Thursday, 6th July, 2023 ………….. Skalpafloi (aka Scapa Flow)

I noted in an earlier post that Scapa Flow was the main base for the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet through 2 World Wars and much of the 20th Century. It is not surprising therefore that there are a lot of brick and mortar reminders as well as artefacts and memories of those times . The main shore facilities were on the Island of Hoy within Scapa Flow and some surviving buildings on that island have been turned into a brilliant museum. Ida, Balfour and I drove to Houton Ferry Pier and caught the ferry that carries people and vehicles to the islands of Flotta and Hoy…..

For the first time in all of my trips to Orkney I have finally visited Flotta which now gives me more credibility when I rally to the classic bagpipe tune of ‘Flett from Flotta’! In today’s sunshine the ferry trip is a spectacular journey………

……..

and once we landed at Lyness on Hoy it was a very short walk to the museum which is based around one of historic pump houses that supported the base and fleet…….

The museum itself and the displays have recently just been fully revamped and it is definitely worth a visit if ever you are in this part of the World……

A lovely young lady guide asked if we would like to see the next stage of the museum which is not yet open to the public and the answer was obviously ………… YES PLEASE!

We were then taken to a very recently restored building that had been used through both World Wars to repair small boats and were allowed to wander freely through the exhibits stored there but not yet available to the public, we were very privileged.

The ferry ride home in the early evening light was even more spectacular than the journey there!

It was a truly special day finished off with G&T, wine and fish and chips in the World’s best B&B ……. Scapa House!

Wednesday, 5th July, 2023 ………….. family day ❤️

Long term followers of the blog will be aware that my family name and indeed my family, originated in the Orkney Islands. Via some amazing coincidences, I was to meet bloodline family on my fist visit in 2011 and we have stayed in touch ever since. Today was the day for me to report in to the family matriarch Mabel and update her family records by reporting on any births deaths and marriages and, in the last year, there was one each of the first and second. Mabel has had some recent health issues herself but she was as sharp as ever.

It was also the opportunity to report on having found the grave of David Flett (1839 – 1888) who brought my genes to Australia. His puzzling humble grave marker raised some comment and I will need to report again WHEN I have come up with some answers!

Family discussions were concluded with tea and ‘smiddy loaf’ made for the occasion by Ida ❤️

The weather seems to be improving so I’ve taken the gamble and booked a ferry to take me me and my trusty hire car to Westray on Saturday (that’s probably a limerick opportunity for Keith Berg right there). I went to the ferry ticket office because buying the ticket there is a bl**dy sight easier than mastering the online purchasing maze!

While down at the harbour anyway, I wandered around both the boats……..

……… and later back in town near St Magnus. Todays tourists seemed to be mostly Americans and so I was pleased to see some money being spent in town which doesn’t always happen…..

I also noted THIS book in one of the fabulous bookshops in the town.

Onya cousin Emile 👍

Tuesday, 4th July, 2023 …………. sunshine!

The Sun shone today for the fist time since I arrived in Orkney last Saturday! It wasn’t forecast so I hadn’t organised any of my more ‘adventurous’ planned excursions to other islands. Being confined therefore to the ‘mainland’, I rushed to the Brough of Bursay on the outside chance that there might be puffins ……… but alas! I had to settle for a couple of oystercatchers.

In the nearby village is the Earls Palace built in 1534 by a thoroughly NOT NICE person!

The nearby and much more recent St Magnus Kirk is one of at least 3 that I am aware of on the Orkneys but they all have their place in the lore of St Magnus ………. as does the rotter in the palace!

The sunshine either brought out the birdlife or made their photography easier so here are my favourites from the day, oystercatchers at Birsay and a beautiful swan family at the Ness of Brodga.

Monday, 3rd July, 2023 ………. Monday is washing day, is evry’body happy

The cold and rainy weather continues and I was about to run out of clothes. I was also starting to worry that I wasn’t ever going to get out of my warm and cosy B&B to re-explore ‘my’ islands so I bit the bullet, washed and hung a load of washing over the fuel stove, put on my head-to-toe wet weather gear and headed out to Deerness where my great grandfather lived before sailing to Australia in 1863. Deerness is ALMOST an island and on this trip I stopped on Dingieshowe which is the narrow neck of land joining Deerness to the main island, and went for a wander……

….. but soon continued on to St Ninians at the far end of Deerness where my great, great grandparents are buried…….

St Ninians it right on the coast and the far boundary of the cemetery IS the infamous North Sea. I braved the weather mud and skittish sheep to drive up to Mull Head and The Gloup……

…… which is aptly described as a “collapsed sea cave” but its ancient Norse name simply describes the noise made by the waves as they pass through the narrow opening! Next stop was St Margaret’s Hope which is the tiny village and port where my ferry docked. It is an impossibly pretty place…..

