Limpets in the midden

What we throw away tells a lot about us. A quick look at my bin would tell you I like an occasional bottle of beer and have a lot of cardboard packaging from Amazon purchases. The same has always been true, and a quick look at the ‘midden’ or rubbish dump immediately outside the door of a 4,000 year old house on Westray tells you that the neolithic people who lived at Noltland liked to eat Limpets. These two Limpets were eaten 4,000 years ago and haven’t been seen since.

Apparently they’re delicious, if a little chewy. They can be boiled until the fleshy foot just falls away from the shell or cooked in their shells with a little butter and garlic. Dinner anyone?