipelago as well time on Mainland and the conjoined South Isles - ie those islands now linked to Mainland by the Churchill Barriers;

Time in Kirkwall, Orkney's capital, when you can visit Saint Magnus Cathedral, the Earl's & Bishop's Palaces, and the Orkney Museum - or maybe go to the Highland Park Distillery (entrance fee to this last feature not included in tour price).

Orkney Summer Trip
Sunday 25 June to Friday 30 June 2006
Day 1 - arrive Kirkwall afternoon or evening, next five nights at our accommodation in Kirkwall;
Day 2 - by ferry to Westray, most populous of the North Isles for birds as well as people. Those who wish can make a walk by the biggest colony of cliff-nesting birds in the British Isles - up to 180,000 seabirds including puffin, guillemot, black guillemot, razorbill, kittiwake, and fulmar petrel breed here. We may also find Orkney's greatest botanical treasure, Primula scotica. The massive Noltland Castle is a further feature of interest, and we may have time to visit historic Crosskirk;

Highland Wildlife Orkney Tours
Guillemots [murres] - seen in great numbers on this trip
Days 3-5 - we spend these days birdwatching and visiting prehistoric sites on Orkney Mainland, Burray and South Ronaldsay. We consider the Old Red Sandstone and its stromatolites during a visit to Yesnaby, where we'll also look for Primula scotica if we failed to find it on Westray. Though the ORS is the dominant rock of Orkney - laid down 380 million years ago, when the islands were well south of the equator - we also see outcrops of granite and camptonite and a most unusual area of aeolionite - don't worry about the heavy-duty words, this is a trip for the interested layperson!
Day 6 - trip ends after breakfast. Depart Orkney by ferry or air.
Trip price of GBP 750 (single supplement - GBP 65) includes all items listed immediately below this box.

ISLAY & JURA
Friday 27 October to Thursday 2 November 2006
Site under construction A 7-day trip on two of the Inner Hebrides.
Islay - 'The Queen of the Isles' - is crammed with wildlife from autumn to spring. 35,000 geese commonly winter there - mostly barnacle and white-fronts, but several other species of geese are usually seen, plus many other waterfowl and waders [shorebirds]. Islay Wildlife Touring
One of our favourite lunch spots on Islay

Much of Islay is low-lying and, by Hebridean standards, quite fertile. By contrast, Jura is stern and rugged. Here we see vast numbers of red deer, many birds of prey, and European otter. Special Interest Scottish Highlands Trips and Tours - Puffin Express
Barnhill, the house in north Jura where George Orwell wrote 1984

The Paps of Jura, viewed from Loch Ballygrant in Islay

The price quoted for each trip above includes the following:

Accommodation in hotel or superior guest house, all rooms with private facilities;

Meals from breakfast on Day 2 to breakfast on the last day of the trip are included. Lunches, normally taken as picnics, feature local fare such as (in Orkney) bere bannocks and local cheeses;

All transport within the islands;

Guidance, with notes specially prepared for the trip;

Use of binoculars if you do not have your own. A telescope is carried in our minicoach to bring wildlife in close;

Admission fees to all the prehistoric and other heritage sites mentioned in the trip description;

For Islay/Jura, pick-up and drop off at Glasgow Central Station or Glasgow Airport are also included.
As noted above, the summer Orkney & Islay autumn trips are operated by Sinclair Dunnett for NATURETREK. You may visit their dossiers of these trips at Orkney - summer trip or Islay - autumn trip. To book, please send your mailing [street] address to NatTrek@PuffinExpress.co.uk or get in touch with NATURETREK direct - if the latter, please tell them you found the trip on the Puffin Express website - indicating the number of persons wishing to book.

Book by e-mail: NatTrek@PuffinExpress.co.uk or go to: Contact us