shewhomust | Entries tagged with mainland

We spent our last day on Mainland in Stromness: I walked down, not by the shortcut but by the route we drive, to see (and photograph) things and views seen from the car - as far as the mist on the hills permitted! I cut into town down Manse Lane, which,

durham_rambler points out, meets Free Kirk Lane at the bottom of the hill. He drove down to the Museum, where I met him, and we wore ourselves out walking back and forth along the long street, glad to be able to drive home when we were ready.

Today we took the lunchtime ferry to Hoy, picking up a few things we wanted to do along the south coast of Mainland. I had wanted a closer look at the Hall of Clestrain:

which is the birthplace of John Rae. Then we visited the round church at Orphir, and finally headed for nearby Waulkmill Bay for a walk on the beach. By the time we had clambered down the steps from the car park, and I had fallen over and got both wet and sandy (only a bit) and then back up the steps - well, by that time we were ready to eat our cheese sandwiches and enjoy the view.

Then the ferry, and now here we are at the Stromabank Hotel in Longhope.

The documentation provided with our accommodation includes:

Shortcut if you are walking down the town - turn left at the entrance 30m, then turn right down the broken road, past the house with the large chimney's when you have just over the 2nd speed bump, turn left down the path at the dyke, follow the path downhill turning right, through the bushes you will come to railings, cross the road and follow the road round to the left, then turn right down church road, or just go down any of the lanes, remember to just keep heading down hill and you will reach the main street (Victoria Street)...

This sounded very complicated, and we were a bit daunted - and of course, having arrived by car, we had taken a circuitous route to get here. Also, the forecast was for rain. But we gathered up our courage, and discovered that the only thing that was less than obvious was that initial right turn and the 'broken road', a track which takes you unexpectedly uphill. Once over the fold of the hill, the road down is clear, though not as described (we did not at any point plunge into the bushes), and takes you between the leading lights towards the harbour.

Turn left, and follow the street wherever you want to go:

Backtracking: yesterday was another misty morning on Westray. Was the mist heavier than before, or did it just seem that way because we were up early to catch the ferry? And then driving down to the bay at the south of the island? By the time we sailed, the haar was rising from the land, but out at sea it wrapped us like a blanket,and we couldn't see the islands we were passing.

Mainland was sunny, though, and busy, especially compared to more rural Westray. We spent the morning dashing about, for reasons, and getting lost, for no good reason. It had its high points, including coffee in the magnificent emporium that is the Old Library, and a winding drive down back roads to the Harray pottery, where I bought a tiny pottery mouse (it is entirely not the sort of thing I buy, but I did, anyway). Still, I was glad to reach Stromness, to make contact with the Ferry Inn (where we are staying a couple of nights), to find somewhere to park the car, to lunch on crab salad at Julia's Bistro.

After lunch we walked the length of Stromness, one long street "uncoiled like a sailors rope from North to South," as everyone quotes George Mackay as saying.

( We started at the Pier Arts Centre )

Back along the street, with its many changes of name, and its glimpses of the sea between adjacent houses:

To the Museum as I said this morning. We were disappointed to discover that the current exhibition about the Ness of Brodgar is not an overview of progress of excavations and discoveries, but an exhibition of contemporary artists and craftspeople inspired by the discoveries. This was very mixed, and most of it didn't impress me at all, but on the other hand, one of the contributors was jeweller Ola Gorie, whose Ness of Brodgar I thought was some of the best stuff she's done in ages (by all means read this as 'most to my taste') and it turns out there's a story behind it, too. There's also a video combining sound recordings and interviews at the dig with paintings and sketchings by the artist in residence, which I didn't get much out of until I returned this morning, and watched it in peace.

It's a wonderful museum in the traditional mode, full of Stuff, and rather than list the many, many treasures, I recommend a visit.

We continued to the South End, and sat for a while on one of the seats near the cannon, watching a small black duck disappearing and reappearing on the clear water. On the way back, I was quite surprised the the bookshop was still open. I hadn't planned to visit, but they had a poster in the window promoting the books of Frances Hardinge, and this is a good thing and should be encouraged, so I went in and completed my collection, and bought a couple of other books as well, because these things happen. Then we collapsed in our room until dinner time.

And now it's dinner time again - back to the Ferry Inn, because we enjoyed it last night.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/636976.html

We are in Stromness, and the holiday is nearly over. There is a longer post half-written which fills in some of the details, but rather than try to complete that before we go out to enjoy our last day in Orkney, one quick question and answer.

Where would you find a 5000 year old figurine? In a museum, of course!

We were briefly at the Stromness Museum yesterday. It was almost closing time, but tickets are valid for 7 days, so we had a quick look round and will go back today. Quite soon.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/636839.html

Our dinner last night was enlivened by the constant coming and going, swooping and hovering of little birds, brown with a white patch on the rump, and maybe a forked tail; they were moving too fast for me to be sure, but from the way they were flying towards the building, were they house martins? After dinner we stepped outside and checked, and yes, there were flattish mud nests under the eaves.

It was still an hour or more until sunset, but the sun was low on the lady's smock in the meadow (mostly pink, some white) and on the kingcups down by the water. Looking the length of the loch, that distant humped shadow on the horizon must be Ward Hill. And over it all, an almost full moon.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/635642.html

We are back on Mainland, at the Barony Hotel. We first came here long ago with

desperance, and then, more recently - this journal tells me that even that was ten years ago - with Gail. Our host claims to recognise us, which is impressive, if true. We are in the bar, with a pot of tea, because although wifi was installed throughout the hotel, it stopped working when they were converted to fibre broadband; but it is no hardship to sit in comfort at a table with a view of the Loch of Boardhouse, and I have just uploaded a photo, so there's nothing wrong with the broadband once you find it!

