Master Charlys Musings in Orkney

 Well we are being lucky with the weather, another sunny warm breezy day. We are all heading to the west of the main land today. Looking for Twatt. This is an area, not sure why it is called Twatt. The name comes from the old Norse and roughly translated means Clearing Meadow. Firstly we headed out to Find 'Loons' this turned out to be a parking area by the road with a path round to a wall. Because of the shape of the wall it gathers the sound of Bird song and enables you to hear it clearly. as for walking out to the various pools in the area, there were no definite paths. What we did see though were 2 Hares in the field next to the wall, just enjoying the sunshine.                                                            Hares in the meadow by 'The Loons'  Then we got into the car  and drove to a village called Birsay. Th...

 Having gone to the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at the weekend, Master was hoping to get on the tour on Monday morning. He had to be there for 9.30. Missus had decided she didn't want to go as the entrance passage is very long and her knees felt bruised after our visit to Unstan Tomb. So master went off to the visitors centre to see if he could get on a tour. He soon sent a message to say that he was on the 10am tour. The weather looked promising and it turned into a lovely warm sunny day.  Meanwhile, Missus and I stayed at home, we were trying to find out where the pattern had gone wrong on the 'Shepherds Plaid' design. We decided it had been a lack of concentration and Missus was not going to take it apart several rows that would cause chaos! So we soldiered on and got the pattern back on track. Missus is knitting a Sampler Scarf of 'Sanquhar' designs, its all done in Black and White. Hope she doesn't make a mess of any more patterns! (You Cheeky Bear!). When Mast...

 Today I stayed at home with Morgan and Bill (the new boy). Master and Missus were booked on the 9.30 car ferry from Houton to go over to Hoy and the newly refurbished Scarpa Flow Museum. There is a new café there now as well. Apparent the the journey on the ferry only takes 30mins. and the sea was calm. The museum is virtually on the quayside so not far to drive. Missus will take over the commentary now). When they walked in one of the curators asked us if we wanted to visit the café first or the museum, we said café, we were dying for a coffee by then! So we had a coffee and a cake each and felt fortified for the museum visit. We were glad we had done the visit that way round as there was so much to see in the museum. Scarpa Flow is a large deep bay surrounded by the Orkney Islands. Over millennia various fleets have used the bay in times of exploration, war and fishing. In 1812 when Britain was at war with America many ships of the Grand fleet were stationed in the Flow, and nea...

 Well it started out a bit drizzly this morning but it wasn't too cold. Master and Missus decided to take us to Unstan Cairn first today. Unstan Cairn was named after the large amount of Unstan ware Pottery that was found there when it was excavate in 1844. This pottery has a distinctive shape and decoration. The cain itself is thought to date from 3500BC. The narrow entrance passage is 6.5m long, plenty long enough for Missus to be crawling on her hands and knees. That in turn opens into a 2m high 6.6m long and 1.9m wide chamber divided into 5 chambers there is a small entrance to a small chamber opposite the entrance passage. This passage has a Northeast alignment with the Watchstone and the large house at Barnhouse Village near the Stones of Stenness. The passage is illuminated by the rising sun around Midsummer. During the excavation of 1884, large amounts of Human and Animal bones were found, but very few of the bones were kept and no records made. Unstan Pottery was also foun...

 This morning was Clean Linen day. Master and Missus stayed in as Leona the owner was bringing the clean sheets etc. She arrived at about 10.30. M &M got the bed sheets changed  and the towels and put them in the bag outside for Leona to collect. They had quite a conversation her, about Orkney and its interesting places. Missus had a go with the Hoover, the suction was so strong she could hardly shift it! Master emptied it as collection bin was quite full. I was very tired after my epic climb up a Stone at Stenness yesterday so Master and Missus left us all at home today to rest. They decided to go to Kirkwall and get Master's SD card back from the Orkney Archive. They were able to park in the same place as they did the other day. Master had given them some photos on his SD card that he had taken in 1967 when he was 13 and came with his  Mother to Orkney, and had been phoned up to say his card was ready to pick up. He got his card and then discussed whether the House ...

 Wow what an exciting day we've had, firstly it was breezy as usual, BUT, there was Blue sky chuffy clouds and SUNSHINE, yes a miracle had occurred, the weather forecast was right. So after breakfast we packed our best cameras and I packed my phone camera. Today we are off to The Stones of Stenness, Ring of Brodgar and the Ness of Brodgar (hopefully to catch the 11.00am tour). There wasn't any parking places at the Stones of Stenness when we arrived so we carried on to the Ring of Brodgar. We were able to park quite close. we had to stay on the path around the stones, they are also protected by a ditch. This ditch was originally 5m wide and 3m deep. Of the stones 27 are still standing of probably an original 60. they are between 2 and 4m high and possibly date from the late Neolithic 2400BC. They are thought to have been Quarried at Sandwick, where there are examples of unused stones still there. We took lots of pictures. Missus also said the the mounds we could see are possibl...