Saturday 19 March 2011

Roseness

After visiting the Scottish lighthouse museum a few weeks ago (which I will get round to blogging about eventually, I'm sure) I was inspired to visit a local lighthouse I'd never been to before - Roseness.

It was a lovely walk on a sunny, but cold, day. The coastline is lovely, with great views towards Copinsay, and lots of evidence of otters in the area. If you've got sharp eyes, you might spot some kayakers too!


The Roseness gloup, while not being the most impressive one I've visited, is still well worth a look.


The coastline is really interesting, with lots of rock stacks, which had a lot of fulmars on them.


A bit further one there's some sort of structure very visible on the skyline.


When I got up to it, this is what I saw. I'm not sure what it is, and as far as I know it hasn't been excavated.


A little further on again and I was at the old beacon. I've heard that it was an early form of lighthouse - a navigation beacon, built in 1867. There's also another story locally that it was built around the turn of the century to commemorate a shipwreck and lost sailors. Either way, it's beautifully built, with a cross on top which has been designed to look like a cross from all directions. The beacon certainly stands out for miles.



There's obviously been a ladder to the top at one time, as the rusted remains testify to.


It was gifted to Orkney Islands Council in 1995. Previously it was in the ownership of the Northern Lighthouse Board, who also have a modern lighthouse nearby.


The modern lighthouse is a 'prefab' - bolted together in sections. The original NLB 'modern' lighthouse here was cast iron, built in 1904/5, and is now in the Scottish lighthouse museum as an example of the newer light and lantern housing developed by David A Stevenson. I'm not sure what year it "came to the end of its useful life" (as the lighthouse museum puts it) and was replaced by the newer prefab which is there now.




The lighthouse stands out clearly against the low winter sun, but the modern beacon dwarfs it from a distance.




I'm really glad I've done this walk, but am now at a loss to work out why I've never done it before. I wonder how many other great walks and sights I've missed during my time in Orkney....

Monday 14 March 2011

Glencoe

I've always loved the scenery around Glencoe and Rannoch Moor, since I was a wee girl. When I lived in Skye, we used to pass through there regularly whenever we went to visit family & friends. However, I've rarely been there in the past 11 years since I moved to Orkney, so in the October holidays I decided to drive the scenic route back to Orkney...






The drive was a lot longer this way, but it was well worth it.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Autumn colours

Yes, I know it's totally the wrong time of year for this, but I've been sorting out some photos I took in the October holidays.


I had a lovely trip "sooth" to visit family & friends, and also spent a few days just touring about taking in the scenery.



Killin

Red squirrel, Speyside


I had a very cold night camping at Grandtully!


Slalom kayakers, Grandtully

It was a great holiday, and makes me realise (yet again) just how many stunningly beautiful parts of Scotland there are. Maybe when I'm living on the mainland I'll have more opportunities for weekend trips to explore more.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Clear skies

The mirrie dancers (or merry dancers, northern lights or aurora borealis) have been quite active recently. Unfortunately the weather has conspired against getting good views of them a lot of the time, with cloudy skies and snowstorms, but Friday was a beautiful evening, albeit extremely cold, and I got some great views.



I moved around a bit taking photos, but it was so slippery with a very hard frost on top of a snowfall, that I was scared of falling and breaking my camera, so after a while I stationed myself at the door of the house.


Although it was mostly just a huge arc of colour, later in the evening there was a little more activity.



Eventually there was also some pinky colour, as well as the green, but it was fading by then, and the sky was also starting to cloud over.


Earlier it had been a beautifully clear, starry sky.

Orion over my house

Saturday morning was beautiful too - a hard frost, beautiful cloud formations, lots of seals on the skerries and eider ducks calling from the shore.




 I'm really going to miss this special spot when I move.