A Short Blog Tonight!

There are some days that are just a bit more exhausting than others … and this was one of those days! This was our day to go to Rousay Island, which was ½ hour away from the Tingwall Ferry pier. We were at the pier, early of course, and got in the queue. The problem was, having never been at this pier before, it was hard to tell where the boat came in. R kiddingly made a reference to it coming in behind us, and that we’d have too back on to the boat! Well, guess what? He was right! Now, speaking only for myself, I have always had a fear of backing into water – and added to the fact that while I can definitely drive forward, backing up in a vehicle has never been my favorite thing to do. In fact, to quote Robert, I’m pretty awful at it. So, putting the two together, I was definitely in big trouble. However, on the premise that if it has to do with driving a car, I can do it, and they would help me through it, I gave it a try … and, surprisingly enough, I was able to back the car down a very narrow ramp onboard the ferry – with help, and certainly not without quite a bit of angst, at least internally and probably a bit externally too…more about that later! [Actually, Margaret did a fine job backing the car onto the ferry. To be honest, I’m glad I didn’t have to do it! – R]

The ramp down which I got to back...

Inside the Cairn

Looking down on the central corridor

The Iron-age brooch

Outside covering of the cairn

Looking up at Rusty; definitely a hike up!

The ferry ride was quick – I mean, it’s such a small ferry (holds a maximum of 10 cars), and the island was very close, and soon we were landing – down went the front “flap” – which is literally what it was called, and we were the first car off! Yea! Definitely not looking forward to the return trip, though, that was for certain!

Rousay has a population of something like 200 people – and definitely a lot more sheep and probably cows as well. The road – they have one basically that circles the island, is about one lane wide, with the ubiquitous “Pass Point” signs (these are small areas where someone can pull over to let someone else pass by). They also have lots of “road narrows” signs – which seems to us to be hard to do, but it does! There are lots of cairns on the island, but we were heading for the largest and most famous, MidHowe Stalled Cairn.

There was actually a small parking lot located just off the road WAY above the cairn and the broch … and in order to get to them, you get to walk wayyyyyyyyyy downhill all the way almost to the water, through farmland filled with sheep and lambs, probably half a mile each way. Rather daunting, actually, considering that the wind was absolutely howling, but we decided to give it a shot. Made it down safely, thankful that both of our tennis shoes have really good soles and don’t slide any too easily. The Cairn itself dates to around 3500 BC and was excavated in the 1930’s by the founder of Highland Park Distillery, an amateur archaeologist. In fact, he also paid for the entire building that now completely houses the cairn inside of it! And the cairn itself is huge! It’s 23 m long with one central chamber that is divided by upright slabs into 12 stalls on each side. Many of the stalls contain the remains of low “shelves” or benches. The bodies of 25 individuals were discovered on or below these benches, within the north-east part of the chamber. Many of these individuals had been laid to rest facing the central space with their backs to the outer wall. The chamber was entered through a short passage to the south-east which appears to have been deliberately blocked when the tomb went out of use. The outer wall slabs were set at an angle to give a fine herringbone effect to the exterior. It is a very impressive tomb!

Outside the cairn, and further along the coast, is the broch. Here again, like those on the Mainland, the central tower is surrounded by a settlement of small stone houses. The remains of the central tower stand over 4m high and there are internal galleries. Its interior is divided into two rooms, each with a hearth, though some of the internal fittings are later. Each room has a cistern, one of which is still fed by a spring. All of the outer buildings at Midhowe have suffered from coastal erosion, and only a fragment of the settlement survives, but when excavated in the 1930’s, there were several objects of Roman origin, indicating contact with communities further south. The location, though is, truly stunning. The shingled beach is really beautiful. Once we had covered both the broch and the cairn, our next job was to climb the hillside back UP to the car … and I do mean back UPPPPPPPPP. We made it, fortunately, without any slipping or falling, and soon we were on our way circumnavigating the rest of the island.

To be honest, other than the cairns, there isn’t a lot going on on Rousay. We never saw a store or a shop, and the one restaurant that we saw, was closed. Decided that the best thing to do was to head back to the ferry pier. Got there early for our ferry ride back to the Mainland, and parked the car at the pier. There is a “Heritage Center” with exhibits as well as a restroom and a waiting area for the ferry, but that’s about it! And eventually, there was our boat! As there is another very close island that is on the same route, and a van with cattle wanting to go there – Wyre, it’s called, the boat took them first, so as not to have to deal with loading and unloading the vehicles getting the van and cattle on and off. The ferry returned and then it was our turn to board!

And, right at that moment, the captain of the ferry boat (like I said, it’s a VERY small boat) knocked on my window and asked if I wanted him to back the car onto the boat! Incredible!!! And, of course, I did! So I got into the back seat, and this wonderful man backed down the ramp and moved the car into position like it was so easy to do! It was SO incredibly nice of him! He said he’d noticed how difficult it had been for me to do the first backing, and that he thought he’d make it easy for him. Now truly, how nice was that?! And he didn’t even know about my fear of water!! So to say he did his good deed for the week is truly an understatement! Sailors are really good guys!!!

Half an hour later we were back at the Mainland, and on our way back to the cottage! Had time to change clothes and back into town to make our 5:30 dinner reservation at Storehouse Restaurant. R had smoked salmon for his starter; I had baked cheese with grapes and pistachios for mine. R had their rump steak (yes, again!) for his main course, and I had their wonderful chicken with potatoes and broccolini for my dinner. We both enjoyed dinner, but the problem was that we were both so tired, we weren’t sure we’d be awake to finish! So, skipped dessert yet again, and headed back. Now I’m hurrying through this so I can get to bed early tonight!