Ness Battery, Stromness

Ness Battery Observation Post

Before my visitors arrived I had the chance to finally visit Ness Battery in Stromness, which played a vital role in the defence of Scapa Flow during both WWI and WWII. It was opened to the public in 2012 as part of the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership project, and guided tours are now provided by archaeologist Andy Holinrake, who has a special interest in wartime history. I would definitely recommend his tour - it's informal, filled with facts and anecdotes, told in an easy style.

Ness Battery is the only coastal battery in Britain to still have the wooden wartime accommodation huts. These have been made wind and watertight and painted to protect them. The "jewel in the crown" for me is the Mess Hall, which has an amazing mural around the walls, painted by A.R. Woods who grew up in Gravesend in Kent (not far from where I was born and lived).  There are bucolic scenes of rural Kentish life, with oast houses, thatched roof cottages, gypsy caravans and orchards.

A Windmill believed to be from Gravesend

The mural depicted interiors too - complete with a black cat in the corner!











A part of the mural has been cleaned and shows the original bright colours.

There is also the Battery Motto painted on a screen - "Come the three corners of the world in ships and we will sink them" ( a version of Shakespeare's speech in King John which says "Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them..."

Outside there are the remains of the concrete towers, gun emplacements, ammunition stores and other buildings necessary to the running of the camp.

Gun Emplacement

Some ammunition was stored nearby in the gun emplacement.

Although this Battery is on land, it was actually jointly run by the Army and Navy, with relations between the two eased by the army personnel being awarded the daily ration of rum of their navy compatriots!

Ness Battery was one of three to defend the Western entrance to Scapa Flow. The other two were the Graemsay battery and the  Skerry Battery on Hoy.  Through the mist you can just make out the Graemsay Battery, next to Hoy Low Lighthouse.

And those huts I mentioned earlier - separate ones for Officers and other orders of course ;-)

Now, I am NOT doing justice to the Ness Battery, nor to Andy's tour. I'm more interested in the social history aspect of the place and it's impact on local people and those that were stationed there. So I loved the anecdotes and stories. The technical details is somewhat wasted on me ;-)   So PLEASE do look at other resources if you are interested (or contact Andy himself on the Ness Battery Website link below- he's particularly interested to hear from folk who have been at the Battery during war and peace time).

Other resources :  Ness Battery Website; Scapa Flow website; aerial photos; Orkney Defence Interest Network (ODIN)

There's also a brilliant Souvenir Guide written by Andy Holinrake and Fran Flett Holinrake which is well worth getting if you are in Orkney.

West Coast of Scotland - Acheltibuie and Archnahaird

Over a month after returning from holidaying on the West Coast of Scotland in Acheltibuie and Archnahaird....photos!!  That week we had stunning weather. Sunshine, HEAT - I almost got sunburned! The views were so beautiful.  Unfortunately one of my friends was unwell the whole week, which caused some concern and she missed the lovely weather. But she recovered and went onto Skye so got to enjoy SOME of the lovely scenery in gorgeous weather.

Mostly we pottered around the peninsular admiring mountains from ground level. Walking on what seemed like endless sand in the sunshine.

Archnahaird beach - click to see full size image

We even found a forest to walk through.

The common seals were having pups and I went on a brief boat trip to the Summer Isles, passing quite close to these lovely creatures.

Did I mention sandy beaches??  Honestly some days it felt like we were on a tropical island - OK a cool tropical island....

Ooooh and the mountains..... lots of mountains..... Suilven,  Cul Mor, Cul Beag, Stac Pollaidh, Ben Mor Coigach, Beinn nan Caorach - it runs like a litany through my heart.....

Some even had snow in crevices

Another wonderful panorama - click to enlarge

My personal favourite - maybe because it too has an old crumbling spine! Stac Pollaidh

And then there were islands.... the Summer Isles... (er no NOT the same as in the cult film "The Wicker Man"!)

And, of course, there were sunsets.....

