Westray Connections 2015 – The Pierowall Hotel Sessions
Friday night at The Pierowall Hotel and the bar is rammed. We’ve been there for hours already eating the Orkney beef in …
Trouble with lichen
Today there’s time to relax after a weekend of photography with a trip to Papa Westray. If you think that Westray is …
The Kelp Store
One of Orkney’s most important exports used to be the ash from Kelp, the seaweed which is regularly washed ashore by storms …
Holland Farmstead
Wandering on Papa Westray it’s impossible to miss Holland Farm. It’s a hugely impressive steading which once owned the island of Papa …
The shortest scheduled flight in the world
The shortest scheduled flight in the world is between Westray and Papa Westray (and, of course, the other way round). It’s in …
Harrying the Hens
I’m hoping that the Hen Harrier will be hunting on Westray this summer. I’ve seen a Hen Harrier over Westray’s moorland several …
Rise and look around you
On a clear day on Westray you can see for miles. I’m told you can even see the Fair Isle if you …
Free Range Eggs Sold Here
Cycling past the turning to the Bay of Swartmill I spot this great sign on a disembodied fridge door. Inside the intact …
Sea Rocket
The sands at Mae Sands are verdant with Sea Rocket. The curious flowers are white or lilac and the leaves are fleshy …
Reading weed
I’ve cycled to Mae Sands and the seaweed surrounding me seems to have messages for me. If only I could read its …
Making a runner for it
A beautiful gift of plants is always welcome and these pink flowered ‘lipstick’ strawberries are no exception. I’m hoping the lipstick tastes …
Fresh Limpet
This Limpet looks so fresh and clean but I just can’t bring myself to eat it. I think it was the way …
Strip my gooseberries why don’t you?
In the garden of Einar I have some unusual, old and very abandoned plants. There are Sycamore trees more than six feet …
Catching the late ferry
It’s Sunday so it’s the late ferry from Kirkwall to Westray tonight. It’ll be dark when we get there. I walk on …
Pink and orange
Pink and orange don’t go together; they clash. Or at least that’s the mantra when accessorising or designing a garden of flowers. …
The two houses of the woodland sprite
Red Campion is pink. It doesn’t matter how many times I look at it, or photograph it, it still looks pink to …
White foam and intense blue
A panorama of Grobust beach on Westray.
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 …
Rock licking kneecaps
Limpets. Their traces are everywhere on the stones on Westray’s beaches. The name limpet means ‘rock-licker’ and that’s what they do, with …
Potent potentilla
The Potentilla is spreading with beautiful vigorous red runners over the shell sand at Grobust.
Wheatears in the new stone age
I’m sitting in a stone-age house; the new stone age, when the climate was warmer and people began to settle rather than …
Fish, eggs and baby birds
The Arctic Skua is one of the most recognisable silhouettes in Orkney, patrolling the shoreline hunting for birds’ eggs, young birds and …
Intelligent Sheep
I’m wandering up to the cliffs at Noup Head to take some photographs of the Gannets. I decide not to when I …
Bistorted
There are beautiful pink flowers in the garden at Einar. They look like Bistort in which case I wish I had more …
Well drop my scone…
One of life’s little pleasures is a cup of tea and a piece of cake. One of the very few downsides is …
Fettered
Around Gill Pier I spot a buoyancy ring. The word buoy comes from the 13th Century from the Old French boie “fetter …
Half a pound of biscuit
Half a pound of biscuit – that’s the way the money goes. WFM Brown makes bread and cakes and biscuits on Westray …
Fancy a piece?
I’ve just bought this fabulous dried fruit tart from Peter Miller’s shop. Would you like a piece? Hold on! Wait a …
Eggs on the doorstep
I arrive back from a day out exploring and there are freshly laid eggs on the doorstep from my kind Island friend. …