Out and About

The week before last I went out for the afternoon. It was the annual outing for our WI branch and such is the paucity of my social calendar that it counts as a highlight.

I am not complaining. There is plenty to do here and my social calendar could be full every other evening in summer and every evening with activities to spare in the winter, it's just I'm a bit of an anti social curmudgeonly thing and I like to keep my life quiet.  

For those who are interested in such things, in Scotland the WI's full title is the Scottish Women's Rural Institute. In most parts of Scotland it is affectionately known as The Rural. But not in Orkney, which has to be different. In Orkney we normally call it the SWRI. It's a bit of a mouthful to be honest. But there you go.

 

Anyway every year we have an outing and mostly we stay within Orkney, although when I was on the committee I did organise what turned out to be a glorious trip to  the Castle of Mey. I don't take much credit for that as it only involved a few phone calls and making sure everyone knew when to turn up at the ferry and tbh it was the weather that made it. But it's a happy memory.

 

This year we visited two new-ish attractions over on West Mainland*, neither of which I'd been to before. Shocking I know, but it's that thing about places on the doorstep never getting visited.

 

*Before non-Orkney readers get totally confused - the main island of the Orkney Group is called Mainland. The western half is called West Mainland and the eastern half is called - yes, you guessed it - East Mainland. So Scotland is not referred to as The Mainland as that would be confusing, it's just known as Scotland or more laconically South. South can mean England as well but you work that out from the context. If you live in Burray, as I do, or even more so if you live on South Ronaldsay, the next island down, you very rarely venture to West Mainland. I hope that clears up any possible confusion!

 

Anyway we went to the The Orkney Brewery Visitors Centre and Barony Mill

 

The Brewery Visitor Centre is situated in the old school at Quoyloo. It's been really nicely done with refurbished old desks in the café, complete with stoppered ink wells, and there are various old school photos and records round the walls. We got a cup of tea and a piece of shortbread, followed by a quick tour of the Brewery. It's a very successful micro-brewery which wins lots of awards, and has a fine range of beers to its name. (So I'm told. I don't drink beer of any description so I don't really know). We had the chance to sample three of their brews but obviously I didn't. We do though put a couple of bottles in the welcome hamper at the flat so that people can try them. It seems popular.

 

Here's the entrance. You can see the date stone for the school, which is 1878. The brewery have released a limited edition beer called 1878 this year to celebrate the brewery extension and opening of the visitor centre.

 

Then it was on to Barony Mill. The miller/guide was very entertaining and had most of us in stitches although it's to be hoped he takes the edge off his Orcadian accent for visitors from elsewhere, or they will be totally bemused. The mill grinds not wheat but Bere Barley, a very ancient grain that is no longer grown in most places but is still farmed here. I bought some beremeal and a recipe booklet to go with it and tried out the apple and cinnamon cake. I can't say it was a total success, although OH and Son No 2 liked it well enough. It tasted fine, it just wasn't spectacular enough to justify the hassle of making it. I don't often do melting and whisking cakes which this was, and then I had to get the food processor out to liquidise some of the stuff and the recipe was vague in the extreme about size of tin and cooking times. I may however try out some of the other recipes in the booklet, the shortbread and the cranberry biscuits eg at a later date. It's quite a pretty place as you can see....

 

well maybe if you could see more of the flowers it would look nicer. There is also a mill cat but she doesn't pose for pictures sadly.

We rounded off the day with an early evening meal in The Kirkwall Hotel. For reasons into which I need not go, I generally boycott this establishment but I stretched a point since it was a group outing and I have to say the food was lovely. I particularly enjoyed the lemon posset I had for dessert which came with a brandy snap and was delicious.

So good company, good food, interesting places to go, what could have been not to like? It was a good afternoon out.