Our busy schedule continues and I'm not sure why I am not flat on the floor whimpering for rest and quiet in a darkened room, but however that may be I am not, so we're just going with the flow. We have recently had dinner with our friend BH who was here in connection with her job with Scottish Ballet, been to a performance by Scottish Ballet., attended a talk by the director of the on-going dig at The Cairns in South Ronaldsay, zapped down to South Ron in person for a re-visit to the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery and a short walk, and on Sunday we had the Grand Day Out.
Pics from the walk on South Ron, it was such a beautiful day, although wet underfoot as you will see.
On Sunday, the forecast being good, we decided we would drive over to Birsay and have lunch at the Birsay Bay Tearoom. We've hardly visited either Birsay or the tearoom since we sold the flat we had there which we used to rent out to holidaymakers, and it is an interesting place, not to mention that the tearoom is very good. As it happened we arrived at just the optimum time to walk over to the Brough itself. (This is a tidal island, and you can walk out to it over a causeway if you're there at the right time) We had decided not to try and time our visit for this because otherwise you can end up doing things at weird and wonderful times of day, and it is after all, forty miles away so we hadn't even bothered to look at the tide times.
The Brough has a wonderful hotch-potch of historical remains; Pictish, Viking and medieval, as well as connections to Orkney's 'patron saint', Magnus You can read more about it here , if interested. We enjoyed a walk in warm sunshine, had a chat to some Australian visitors, reminisced about how the boys used to play Hide and Seek in the remains of the monastery church and then walked back over the causeway and made our way to the Tearoom.
Which was rammed. Not only were all the seats taken, there was a queue of people waiting - not something I have ever seen there before, although I daresay in high summer it's quite common. Not that this is high summer it's only May and the tourist season proper is hardly yet upon us, but obviously lots of other people had had the same idea as us about lunching there. We retreated to the car.
We tossed various ideas around about where we might go instead and the OH suggested, out of the blue, that we could try the eatery at the Orkney Brewery Visitor Centre, where he had never been and which wasn't, as the crow flies, all that far away. And that turned out to be an excellent decision. While it doesn't have the big windows and panoramic views of the Birsay Bay tearoom, what it had was quiet, space, a more extensive menu, pleasant staff and absolutely delicious food. We will certainly be going there again, although next time I will pass on the Dragonhead cake.
And some pictures from the Brough
Sounds like a wonderful day! And what fantastic weather.....
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