After our food tour through the Scottish Highlands, we moved off the mainland. The middle part of our trip was spent on the islands, Orkney (to the north) and the Isle of Skye (off the west coast), treating us to amazingly fresh seafood and some culinary surprises. 

Orkney is an archipelago of 70 islands 10 miles off northern Scotland, 20 of which are inhabited and the largest which is called Mainland Orkney.  Orkney is part of Scotland, but the character is a unique mix of Scottish and Norse - Orcadians are Orcadians.  The fascinating thing is that Orkney has been inhabited for over 5500 years, and is just full of amazing neolithic, pictish, and Viking features.  These include the 5,000-year-old neolithic village of Skara Brae complete with stone furniture, the standing stones that make up the Ring of Brogdar, the massive standing Stones of Stenness (pictured to the left) dating from 3100 BC, and neolithic 5000-year-old tombs like MaesHowe which were later visited (and graffitied) by Vikings.  Orkney and Shetland Islands, further out, are most definitely on my list of places to revisit. 

The food we ate on Orkney was, probably obviously, very much influenced by the sea and lochs (lakes).  With its fertile pastures, Orkney is also famous for its lamb and Orkney beef, considered exceptional throughout Great Britain.  Orkney ice cream is also well known - it's an old-fashioned ice cream made from home produced milk and cream.  We tried some our first day after a meal of crab and prawns at a restaurant in the harbor town of Stromness.   The ice cream flavors we tried were Toffee with Orkney fudge (also made locally on Mainland) and Vanilla Honeycomb.  The ice cream was absolutely delicious, but as my husband pointed out, it had a strange aftertaste of "wet cow."  Oh well, I'd have it again in a second.

One of the best meals we had on the whole trip was at Appie's Tearoom, a tiny restaurant set waaaaaay back on a farm driveway and run by a lady named Pam Farmer.  The food was creative, fresh, and wonderful.  Practically everything on the menu had been grown on the premises or sourced locally on the islands, including the lettuces she'd picked from her backyard.  Incredibly, she also offered a  gluten-free version of practically everything on her menu, and everything was ridiculously affordable!  We tried Oatcakes and Bere Bannocks with Orkney Nature Cheddar, Grimbister Farmhouse Cheese, and a selection of homemade chutneys of which the best was rhubarb chutney (lots of rhubarb everything in Scotland, all terrific!)  The cheeses were wonderful, the cheddar tangy and the farmhouse cheese mild and crumbly.  My husband followed it with a plate of Smoked Mackerel Patties - these are potato based, coated in breadcrumbs, and then shallow fried.  They were served with a colorful array of baked beans, rice, lentils, and mixed salads.  I'm not a huge fan of smoked fish, but Scotland certainly is, and so is my husband.  The pastoral view from Appie's (pictured just above) was incredible and as we sat and watched, there was one rainbow after another.   Ahhh....


The next night we found ourselves at the Merkister Hotel Bar Lounge, which has an amazing view of the Loch of Harray on Orkney (below).  A bar menu is a common thing throughout Scotland and the rest of Great Britain.  You basically sit yourself down and give your order at the bar or to a waitperson.   We ordered Hand Dived Orkney Scallops - these were pan fried with butter, garlic, and herbs and were delicious.  If you look closely in the photo on the left, you will see that the scallops under the lemon slice have a red pocket attached to them.  This is the roe which is left intact - very desirable and very hard to come by served this way.   We also had the Grilled Harray Trout, grilled with garlic and lemon.  It was delicious and as I ate it, I looked out at the Loch of Harray watching a lone man fishing there and wondering exactly where the trout was caught.  It was very fresh.  The photo shows the view from the window at the restaurant, overlooking the Loch, the old stone millhouse, and the amazing landscape.  We finished dinner by trying two local whiskeys - Scapa Scotch and Highland Park Scotch, both Orkney distilleries.

After our trip to Orkney, we caught the ferry back to the Scottish Mainland and drove clear to the west coast to the Isle of Skye.  On the way, we visited the Gunn castle - well we visited where it once stood before my husband's ancestors ticked off the King of Norway and some other Vikings...   We continued the drive all the way to the Isle of Skye to Dunvegan where the Dunvegan Castle still stands for 800 years as the seat of the Clan MacLeod (this is my husband's other ancestral line).  The Isle of Skye is very lovely, very unpopulated, full of lochs and fingers of land, and well...quite rainy.   Our first night there we had an elegant and delicious meal at the Old School Restaurant.  They had so many interesting things on the menu ... Duck Breast in a Soft Fruit and Drambuie Sauce, Lamb Cutlets served with White Pudding in a Hazelnut and Whiskey Sauce, etc.   The most outstanding thing thatnight was the Mussels in garlic butter.  We had the same dish at another restaurant the next night and it just didn't compare.  The second it arrived at the table, the aroma was so enticing and we just dug in.  Before we had gobbled it all up, I had to say "Stop!  I have to take a photo of what's left!"  The other local catch we had was the Loch Dunvegan Langoustines which were simply cut in half lengthwise and grilled with garlic butter.  Also delicious!  The whole thing was complemented by a nice French Chablis. 

Foodwise, I think the main thing I took away from the islands is that fresh seafood is amazing in itself and really doesn't require much else ( although a little of any combination of lemon, butter, and garlic certainly seem to do just fine!)

I had a great time in Scotland and as I heard "Haste ye back!" I hoped so!