Broch of Gurness

Wow! Just has to be seen to be believed! The usual warm visitor welcome currently missing because I'm there out of season but I checked with Historic Scotland before travelling and they informed me the site was open to visit at any time during the winter months, and thus it proved. The broch is amazingly well preserved (in so far as you can described a seriously ruined building well preserved after 5000 years). With informative visitor interpretation panels dotted around the site one can readily glean the purpose of various chambers seen with the extensive site. Definitely worth including in your itinerary if visiting Orkney. Access from the parking place is a short hoggin path of about 50m, ending at a kissing gate. Wheelchair access to t he kissing gate is fine but it wouldn't be practicable to go any further than that anyway as the land starts to undulate significantly with seemingly random holes (into chambers) or deep and wide boundary ditches. AS a visitor attraction that's worth going to, definitely five stars, but the general lack of disabled facilities rather lets it down. But it's still not bad for a building that's over 5,000 years old.