And remote hamlets along the shore of sea and loch....

And even a social evening at the Acheltibuie Community Centre - The Budapest Cafe Orchestra were providing a concert. They had actually performed on the Orkney island of Hoy a few days previously! Small world.... and even smaller world, while chatting to someone from Acheltibuie at the concert - turned out they knew one of my neighbours on Graemsay!  The concert was great. Though the musicians hail from Hackney in North London, and NOT Budapest!

I travelled home by train to Thurso, as friends were going onward to other destinations. The train station outside Lairg reminded me of a scene from an old movie, with a dinky station house, two tracks, one up the way and one down the way.

A bridge....

And old signal box....

I shall hold the memory of mountains dear.... Until the next time....

And relax.......

After a busy week with family visiting I'm now taking some time to relax..... more blog posts to follow soon I promise!  Above - visitors got to see some beautiful sunsets....

Royal Visit to Orkney....

Orkney gets a fair share of visits by the British Royal Family. Today it was the turn of HRH the Princess Royal (known more usually by the UK population as "Princess Anne"). She was officially opening the Stromness Primary School among other things. Not sure if anyone told her the kids were brought in especially to various classes, wearing their school uniform, as the school holidays started a week ago!!  She also officially opened the new Swimming Pool and Leisure facilities in Kirkwall, and then popped over to Hoy to officiallyopen the newly refurbished Gable End Theatre. No visit to Graemsay this time - tee hee. Though she HAS visited here in her role as Patron of the Northern Lighthouse Board ( to see the lighthouses, obviously).

After all her formal visits she then went along to the Orkney Branch of the RDA (Riding for Disabled People), where she met many of the members.  THIS has to be the photograph of the ENTIRE Royal visit! I LOVE this photo!  Good on Eric (the chap in the photo).....

Copyright BBC Radio Orkney

And then there was the St Magnus Festival.....

"A Place Beyond Belief" (Click to enlarge photo)

...sorry that should be the St Magnus INTERNATIONAL Festival. An annual event held mainly in Kirkwall and Stromness over a period of a week with a wonderfully varied programme of drama, poetry, music, juggling and - yes - cake!

The sign in the picture above says it all really - A Place Beyond Belief...!  This happens to be an exhibit at the Pier Arts Centre, photo taken on a grey murky day....very atmospheric I think!

Anyway back to the festival. I was only able to get along to a few events this year. But thoroughly enjoyed a concert in the Stromness Town Hall by O Duo (Oliver Cox and Owen Gunnel), brilliant percussionists with a great sense of humour and boundless energy. Some lively pieces and some quieter reflective ones.  And loads of "stuff" (er I'm not a musician!) on stage which they manoeuvred round with dexterity.

Afterwards there were poems with tunes, tea and cake at the Stromness Hotel. There is a writers' course as part of the Festival so those folk read out their poems, while the rest of us ate - um - cake. And the tunes were provided by guitarist James Boyd.  A lovely time was had - though I had to make a dash for the boat home - after consuming an "elegant sufficiency" of cake of course.

A couple of days later I travelled into Kirkwall to attend the "Foy". The theme this year was "Slaves in a Savage Land". In the 18th and 19th Century Orcadians went to work for the Hudson's Bay Company and travelled across the high seas, literally, to work in Northern Canada. Through storytelling, songs, music, poems, film and historical accounts the story of some of these folk, and the women they met and married, were told. There were just a few folk on stage bringing these stories to life but they held the audience in the palm of their hands as they spun the tales. I had shivers down my spine, a lump in my throat and a desire to learn more about the extraordinary "ordinary" men and women of the stories.  A magical hour..... The programme was devised and directed by Fran Flett Holinrake and it has been said in my hearing, and I totally agree, it was the best Foy ever....

