The Old Haa and the haunted house
Jun. 11th, 2019 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustYesterday's Plan A was that if the morning was fine, we would island-hop north to Unst. Since it was raining gently but steadily, we did something else instead.
We spent the morning at the Old Haa museum at Burravoe, down at the south of Yell. It's a proper old-fashioned local museum, in the house built for an affluent merchant in 1637: a Hall in these parts seems to be any house with an upstairs. This one is grander than the average cottage, but not by much: two rooms upstairs, two down. Upstairs is a display on geology and natural history, and a temporary exhibition (currently marking the 50th anniversary of the fish-canning factory); downstairs a room crammed with odds and ends and curiosities, and files of archive material for those who want to consult it, and across the passageway, that most important room, the tea room. We didn't patronise this, not wishing to lunch on cake, but we went through it to the gallery space and craft shop, and bought postcards.
Behind the Haa is the garden, worth a visit even in the rain. There's a spectacular floral border, all in bloom, and unexpected among them like sentinels, a series of inuksuit (the internet tells me that this is the plural of inukshuk):
The form seems to have been chosen to demonstrate the spectacular geology of Shetland. The islands have UNESCO Geopark status, which recognises the interest of its geology but brings with it an obligation to explain, to educate. Whether, as fellow Northerners, Shetlanders are entitled to employ this Inuit form, I don't know: but for the record, this one is labelled 'Blastomylonite Inukshuk', and that stone is just as beautiful close-up (and none the worse for the rain).
Heading north, we visited the shop at Aywick. Outside, it's a large tin shed; inside, it's Aladdin's cave:
I resisted all the sparkly things, and made sensible purchases (milk, lip balm). A late lunch in Mid Yell, at LJ's diner and pizzeria (later still, because we had trouble finding it, hidden behind the leisure centre). TripAdvisor rates it the best restaurant on Yell (out of three) and we enjoyed our burgers. I was disappointed not to sample the 'Fish Feast' pizza (it is my mission to eat pizza in as many places as possible to which pizza is not native), but they were out of some essential ingredient - maybe another time, then. I was startled by the background music - wasn't that Somebody to Love? But not the version I know from Surrealistic Pillow... Mostly, asking about music in restaurants is a lost cause: they play it, but you aren't supposed to listen; and in any case, it's streamed, or shuffled, or otherwise unidentifiable. On this occasion, though, our waitress brought the CD (a compilation called Emerald Rock) and we identified the band as In Tua Nua (who apparently had a hit with the song: thank you, YouTube).
One more diversion before home: high above the road junction stand the ruins of Windhouse, allegedly Shetland's most haunted house:
An article in the Shetland Times quotes a local archaeologist as explaining this by the discovery of two medieval skeletons on the site, and the inference that it was the location of an old graveyard: but perhaps someone felt that Shetland needed a decent haunted house, and that this imposing wreck was a good candidate. It does its best to oblige: as we walked up the lane towards it, the mist came down, and two large black birds flew up from the ruin, cawing hoarsely (if they weren't ravens, someone at central casting is asleep on the job). We made our excuses, and left.
We spent the morning at the Old Haa museum at Burravoe, down at the south of Yell. It's a proper old-fashioned local museum, in the house built for an affluent merchant in 1637: a Hall in these parts seems to be any house with an upstairs. This one is grander than the average cottage, but not by much: two rooms upstairs, two down. Upstairs is a display on geology and natural history, and a temporary exhibition (currently marking the 50th anniversary of the fish-canning factory); downstairs a room crammed with odds and ends and curiosities, and files of archive material for those who want to consult it, and across the passageway, that most important room, the tea room. We didn't patronise this, not wishing to lunch on cake, but we went through it to the gallery space and craft shop, and bought postcards.
Behind the Haa is the garden, worth a visit even in the rain. There's a spectacular floral border, all in bloom, and unexpected among them like sentinels, a series of inuksuit (the internet tells me that this is the plural of inukshuk):
The form seems to have been chosen to demonstrate the spectacular geology of Shetland. The islands have UNESCO Geopark status, which recognises the interest of its geology but brings with it an obligation to explain, to educate. Whether, as fellow Northerners, Shetlanders are entitled to employ this Inuit form, I don't know: but for the record, this one is labelled 'Blastomylonite Inukshuk', and that stone is just as beautiful close-up (and none the worse for the rain).
Heading north, we visited the shop at Aywick. Outside, it's a large tin shed; inside, it's Aladdin's cave:
I resisted all the sparkly things, and made sensible purchases (milk, lip balm). A late lunch in Mid Yell, at LJ's diner and pizzeria (later still, because we had trouble finding it, hidden behind the leisure centre). TripAdvisor rates it the best restaurant on Yell (out of three) and we enjoyed our burgers. I was disappointed not to sample the 'Fish Feast' pizza (it is my mission to eat pizza in as many places as possible to which pizza is not native), but they were out of some essential ingredient - maybe another time, then. I was startled by the background music - wasn't that Somebody to Love? But not the version I know from Surrealistic Pillow... Mostly, asking about music in restaurants is a lost cause: they play it, but you aren't supposed to listen; and in any case, it's streamed, or shuffled, or otherwise unidentifiable. On this occasion, though, our waitress brought the CD (a compilation called Emerald Rock) and we identified the band as In Tua Nua (who apparently had a hit with the song: thank you, YouTube).
One more diversion before home: high above the road junction stand the ruins of Windhouse, allegedly Shetland's most haunted house:
An article in the Shetland Times quotes a local archaeologist as explaining this by the discovery of two medieval skeletons on the site, and the inference that it was the location of an old graveyard: but perhaps someone felt that Shetland needed a decent haunted house, and that this imposing wreck was a good candidate. It does its best to oblige: as we walked up the lane towards it, the mist came down, and two large black birds flew up from the ruin, cawing hoarsely (if they weren't ravens, someone at central casting is asleep on the job). We made our excuses, and left.
