13 July 2024

“Have you seen a laptop lead?” asks Clare when she calls around to collect a bike lock. I have to laugh. It is a needle in a haystack. (And we can’t find it.)

Right until I am on board the ferry I am not sure if I am heading for Rousay or the Mainland. But discovering that the archaeological dig I had hoped to visit on Rousay is closed on Saturday swings it. I make a last-minute decision to hook up with Clare and Paul on their Mainland trip. 

What could be better than revisiting Marwick Head with two twitchers who can give me a guided tour of the birds flying to and fro the cliff face. The forecast is a day of cloud, but the reality is a constantly shifting haar interspersed with wan, fleeting sunshine. We watch the guillemots, fulmars, gannets, black-backed  and herring gulls, kittywakes, puffins (a flash of colour on the wing), razorbills, and an Arctic skua. I think I can confidently apply for any RSPB volunteering job now!

Driving on north to Birsay we find the café open – hallelujah. Possibly the only eatery trading on the north side of the mainland. It is rammed. Windows on all sides give lovely views of Birsay Head (which, sadly, we can’t visit because the tide is not in our favour), the beach and surrounding coast. 

Next stop Cottascarth RSPB reserve, an upland moorland with far-reaching views east. Equipped with Paul‘s telescope, we get fantastic sightings of a merlin. What a beautiful bird. And more distant views of hen harriers. There is a very plush “hide” (adding a toilet would make this a very attractive bothy!). I read about the restoration process for peat bog, which involves re-profiling, and applying stabilising membrane. The aim is to renovate 9 ha a year over a three-year period. In Orkney 80% of peat bogs are reckoned to be damaged. Way to go.

Back in Kirkwall, I have another go at visiting St Magnus Cathedral. At 4:30 pm the cruise tourists have moved on and there is something like the atmosphere you would expect in such a place. Fresh with my knowledge of the connection between St Magnus and Egilsay I am more receptive to fact acquisition. Let me try to embed it in short-term memory by regurgitating that the church was founded in 1137 by Earl Rognvald, nephew of St Magnus. When first built, the cathedral was part of the Archdiocese of Nidaros (Trondheim) in Norway. Orkney became part of Scotland in 1468, and a few years later, the cathedral was given to the people of Kirkwall by the Scots king, James lII. I think that’s enough for now.

On the ferry on the way back, I’m coming to the end of Close to Where the Heart Gives Out. There is a passage where the author observes the way we never stop running: 

We don't spend enough time truly doing nothing these days. Especially down south, there always seemed to be another thing to do, a distraction, an invitation to make more of your life. You were validated by the groups and activities you joined. You didn't play your full part if you didn't 'take part'. The island will teach you how to slow down if you let it. Let your heart rest, ease you down from the frenetic and teach you how to simply 'be’…They say if you last two winters on the island then you'll stay a while, accepting that you have to bend with the wind.

We all know this intellectually. And I would do well to take it on board this trip. Today has been lovely. And tomorrow, perhaps I will move around a little less. 

Approaching Egilsay this second time, and seeing the Kirk up on the horizon, It feels like coming home.

And at the house, Stanley seems to have eaten some of the food I put out this morning.

Happy days.