It felt really strange having spent an hour in "The North West of Canada" and then in the streets of Stromness in my imagination to then step out into the streets of Kirkwall.  I felt quite disorientated and thankfully just had a short walk to my next event... This was a lunchtime concert in the St Magnus Cathedral given by the Randers Chamber Orchestra. The Cathedral was packed and I had a seat way at the back so couldn't even SEE the musicians. But the sound was beautiful and it gave me time to gaze upon the marvel that is our beautiful Cathedral.

And that was all I had time to enjoy this year.  But it was fun to chat to strangers in cafes about performances seen and others anticipated.  And brilliant that such a varied programme in some lovely quirky venues takes place each year in Orkney.  Bring on the next one!

And a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra has written a fascinating and entertaining post of "behind the scenes" at one of the concerts they performed at. Well worth a read....click here

Busy, Busy, Busy.....

I'm sure we all find that in summer, there's just so much to do!  I've got lots of work on at the moment, plus visitors about to arrive, and other things going on, hence the lack of blogging!  Speaking of "other things", last week we had a First Responder training refresher course.  Rupert Wilson, from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) came to the island loaded with equipment for us to try out.

It was good for us to get together and go over various scenarios etc.  We first had our training in November 2009  and thankfully have had very few call-outs. Which means we probably need the training all the more to keep things in our minds.

As well as having a go at actually practising the "Heimlich Manoevre" while Rupert wore a special device to replicate choking, we also bandaged each other, and ran through various scenarios.  Of course there was also the obligatory CPR practice (to get the rate correct a speedy rendition of "Nellie the Elephant", "Staying alive" a la the Vinnie Jones Video, or my personal favourite, "Another one bites the dust"...).  We also had practice using a defibrilator (on a dummy!) as we have one of those in our First Responder pack.

About to practice CPR....

Lunch of soup, sandwiches and cakes was followed by more practice - and some indigestion on my part as a result of too much cake and not enough time till I did the next CPR!

There are 13 of us on the island trained as First Responders - that's a pretty good percentage of the island population  (48%).  It's something we were keen to get involved in as we have no nurse or Doctor on the island, and need to wait till either the ferry/lifeboat or air ambulance brings medical assistance. Valuable time can be lost during the wait. So at least we feel we have some basic knowledge, a direct link to the emergency centre via a dedicated mobile phone, and a defibrillator and oxygen for emergencies. Please let's hope we never need them....

Along the shore......

You'll have to wait a wee while longer for my "holiday snaps" of mountains - I took so many I need to sort through them and with a busy schedule it may be a few days yet before I'm done..... however here are some photos of the lower level shore-line on Graemsay!

The one above is taken from the shell beach with the coral sand. The tide was lazily coming in last night when I took this.  The Hoy Hills in the background stand out against the lush green of the fields of Graemsay.

Gentle waves were lapping the shore.....

The sun is still quite high in the sky but it must have been after 7pm that I took this. I love the long days at this time of year!

I love the clouds in this one!  And you can just see the roof of Sandside to the left of the picture.

And here is Hoy High lighthouse standing out brightly against the darker hills of Orphir on the Orkney Mainland in the background.

Here the cow parsley is nearly up over the ruined buildings!

And today, the beach was not so deserted!  A couple of the classes from Stromness Primary School came over for a beach adventure. The "crocodile" of children, teachers and helpers wound it's way up from the pier and past the house on their way to the beach. The kids were chattering and wearing their hi-viz jackets and waving buckets and spades. (Button was appalled! The noise!! And all that fluorescent yellow!).  They are only here for a couple of hours, have a picnic on the beach, make some sand castles and wend their way back to the boat, which is specially hired to take them back to Stromness again.  Some of the Graemsay children were in the classes and it must be lovely for them to show their friends where they live and let them experience the "school bus" of the MV Graemsay ferry!  The weather was a bit dull today but it was fairly warm and at least DRY! I think all the kids had a good time and wore themselves out on the beach. Well maybe not that last bit, but I think the teachers and helpers walked back to the pier a bit slower than they came ;-)