Wednesday  Stromness

 

The rain is unrelenting and the day blustery. There was a large table for a communal breakfast which was very tasty. We left the house at 10 to see if we could hire a car for the day. There was just one garage that might…. They said yes but then decided it, the one and only, was waiting for a part- the turbo charger and they’d let us know later if it had arrived and been fixed. We could have it for half  a day at £35 and they would ring after lunch. We wanted to go to Birsay to try for a causewayed island and the tandem was staying in the garage today.

We enjoyed a visit to Stromness Museum which was of the old fashioned sort with stuffed birds, shells, fossils and a feature on John Rae and arctic exploration. In the 1840s he mapped hundreds of miles of Canadian coast making a feat of walking 1200 miles on snow shoes in 2 months. He lived like the natives and was shunned for it at home. He found out from the Innuits, where many had failed, the fate of Lord Franklin. This only added to his unpopularity when he said the 30 frozen bodies had suffered mutilation thus proving that the starving men had resorted to cannibalism and shocking Victorian Society!

There was an example of one of Hugh Miller’s books alongside fish fossils. We have been to his interesting house in Cromarty and know he had a bearing on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The museum dealt with losses of ships like the Royal Oak and also Lord Kitchener’s last short voyage. Only 12 crew survived as rescue ships were not allowed to go out to it because of the secret papers on board.

The Tea Room with its delicate porcelain cups provided a light lunch. The proprietor also made birthday cakes and a fantastic sleeping Beauty design waited to be boxed for collection. I suppose everyone here needs to have more than one string to their bow as a lot depends on the Season.

The phone rang-The turbo charger hadn’t arrived and we couldn’t have the car. It was too complicated a journey by bus and almost impossible with the times of the tide to consider.

We visited the Art Gallery which was perplexing with so few exhibits in such a large modern space. It was free and there were toilets- none in the café. The art was modern.

We looked to see if the ferry was going to Graemsay sited between Hoy and Stromness but it wasn’t.

After an abortive attempt at trying to walk round the little Holm islands that are privately owned we gave up on any more island bagging. The causeway had been visible but covered in seaweed and we weren’t sure how long we had. It was turning into a negative sort of day.

We walked back to the town for the bus station passing a cheerfully noisy school on playtime. Beside the path a beck took vast amounts of flowing water to the sea.

Buses seem few and far between but we found one that went past a Cairn at Unstan. It cost £1. 20 for us to go the 3 miles and the driver dropped us off at the spot next to the Stenness Loch. The Cairn has a roof with a window letting in light. Inside the roof is concrete but grass covers the whole outside. A 3 feet high tunnel is the entrance and I managed to get in by crouching down and waddling. Bob knelt on some brochures moving them forwards one knee at a time. It was good to stand up in the middle. Opposite the entrance inside is a side cell opening where the 1884 excavations revealed 2 crouched skeletons. Across the floor human and animal bones were scattered mixed with fragments of pottery that gave rise to the term unstanware. Large slabs of Orkney flagstone divide up the main chamber into stalls like in the Cairn we saw on Rousay. This is a circular tomb as opposed to oblong though. There are some markings on the stones that could be Viking or Pictish carvings or more 19^th century graffiti to go with that dated by the miscreants. Hopefully people have more respect today. It is nice to have it open for all!

 

We walked back, the road busy with school traffic, cars and buses with not in- service signs. We didn’t think there were that many children attending school but the buses came by half full and cars with animated children in the back.

We had a rest in the B and B before going out for a meal at Stromness Hotel which we found a disappointment. That’s not how I make apple crumble and the cheese platter was very boring though the venison stew was tasty. The Chinese takeaway someone had snuck in to eat with his dining friends smelt lovely. He was stopped eventually. The hotel was used as a command base during the war.