WARNING! HISTORY CONTENT

The Orkney islands form a natural protected harbour which was the base of the Royal Navy for most of the 20th Century. Early in WW2 a German submarine snuck through a narrow channel between 2 of the islands and sunk the battleship HMS Royal Oak with the loss of more than 600 lives. Prime Minister Churchill was understandably furious and demanded that the channels be blocked. This was achieved firstly by scuttling old ships in the channels. The final solution was concrete barriers but I’ll discuss them in a future post. Some of these early ‘block ships’ are still visible and I always wanted to post one of these in black and white. Today was my chance as there would be no divers nor pleasure boats littered around my chosen subject…….

Sunday, 2nd July, 2023………….a cold and wet Sunday!

I am a regular church attender ….. although that regularity does completely depend on me being in the Orkneys! I try to go to one service at St Magnus cathedral each visit because it is that cathedral that gave its name to many of my ancestors and because I am still trying to work out how its Viking builders got its acoustics SO right nearly 1000 years ago?
It was very cold and very wet this morning. The Orkneys are actually in the Gulf Stream and so the temperature is usually about 12degrees right through the seasons but it is the wind chill that provides the variation and today’s windchill took the temperature down to single digits! I didn’t know it at the time but today’s service also included a presentation by the Principal of a school in Brisbane whose patron saint is St Magnus. I only used my mobile phone today to provide this photo essay of my day going to, and in, St Magnus Cathedral…..

…… and, at the conclusion of the service, I quietly entered the vestry to check that the Flett stained glass window was still in place ……..

…… before heading into the wind and rain stopping only briefly to ‘smell the flowers’!

Friday, 1st July, 2023 ………… Orkney!

I managed to grab an early breakfast in John O’Groats before driving to Gills Bay to await the ferry to St Margaret’s Hope on the Orkney Island. The arrival, docking and loading of the ferry still amazes me as it all happens with the minimum of fuss and an easy grace…..

The trip itself was cold, windy and damp which to me means travelling to the Orkneys and the arrival at St Margaret’s Hope is always exciting and full of anticipation regardless of the weather!

My arrival at the World’s best B&B was as warm and lovely as coming home. I simply love this place. Tea, coffee, biscuits, cheese, fruit slice all magically appear and the happenings of the year that has passed are discussed, sadnesses consoled and joys shared. The next thing I know, we are off to a concert that was to be performed in the Earls Palace next to St Magnus Cathedral but the weather was suggesting that it mightn’t happen outdoors. Sure enough it was indoors but over the next week, or maybe after the next concert next week, I’ll show you the outdoor venue in its 12th Century splendour? The concert started with a piper marching up from St Magnus and it seems that it will end much later tonight because some of the performers have just been invited to ‘my’ B&B for dinner!

Once back at the B&B, I went out for a quick walk as the Sun had burst forth and I wanted to see what had been happening at Scapa Distillery which is literally next door. If the wind blows from the right direction, one can have an immaculate conception style of hangover. The B&B…..

The SCAPA Distillery………

And, last of all, a TOP SECRET photo! ‘My’ B&B was the Customs and Excise Inspectors House where the Inspector lived in the house and counted the barrels as they left the distillery for the imposition of tax. What he (allegedly) didn’t know was that there was a 4” pipe that came out of the distillery through which whisky was PUMPED to the Royal Navy moored offshore in Scapa Flow and ‘others’. That pipe still exists and during odd tides, it is still visible……

Friday, 30th June, 2023 ………. the KEISS Principle?

I have driven from Inverness to John O’Groats and back quite a number of times now and yes, that does mean you will see more photos of Cromarty Forth and Loch Dornoch…….

…… and yes, you will see more photos of my ancestral Castle Sinclair Girnigoe……

…… and of Noss Harbour on my way out from Girnigoe…..

…… but to prove that I am not just a creature of habit, I did some homework last night to solve a bit of a riddle and to enable me to take some photos that I had previously feared were impossible. For the last few trips north from Wick, I had noticed a derelict castle and a slightly less derelict building near it between the A(99) and Sinclair Bay. The signs on the road about NO ACCESS were at best discouraging and at worst threatening but also certainly challenging. I worked out however that if I took an earlier turn into the little harbour at Keiss, I might be able to walk around the shoreline to get a bit closer if not gain full access? I also discovered that the derelict building was ‘Old Keiss Castle’ and the less derelict building is, yes you guessed it, ‘NEW Keiss Castle’! As planned, I drove into Keiss Harbour……

….. sauntered positively through a set of new ‘glamping pods’ and found a gate that let me onto the shoreline. As I got closer to the castles I noted what a difference the 300 years from 1630 to 1940 had made to coastal defence!

I also could see the relationship and shared design features of the old and new castles……

I kept expecting to be stopped by some natural or man-made obstacle but what both man and nature threw up against me were fairly easily overcome and an ability to ignore DANGER signs, an attribute I acquired many years ago, was a great benefit. Eventually I got right up to the Old Castle ……

….. and close enough to the new castle to see that it is occupied!

I then ‘filled-my-boots’ with arty photos and slowly retreated to my car parked at Keiss Harbour. Only then did I notice that I was soaked?

