The ring around Rousay

The man I rented the bicycle from was astonished that it took me twelve hours to ride the ring-road around Rousay. ‘It should take no more than two!’ he said. Not if you feel compelled to stop and walk the paths to every hill loch you pass looking for Red-throated divers, visit every Neolithic chambered tomb along the island’s fascinating mile of ancient architecture, search for the land your family farmed in the 1800s, get talking to a man who turns out to be a distant relative and kickstarts the trail of meeting direct relatives in Orkney, realize you’ve forgotten your camera at a 5 000-year-old broch and ride all the way back to fetch it, buy a consolatory ice-cream from the only shop on the island, eat the ice-cream, climb the highest hill, watch a hen-harrier hunting, and have a picnic. ‘That,’ I said, ‘takes a good twelve hours to do.’