The Broch of Gurness and Stones of Waulkmill

 

 

Thur, May 4

It’s grey this morning but the forecast optimistically promises: Becoming sunny and less windy. Good enough for us. We leave about 10 and as we drive up the only other way out of town–slightly less narrow than the main street–Michael sees Jean Leonard, the music teacher who gave him the score for a piece played at the Orkney Folk Festival three years ago. From this Michael composed his Orkney Song which he has played for us numerous times and which became our God Save the Queen or Marseillaise. He leaps from the car to go meet her and we pull to the curb to wait for him. We wait and wait….and wait. Forty-five minutes later we’re still waiting so we finally come to our senses and drive off! We figure he will manage quite well on his own.

By now the sky is blue and we’re off to Waulkmill Bay where Lynn and I had gone crazy picking up one beautiful stone after another three years ago and wishing we could ship entire crates back home. I think we are perhaps slightly less crazed this time though we do bring back a number of irresistible specimens.

 

  

These markings are almost runic

This one looks very Henry Moore, no?

We also find a seal skeleton and, where the tide has run out, numerous worm castings in the rippled sand.

          

Back at No. 18 we find Michael who is completely unperturbed that we had waited so long for him; he’s had a great time with Jean, has played his piece for her and is happy to have his own adventure.

BLTs finished we’re off to the Broch of Gurness. Brochs are found only in Scotland and generally near the sea; Orkney has about 100. They are large round towers, up to 65 or 70 feet in diameter with hollow walls about 15 feet thick with internal staircases and the whole structure could be 40 to 45 feet tall. They seem to be built for fortification (a Roman threat perhaps but there is no evidence of this purpose.) In fact, their use is still a mystery. Gurness is one that has quite  a village built around it, most of the site within surrounding ditches, a community as large as 30 families. The site was occupied from the iron age (1st, 2nd centuries) through the Pictish times (9th century perhaps) to the Norse era (10th and 11th centuries) and the houses, though of a later date than Skara Brae, are very similar.

 

An aerial view

There are more photos and information at this link:

https://www.orkneyjar.com/history/brochs/gurness/

And here is one of the very few examples of a Pictish home, shamrock-shaped with five “cells” surrounding a central room with a hearth. There is also the remains of a Norse longhouse.

Back in Stromness again I try to call Bob on Lynn’s phone, which has been set up (why didn’t I do the same?) for international calls, to wish him a happy birthday but he’s not in the house so I have to make do with leaving a message. Jen cooks our wonderful Dounby Butcher pork chops

which she serves with applesauce and a salad. Afterwards, yes, it’s more Spite and Malice.

 

 

                        The ferry alit in the harbor

                                   

 

 

Meanwhile back at Keldaby

I just downloaded? uploaded? what is the difference? all of Lynn’s photos from our Orkney adventure. Many of them I will be putting into the earlier posts in their appropriate spots but because I’m seeing the trip again from a slightly different perspective, I think I will mainly fill this post with a few of her shots.   Here are some faces I hadn’t captured, or captured as well, during the Orkney Folk Festival.

 

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Whilst Michael, Lynn and I played Spite & Malice in the hotel in Aberdeen, our veddy English Jill read up on the latest news of the Royals.

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I didn’t tell Michael’s story earlier so I’ll put it in here….While we were checking out the dining room Michael was looking for the best place to play cards in the public sitting room. He settled on the table shown above but thought it polite to ask the young woman there if it was okay for us to use it. “Yes”, she said, “but I’ll be hovering.” “Oh, that’s fine,” says Michael, rising slightly up on his toes, “we’ll be hovering too” and then saw that in fact she had a vacuum and was about to do the hoovering. (Another of our favourite Englishisms!)

Here are more photos of more animals. We NEVER tired of watching, exclaiming over and photographing them.

 

Oystercatchers everywhere

Oystercatchers everywhere

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Crossing the road
Crossing the road
This little fellow greeted us in Kirkwall
This little fellow greeted us in Kirkwall

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Shearing Day we think might have been the reason everyone was in a small paddock near the barn.

 

And finally for tonight, for those who perhaps share a wee bit Lynn’s and my mania for the Waulkmill stones, a rich vein of rock ensues:

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This was one of my favourites too but way to large to carry back
This was one of my favourites too, but way too big to carry back

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I am still waiting for Michael’s photographs….tap, tap, tap goes my foot–but here’s one he sent me today of the North Ronaldsay pelt he brought home with his two latest projects.

Michael's pelt

“Set off on a North Ronaldsay pelt: ladle, a tiny soup tasting ladle carved from basswood (Tilia tomentosa) and a bolo tie made of waxed linen and several hundred tail hairs from one of my horses” he says……………….