I am now safely at my pub at John O’Groats feeling pretty pleased with myself!

Thursday, 29th June, 2023 ……. some don’t know their station in life……

……. but I do, and it’s Newcastle!

Many of the poor long suffering souls who have been reading this blog since the beginning, will know that I have a particular fondness for Victorian railway stations. I am amazed that the Victorians constantly went beyond the minimum required to get people on and off trains and that their stations also have a design ethos that has spread around the World! Their design ‘sensibility’ didn’t extend to making stations in a straight line and they even seemed to deliberately choose curved stretches of railway line on which to build their stations? Two such stations through which I have travelled in the past few days, are York and Newcastle-on-Tyne and so, while waiting for my train at Newcastle this morning, I took the following few photos on my mobile phone……

It was a bit annoying today to re-travel much of the journey I drove in pouring rain a few days ago and especially so when I was given a fleeting glimpse of a SUNNY Lindisfarne Castle but……..

I took a few other mobile phone photos during the journey of which only this one of Berwick-on-Tweed is worth posting……

…….. but my trusty mobile didn’t let me down when it came to arriving at my favourite hotel in Inverness, The Royal Highland.

I have ‘walked’ Inverness during a few flettreks (with Elizabeth BENBOW) but it seems that there is always something new to see even if only armed with a mobile phone?

I took the opportunity to have a less-drastic haircut and book a hotel and train tickets for the return journey in 10 days thus demonstrating that I have SUPREME CONFIDENCE that I won’t be slipping off the cliff face on ‘Puffin Island’ …….. this time 🤭

Wednesday, 28th June, 2023 ………. a ‘sloe’ day?

I admit to having my confidence shaken yesterday by the (lack of…..) performance of my hire car. At one stage, while filtering onto the A(1) at 60mph, the gear change was accompanied by a lack of power and trucks that were comfortably behind me, needing to suddenly overtake me! After arriving at my digs safely last night, I decided that I wasn’t going to drive the car into the centre of Newcastle to return it today but to return it to the hire car depot at the airport which was closer to where I was staying. Also, I was having to change hotels today so I was juggling the logistics of getting to a new hotel, storing bags, returning the hire car and getting back to the new hotel. The only way this was going to work was with a lot of walking, potentially in the rain. I found the hire car return at the airport, met a really lovely young man who was the depot manager and he cleared the car of any potential damage, listened politely to my concerns, accepted the car at the ‘wrong ‘ depot, didn’t charge a relocation fee AND confirmed a considerable refund! He was also going to take the car to a garage to have it checked because I couldn’t, in all conscience, allow someone else to go through the same grief as I had. He also advised me where I might be able to photograph the continuous stream of feeder aircraft that pass through Newcastle Airport. I headed off past the terminal in the increasing rain and met up with a succession of lovely people ALL of whom had a different idea from where I might be able to get photos but this resulted in me wandering across hill and dale around the airport and slowly getting very wet. I ended up scurrying back to the airport terminal and shouting myself a coffee and a chocolate donut which is, as you know, an antidote to getting wet. After the rain eased a little, I retraced my cross-country steps, took a few murky aircraft photos, was reunited with my baggage in the new pub and followed up on the drying powers of a chocolate donut with the restorative power of a couple of double G&Ts!

Tuesday, 27th June, 2023 …… “you should have been here yesterday”!

Part the TWO

Today’s main project and the reason for driving a powered billy cart in driving rain, was to visit the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune, near Edinburgh. The site of the museum is the old RAF East Fortune which was an important operational airbase in WW1, WW2 AND the Cold War! Most probably because of the terrible weather and billy cart driving, I will however remember it only as BLEAK!

Many of the WW2 brutalist concrete buildings still remain but the old WW1, and between wars, airship sheds have long gone. The whole site and its contents are beautifully maintained and there is enough undercover storage/display so that only the larger Comet, Vulcan and BAC 1-11are left out n the rain.

My specific interest in this site, other than just being aircraft, is that there are 2 Australian registered aircraft with considerable Australian history displayed there and still in their Australian markings! The first is a DH80 Puss Moth VH-UQB owned at operated at Bankstown by the famous Sid Marshall and the second a DH84 Dragon, VH-SNB, which operated a number of bush medical services immediately after WW2. Both of these aircraft had eluded my camera before being bought by another Scottish aviation collection and ending up at East Fortune where they are beautifully maintained.

Although many photos were taken (I was only depressed by the weather and billy cart driving, not debilitated!) I will attach only a few that to give a flavour of the site and the quality of its work.

And just one of the poor, miserable, wet ‘outsiders’!

I did get back safely the 200kms through the heavy rain to my digs in Newcastle but the memory of merging onto the 110kmh/70mph A(1) between trucks and having my billy cart slow alarmingly between 2nd and 3rd gear while staring out the drivers window at truck wheel nuts will stay with me for a long time …….. well, it did until the second double G&T last night?