shewhomust | Trumland, hill and garden

Since we had a booking for dinner last night at the Taversoe Hotel, I decided to defer my morning shower until after we had been for a walk. This turned out to be prophetic.

There are two defined walks across the Trumland nature reserve and

durham_rambler favoured the longer, higher one. The leaflet invites you to "Climb high for panoramic views over a dramatic moorland" and he can't resist a panoramic view. I was happy to have an opt-out if the going was too tricky, and to be able to defer choices until later.

The walk started well: it just so happens that Cedarlee is on the farm track leading to what our old OS map shows as 'home farm', and what is now, we discovered 'Trumland Farm (bike hire)'. A bright breezy walk with Wyre across the sea to our left, turn right at the field with the white sheep and black lambs, and up the land, under the arch at the farm, and out onto the road where the path takes off by Taversoe Tuick cairn. We diverted to visit the cairn, which is unusual in having two burial chambers, one above the other (but almost every tomb has a board explaining that it is unusual in some respect): otherwise, the usual green mound fringed with primroses and dotted with violets. Easy enough to cut down across pasture to regain the track up to the gate, but from here on the path got trickier.

durham_rambler was confident he could see a clear line; I suspected it was a water course. There was a certain amount of trying to work out where the next sound footing was, and inevitably, eventually I fell into a patch of bog. It was soft, but very wet, and I was liberally coated in mud.

durham_rambler tried to divert me by asking "What are those flowers?" (information he usually shrugs off when it's offered). "Lady's Smock; they like damp ground."

Higher up we found what was unambiguously the waymarked path, and we did sit on the heather and admire the view down, past Trumland House and farm to the islands, only slightly hazy; but I did refuse to take the longer, higher route in the hope of more extensive views. Even so, the path which followed the hill dyke (the earthwork separating cultivated ground from the common land above) was boggy, and the path down was narrow and tricky, and led through gorse bushes. By the time we reached the road, where a notice informed us that unfortunately the winter weather had left the path we had followed was in poor condition, I felt thoroughly exercised by this short walk.

After a shower and lateish lunch, we deferred the laundry to enjoy the sunshine in Trumland House gardens. Back up the hill the way we had returned home, and when a car driver stopped to ask whether we were going far, we were able to point to the notice at the entrance to the grounds. Trumland House was built for "the Little General" and his wife in 1873 by David Bryce, the leading architect of the Scottish Baronial style, and it looks it. It has gone through various degrees of abandonment and dereliction, as have the gardens: certainly they haven't been open to visitors on any of our previous trips to Rousay.

There's a magic to the reclamation of abandoned gardens: think the Lost Gardens of Heligan and The Secret Garden. And then add the challenges of the Orkney climate, and the beautiful and extensive views. I had read enough about how large the task was, and how the grounds have been colonised by salmonberries (googles: oh, that's what those were!) to be quite surprised at how much actual garden these was to see. There's a sheltered walled garden, and a beautiful woodland walk - yes, woodland, in Orkney! Rousay seems to have more trees that the other islands, not very big but clustering in sheltered valleys, and here creating a beautiful walk along a stream, bordered with bluebells (white and pink, as well as blue) and double wood anemones.

Bonus link: A visit to Westness and Trumland.