Orkney to be the Venice of the North
A Venetian option is being considered to curb the influx of massive cruise ships into Orkney which are overwhelming the tourist destination. La Serenissa is the locals name for Venice and these days there are only 60,000 Venetians still living in the world heritage spot, but there are 27 million visitors each year. I was one, but we didn’t arrive by cruise ship we caught a wonderful high speed train from Rome that does the 500 kilometres plus in just 3 hours 16 minutes. However I can attest to the horrible overcrowding of certain areas of the city.
Orkney is not quite there yet, but more than 230 cruise ships are scheduled to berth in the Kirkwall harbour area this year and more expected next year. It seems that up to 7,000 tourists have disembarked on some days. So things are getting sticky and the size and number of cruise ships docking in Orkney is to be restricted. Orkney has some wonderful Neolithic sites and its popularity is increasing with the cruising crowd as the war in Ukraine has made warmer Baltic destination less popular. It is now the UK’s most popular destination for cruise ships. Famous sites like Skara Brae, Maeshowe and St Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall, have sometimes been so inundated with trippers that they had to be closed for safety reasons. The cruise ships bring cash to the locals, but they also have become a very mixed blessing. Annually the ships bring some £15 million to the local economy, but the price is overpowering the island infrastructure. Visitor numbers in Kirkwall have been so high at times that the council has shut roads for safety reasons, causing howls of dismay from local shopkeepers affected by the controls. The big ship their arrivals will be curbed when local events have already filled Orkney and crowds need to be controlled rather than added to. The largest ships bring nearly 5,000 passengers each to the port.
The local council also wants to favour smaller ships, rather than the behemoths of the sea that my missus calls floating blocks of flats, and the berths available will be on a “first come first served “ basis to let the tiddlers dock when they get there first.
Now here at James Pirie we want look after every customer and we won’t be overwhelmed by sudden increases in traffic like when we run sales and special offers that are hard to pass by. And if you want to get 80% off something really special look no further. They are handmade and therefore are sometimes irregular, and even though we call them seconds, but they are very fine seconds indeed. This beautiful crystal wine suite is hand cut with a cascading fuchsia design. The Catherine pattern is hand cut in the home of British crystal. Floral fuchsia intaglio cuttings have always been very popular in the history of crystal and the cutting is similar to the much loved and best selling Stuart Crystal Cascade design which is sadly no longer available. So this is your chance to own something marvellous for a fraction of the cost. It is an unmissable chance of a bargain.