Yesterday afternoon we took the Westness Walk along the coast in the southwest of Rousay. It's only about a mile long, but it is crammed with interesting things to see. It's a pity that the best of them are at the beginning: it might even be worth reversing polarity. You would then end with a steep scramble back up to the road, instead of starting, as we did, with a steep scramble down, but you would finish with the beautiful broch at Midhowe, and the massive chambered cairn. The sequence of ruined farms which follow are not in the same class, though they are still a delight -in fact, my favourite of yesterday's pictures might be this sunny corner of the farm of Brough (or Broch):

After this, the path gets trickier, picking its way along the stony shore, and the archaeological finds are increasingly difficult to detect on the ground. Eventually, the path spits you out into a farmyard, and then its up the track and easy walking along the road - hard on the feet, but with great views below of the way you have come, and the island of Eynhallow beyond. One final treat, just before I reached the car, was that rare thing, a bird I could both see and hear, which makes identification a lot easier: first from the hillside above me, a sound as of knocking small stones together, then, posing on a fencepost, a bird about the size of a sparrow, dark wings, black tail, light russet breast - I'm pretty sure it was a stonechat.

This morning we said farewell to Rousay and took the morning ferry back to Mainland: a beautiful bright day, the sea glassy clear and glittering. The road to Birsay led straight past the Yellowbird Gallery, so we called in to say hello. I was delighted to see that, after a break, Jon Thompson is carving wooden birds again, but what I bought (in addition to some cards) was a print in which the outlines were pure Jon, but the colouring reminded me of Lesley Murdoch's landscapes.

After lunch at the tearooms, tucked in next to the tomato greenhouses, we crossed the causeway to the tidal island of the Brough. I should not have been surprised that it was busy, on a fine sunny Bank Holiday Sunday. We walked up the hill to the lighthouse, across a hillside strewn with constellations of blue squill, and then poked about the Viking remains, all cushioned with pink thrift (I don't remember the chamber labelled 'Viking sauna?', that must be newly excavated, or perhaps just newly identified).

And when we had had enough of the sunshine, we came here to relax.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/635325.html

David at the Creel takes a justified pride in his breakfasts, but this morning's was exceptional - and not just because we were honoured with inspection by the cat. The first course was crème de marrons de l'Ardèche topped with crème fraîche - not something I think of as a breakfast dish, but which I could happily eat at any hour of day or night (I feel about marrons the way some people feel about chocolate...). This was followed by bubble and squeak flambéed in Laphroig - a mixture of green vegetables ("Not leftovers!" David was very firm about this, though I have no problem with leftovers, especially if they can be induced to bubble and to squeak), sautéed potatoes and bacon. The bread, William told us, came from Westray. It was perfectly good granary sliced, but apparently special because bread from Westray only comes to Mainland once a week.

By now I had been in Orkney 36 hours, and not once been offered a bere bannock. I was beginning to wonder why, and this seemed an opportunity to ask. William seemed surprised: evidently he doesn't think of bannocks as central to Orcadian produce, but he thought that there was still one baker making them, at Harray. I've always bought them from Argo's bakery in Stromness, but this meant nothing to him.

It turns out that Argo's now have a branch in Kirkwall, where I bought one bere-meal and one wheaten bannock as part of our supplies for our self-catering stay on Rousay. Also a pair of runic socks from Judith Glue. And

durham_rambler picked up a copy of the Folk Festival programme, and is trying to work out whether we can get to anything on Sunday, when we return to Mainland. Then we drove round to Tingwall, for the Rousay ferry.

While we waited, we checked the internet for directions to our cottage: 41 minutes, it told us, "mainly flat." I'm trying to upload the picture which shows why we found this so funny, but the internet is having one of its funny spells, so perhaps I'd better not wait, but try instead to see whether I can upload this.

ETA to illustrate what's funny about that "mainly flat":

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/634377.html

Yesterday was dreich. It started well enough. On our way to the restaurant on the previous evening, we had chosen a road we hadn't previously explored, and discovered the answer to my question: Nice town, Cromarty. But where do the residents go shopping? Here on one side of the road were the bakery and the Post Office; facing them, the supermarket and a very superior cheese emporium, housed in the old Police Station. So before leaving town we called in to buy some cheese. Their extensive collection included both Scottish and Dutch cheeses, but we agreed with the (almost certainly Dutch) lady who served us that the Dutch cheeses would travel better...

( It goes downhill from there )

Anyway, that was yesterday, in Scotland. Today we are in Orkney, and the weather is brighter, even sunny at times, and dry. Windy, of course - as I said, we are in Orkney.

( The Tomb of the Otters )

( The distillery tour )

Photography wasn't allowed on the tour, for reasons I didn't find entirely convincing, but we could,and did, take photos outside. Approaching the distillery from the north brings you through a cluster of dark, drab warehouses and industrial buildings, but from the sea - and from the coastal path - you are greeted by a gleaming wall, next to which there now stands a large wooden megaphone, of which my picture shows only the edge:

Edited 08.06.2018 to insert photo: