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Friday 13 October 2006--Breakfast with Malcolm is always an eye-opener; he is so energetic and cheerful that it's impossible
to head out into the day without a smile. We visit the Orkney Ferries office down on the pier first thing, and book return
passage to Rousay. We have some time to kill before the ferry departs, so I visit the internet cafe while Ron checks out St
Magnus Cathedral.
Rousay is a good-sized island and is just a short ferry hop from Mainland, but its population is very small, and it gives the impression of being very remote. We park the car at Westness Farm and follow a trail leading straight across the fields to a large, hangar-like building. This houses the remnants of the Mid Howe Cairn, a hundred-foot long stalled cairn, the largest in Orkney. A little further on is the Mid Howe Broch, overlooking the rushing waters of Eynhallow Sound. The broch is about 2,000 years old. Interestingly, the cairn is about 1,500 years older than that; to the broch builders, it would have been nearly as ancient as the broch is to us. We return to Westness Farm on a path running along the shore. This is a walk through time, with the ruins of Viking and medieval farmsteads on the way, and the shell of the 12th-century St Mary's Church. There are interpretive signs at each site, but it seems to me the potential of this trail has been untapped. The ruins could do with some restoration work and general cleanup. As it is, this is an evocative stroll along the foreshore of Rousay. We arrive back at the car, and have some time before we have to meet the ferry, so we visit Rousay's other well-known chambered tombs--Blackhammar, the Knowe of Yarso, and Taversoe Tuick. These were described in the 2002 journal. Back on Mainland, the Broch of Gurness mirrors the Mid Howe Broch across Eynhallow Sound. This site is very well maintained and interpreted, and this is a good place to learn about brochs. Unfortunately, the little museum on the site is closed when we arrive. We might be happy that we will thus not be charged the usual entry fee, but we are both members of Historic Scotland, anyway. Dinner this evening is in the Ayre Hotel. We try a couple of hotel bars before settling in to the Albert. It's all right. Next |
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St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall
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Mid Howe Cairn
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Mid Howe Broch
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Medieval homestead
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St Mary's Church
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The Broch of Gurness
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