Other things to do on Hoy

Hoy was too large to photograph. That's crazy when it's one small island among a group of small islands, peaty hills surrounded by water, as if the summits of Weardale had been sawn off and dropped in the sea, but I couldn't capture that within the range of my camera. We visited Rackwick Bay, where the sea thunders between the arms of the hills, and the only pictures I am satisfied with turn their backs on the cliff and show you the bothy.

The Royal Hotel was under new management, and had the decorators in, but fried us something for our supper. The proprietor didn't have a local accent: "Are you from Burnley?", asked durham_rambler. "Close; from Rossendale."

We walked from Melsetter, past the the beach we'd visited earlier, on the the Tor Ness lighthouse and over the cliffs to the next bay. There were violets in the turf of the cliff top, and on the far side of the bay the seals were singing to each other, a strange booming, hooting, cooing noise: "Oooh... aaww..." As we walked round they slithered off their rocks; had we scared them off, or were they swimming over for a closer look?

And on Thursday evening the fish and chip van comes to Longhope.