 

The Orkney Folk Festival

Weekend, May 24 & 25

When we planned our trip it seemed we were going to take in much of the folk festival yet as this weekend has approached, we have become very laid back about it. We are so laid back in fact that we don’t buy any tickets, we don’t drive out of town. Still, although the festival takes place on nine different islands, much of it happens right here in Stromness.

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We pick up a program flier and are rather alarmed at the prices of admission to many of the events, 10 to 20 pounds a person ($18 to $36) which wouldn’t be daunting if it were dollars instead of pounds or if we had any idea which events might be most worthwhile. Meantime the town does begin to fill up in a moderate sort of way. This is more like the Newport Folk Festival circa 1964, when I sat right at the feet of Pete Seeger, Theodore Bickel, Joan Baez. We hear strains of music drifting from pubs and there are groups forming outside a couple of cafes down near the pier for impromptu pick-up sessions. No one is willing to say “Let’s go here…let’s go there….” We are all waiting for the other person to take the initiative. It doesn’t happen; we haven’t done our research and we are unsure of each other’s musical tastes and don’t want to impose. (At least, that is what I think.)

On Saturday there is a pipe band in Sinclair tartan that takes shape and eventually marches down Ferry Road to Victoria Street and plays for quite a while near the Stomness Hotel. We wander toward the pier and sitting around a table, ales in hand, is an informal group playing fiddles, clarinet, bodhran, guitars, squeezebox, flute and penny whistles.

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There is a fiddlers’ rally scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the Stromness Academy Lecture Theatre and we decide that will be our big commitment, pound-wise. Meanwhile the caretaker for the cottage has shown up–the first actual contact we have had with someone connected to our spot–and he fixes the Wi-Fi connection (we have no idea what magic he has wrought but now Michael can get email and although I can get on line, I can’t get email) and sets the TV so we will be able to watch some of the DVDs that have been left there.

We see two young fiddlers and Michael asks them how long they have been playing. “Since I was four” says one.

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Sunday morning Lynn and I go for a walk along streets not previously visited and shortly after lunch we four head over to the Academy (high school) so to be sure to get tickets. It’s lucky we do because by 2 o’clock the auditorium is packed and the concert begins. There are three different groups participating in various configurations, both the West Mainland and Orkney Strathspey & Reel Societies and the Orkney Accordion & Fiddle Club plus four of the five members of Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail. I know I have never seen so many accordions in one spot! They fill the stage. We recognize the young fiddlers sitting on the wall (above) in the youth group.

Fiddlers' Rally
Fiddlers’ Rally

The director is a woman who with a minimum of fuss manages to get the groups on and off and reconfigured. During the intermission and after a particularly beautiful piece has been played Michael goes down to speak with her about it. It is a wedding piece written by a young violinist and the director pulls a copy of the music from one of the music stands and gives it to him.  (He will upon returning home take the theme, embellish and enlarge it and compose variations on it for piano and play it for all of us on a recent Monday afternoon. We are misty-eyed when he finishes.)

One of the members of Feis Rois is the young–and very handsome–Eric Linklater, originally from Stromness (and not a relative of the writer Eric Linklater), whose playing we wish we could hear more of. Jill manages to buy the last copy, possibly in all Mainland, of his CD at the Reel in Kirkwall. The two sopranos have clear, sweet voices and they sing several traditional Gaelic songs, a guitarist accompanies.

Upon reflection I do wish we had bought tickets to one of the closing concerts that evening but instead we head to the cottage and another evening of knitting and a very strange and dark episode of Dr Quirk, I think it’s called.

And here are our weekend meals.

Chicken Tikka Masala, a classic Cynthia non-recipe concoction making use of the strange vegetables lurking in the  crisper drawer.

In a wok cook over a fairly hot flame, in olive oil

1 lg onion, sliced

6 to 8 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 a bell pepper julienned

1 hot pepper

1/4 head savoy cabbage

2 sliced and parboiled parsnips

Add 1/2 bottle dark beer, salt, pepper, cumin, herbes de provence

In a separate pan cook 6 chicken thighs, cut into manageable pieces and 1 c sliced mushrooms

Combine and add 6 to 8 oz tikka masala sauce (jars of all these Indian sauces are widely available there) and a Tbl chopped cilantro. Squeeze a lemon over the top. Serve with herbed rice and a dash of chili powder.

A bottle of Tesco’s Chilean shiraz went well with it. Like all my “recipes” there is a great deal of latitude here!

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Sunday night Jill prepares Tabouli for 4

2 c bulgur

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 c boiling water

1/2 c olive oil

juice of 2 lemons

2 cloves garlic chopped fine

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 Tbl finely chopped fresh peppermint or spearmint

1/2 c finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

In a large bowl mix bulgur with salt and boiling water. Cover for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the oil and lemon juice and let sit for another 10 minutes. Toss in chopped vegetables, mint, parsley and pepper and refrigerate for several hours, stirring from time to time. Serve with pita, black olives and feta.