By Gordon Irving

Here's a sure way to stymie the boastful "Been There, Done That!" brigade of holiday addicts!

Ask if they've seen any of the 67 Orkney islands on the northern rim of Scotland, and I wager you'll be greeted with a blank expression from apparently well-travelled types who can tell you all about the Canaries, the Greek islands and even the Caribbean - but don't know all they should about the many fascinating if less sunny islands around the coast of Scotland.

I'm sorry for anybody who doesn't know of the good vacation value there is in these islands, starting just six miles north from the mainland. They showcase some of the finest rock and cliff scenery in Europe, and are home to friendly islanders ready to enthuse about a variety of unusual but magnificent places and sights.

Like burial chambers and standing stones which were built long before the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Or Scapa Flow, historic naval anchorage in the war years, where a modern Visitor Centre now paints a vivid picture of heroic days and nights in this arena of brave battleships.

Go to Kirkwall, a proud and ancient town, dominated by the magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral, an 860-year-old architectural masterpiece. There's special reason for heading there this June, when the St. Magnus Festival celebrates its 21st anniversary with performances of music, dance and poetry. This arts event is rapidly reaching international standards. The winding main street at Kirkwall is lined with houses dating from the sixteenth century. Just to walk past them makes you feel part of an earlier world.

Near Kirkwall is Scotland's northernmost whisky distillery, built on the very spot where Orkney's most cunning smuggler, Magnus Eunson, a church minister, kept illicit whisky under his pulpit. When excisemen came to investigate, he had the kegs moved to his house and covered with a coffin lid and a white cloth to suggest it was a body. Officers who went too close fled when Eunson looked up from his bible and warned: "Smallpox!"

Most visitors sail to Orkney from Scrabster, in Caithness, and land at Stromness, a town in a well sheltered bay that has greeted seafarers for centuries. The neat stone houses have their own small piers or slipways. Hudson's Bay skippers came here to pick up provisions. Whaling men stopped en route to Greenland.

You'll find no supermarket trolleys or checkout queues during the happy Stromness Shopping Week, the town's annual festival, held each July. Pipe bands play, there are sports events, fishing contests and fireworks.

May is the merry month when feet are set tapping on the flagstones as the sounds of the Orkney Traditional Folk Festival spill out from the hostelries in Stromness and throughout the islands.

Knowledgeable folk who take a break regularly in these magic islands boast that the locally-produced food is an attraction with a rather special freshness of flavour. Orkney wins a good name for its cheese and its oatcakes as well as for its beef. Visitors also talk of Orkney ice-cream made with milk from the clean pasturelands and of bannocks made from an ancient form of barley.

The islands are fortunate to have a number of family-run hotels on the waterfront and inland and a useful quota of Bed & Breakfasts. Roll-on, roll-off ferries allow you to take your car between the islands. Seals and sea-birds make ideal subjects for camera enthusiasts, and there are day and half-day tours to explore the historic and archaeological sites.

You can get detailed information about what to do and see from Orkney Tourist Board, Kirkwall, Orkney KW15 1NX.

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Inveraray
Campbelltown
A Campbell Clan Tale
Dumfries & Galloway: Secret Caves & Forest Hills
Escape To Hills And Island Delights
The Orkneys: Scotland's Islands of Grandeur

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