Here are some more photos taken on my journey around Graemsay on the way home from town last week. bove is a closer view of Hoy High. The island in the background is Flotta which has the oil terminal and also a wind turbine (you can just see the three blades of the turbine to the right of the lighthouse).
And here is the other lighthouse on Graemsay - Hoy Low, with the lookout tower and searchlight huts dating from WWII. Just in the foreground of the lookout tower is the base of the old gun.
Here are the houses and small crofts at the foot of Ward Hill on the island of Hoy.
Back on Graemsay this is the old kirk (now a barn), with the kirkyard attached (still in use), and the road leading up over the island. The derelict croft of Dean is just above the kirk on the left. Kirk Services (Church of Scotland) would have been held every Sunday here, with folk in their "Sunday Best" walking down the road to the kirk. Nowadays any services are held in our community hall on the other side of the island.
More old crofts on the island.
This is Scarratain, with a traditional turf roof. Now uninhabited and some of the buildings are very nearly in the sea. Coastal erosion is ever present.
Along the shore here is (just out of shot to the left, Clett), then Crookshouse, Windbreck (on the hill), Scarratain near the shore, and Hoy High Lighthouse to the right, with just in front of it, the derelict house of Moan.
And here ends the sail around Graemsay! Hope you enjoyed it.
I remember that old kirk, with hay piled high behind the windows and the sheep who ran as we walked around it.
ReplyDeleteA lovely history lesson as well as a tour, Sian. The larger photos are really great.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed very much. Thank you for the tour. I would love to see the islands in person, but that will never happen. Your photos are the next best thing.
ReplyDeleteLove the interesting names of the buildings and the fact the place is lousy with history.
ReplyDeleteWas the island once treed ?
Enjoyed as always.
ReplyDeleteBev - Oh yes I remember us scaring the sheep!
ReplyDeletePerpetua - glad you enjoyed the wander. Also pleased the larger photos are popular. I feared they may be slow to load for those with poorer broadband but no complaints so far!
Bommie - Glad you enjoyed your virtual tour!
Sybil - I should write about Orkney and trees sometime! In neolithic times there were more trees, and before that (lots of peat around), but climate changed some thousand years or so ago and now the windswept isles have trees in sheltered spots, and some native woodland, but are often though of as treeless. Graemsay has a small crop of native woodland trees in a small valley, but otherwise all the trees are "ornamental" or have been planted in recent years.
Pat - glad you enjoyed your tour!