Day 10 St. Margaret's Hope to Ullapool

Nature provided our venue of the day. We departed St. Margaret’s Hope on South Ronaldsay Orkney on the 8:00 a.m. ferry and pulled into Ullapool just before dinner. This drive across the North and Northwest of Scotland was no ordinary journey. This is the least populated, most remote and rugged and least visited area on the mainland…my favorite landscape in all of Scotland. Once past Thurso, it is mile after mile of rocks, beach, hills, water, heather, birds and grazing sheep. The road often goes to one lane. At Dunnet Head, the North Sea meets the Atlantic Sea. We were blessed with sunshine that added to the richness of the color of the sea and stone. Uarda, dressed in her handwoven suit, chose the right outfit for this breezy day.

Just outside of Durness, we stopped at Balnakeil Craft Village. www.durness.org/Balnakeil Once a military base, it was taken over by hippies when the military left and now is inhabited by small shops and craft studios. I told the group that the reward for all this sitting and riding today was dessert at Cocoa Mountain, the gourmet Aardvark shop at Balnakeil. They specialize in truffles with unique flavours like strawberry pepper, and hot chocolate. You can't miss this heavenly stop if you like chocolate. http://www.cocoamountain.co.uk/

Finally some rain by the time we passed Ardvreck Castle ruins. I keep telling the travelers that the these views are even better in the rain! We stopped at Highland Stoneware Pottery shop in Lochinever. The driveway and garden of the shop proved very entertaining with large stones, an automobile, a gigantic concrete sofa, all covered with broken pottery. http://www.highlandstoneware.com/ Before heading on, make sure to drive into town and get a homemade pie from the Lochinever Larder. Their savory or sweet pies are in such demand, they post them around the country. http://www.piesbypost.co.uk/
Once we reached Ullapool we settled into our B&B's. You see the view here from my room. No one ever wants to leave this idyllic spot. A hearty thank you to Charlotte at Dromnan Guest House http://dromnan.com/
who always goes out of her way with hospitality, this time offering to run a load of wash for us. A fine reprieve from handwashing those socks one more time.

Just down the road from our B&B’s at Ullapool, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Royal Hotel restaurant. Here you can see the entire group relaxing. You may have noticed that I talked a lot of about food today. I think travelers are happiest when not only their eyes are delighted by scenery, their minds are expanded by history, but when their stomachs are satisfied. However, after 10 days of travel, we have eaten every kind of potato and have started pleading with the servers, "please don't bring so many!"

Day 9 Mainland, Orkney

The big island, or as Orcadians call “mainland” is home to numerous stone circles and structures dating back as far as 5000 years. Nowdays, the 17 or the 65 islands that are populated are home to 20,000 people, 100,000 beef cattle, 68,000 sheep and one fishing fleet, on Westray.

Maeshowe, a grass covered burial mound in the middle of a farmer’s field, is that old. You stoop low to walk through the 10 meter entrance tunnel before standing up inside a tall rounded chamber. As in all the sites, some of what the archeologists have found is known fact, other is speculation. Was it in fact a burial mound for the first peoples who build it, or a place of healing and rituals connected to the astrological cycle? In fact, each December the mound is equipped with 3 webcams where you can watch the light in the mound as winter solstice approaches. http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/ Vikings raided the mound in the 12th century and left many runic inscriptions. No great mysteries were revealed however once these inscriptions were translated as they say things such as “Ingibjorg is a beautiful woman.” The lion carving illuminated by our guide, some say is the most stunning carving in the mound.

From Maeshowe you look across a loch and see both the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar in the distance. Modern technology has shown that the stone monuments above ground are just the tip of the iceberg of all the ancient stone sites under the earth in this heart of the island. There is currently a new archeological dig exploring a newly found site not far from the Standing Stones.

Michael, our local guide while Richard had a day off, told us tales and speculations about these sites. Stenness means “stone point” and indeed the tall stones still standing are pointed on top, but just 3100 years old. Also known as the Temple of Moon, couples came to perform a marriage ritual which would bind them together for one year and one day. After that period, they would have to come back to the stones to renew that ritual or to break the contract. Thus was their system of “marriage in installments.” www.orkneyjar.com/history/standingstones/

The Ring of Brodgar once had 60 stones standing. Brodgar means “farm by the bridge.” This 2500 year old ring is said to grant the gift of fertilitiy to anyone who runs around it counter clockwise 3x without stopping. Considering the large circumference, this running ritual also meant you were in shape! As we walked the ring, many of us touching each stone, the wind blew us along, urging us to consider what ancient wisdom moved the people to build such impressive sites. What did they know, that we have long forgotten? www.orkneyjar.com/history/brodgar/

Skara Brae was uncovered when a storm hit William Watt’s farm in 1850 and eroded the beach front. The settlement wasn’t excavated however until 1928. This fine example of a stone age community was quite advanced as they even had a sewage sytem and a stone trough area they filled with water and hot rocks to steam the sea life they ate. www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

Stromness is the 2nd largest town on mainland Orkney with a population of 2000+. Tait and Style studio sits above the harbour. For 16 years Ingrid Tait has run this company that creates knitted and felted scarves, throws, pillows, and accessories for the high fashion market in London and New York. She discovered a needle punching machine in Yorkshire that was used to make industrial materials. Sensing it could be retooled to work with wool fabric, she acquired the machine and has been punching or felting her marks with fleece or yarn onto commercially woven wool.

As the fashion industry constantly changes, Ingrid is flexible, open to taking commissions from both home furnishing and clothing fashion design houses to create new lines for each season. She is a sought after lecturer and also ofters workshops at the studio. Tait and Style's retail shop is now at The Longship Complex on Broad Street in Kirkwall. Ingrid also runs the jewelry company founded by her mother, Ole Gorie. http://www.taitandstyle.co.uk/ Here is a fabulous hand knit sweater that had Piper's name on it.

The Pier Arts Centre sits unassuming on Victoria Street just off the water front in Stromness. Inside, the centre houses a fine collection of contemporary art. I was delighted to find a number of pieces by British sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. http://www.pierartscentre.com/

Corrigall Farm Museum in Harray is a wonderful example of rural agricultural life on the island. Implements, tools and household furnishings from the 18th-20th century fill the buildings. Inside the buildings are all kinds of fascinating things like a simmon, rope that was made from twising grass, a spoon kaise, for holding cutlery and some North Ronaldsay sheep, the breed that eats seaweed! http://www.orkney.org/museums/

Each Wednesday night, the Orkney Accordian and Fiddle Club practices at the Ayre Hotel in Kirkwall. They welcome listeners and players alike. The night I joined in, they were practicing for their performance at the Orkney Folk Festival. The accordians outnumbered the fiddles, but thankfully some of the fiddlers read music and had notation I played from. The stamina of the players is mighty. After 3 hours I was ready to go to bed, and they kept playing!

The 26th Orkney Folk Festival, is May 22-25 with most concert venues in Stromness. http://www.orkneyfolkfestival.com/

Day 8 South Ronaldsay and Main Island, Orkney

On the short drive from St. Margaret's Hope to Hoxa, Scapa Flow and the distant Martello Tower commands one's attention. 3 such towers were built in Scotland towards the end of the Napoleanic wars. http://www.scapaflow.org/genbtm.htm

It’s easy to see why the blues in Leila Thomson’s tapestries are so stunning. Out the window of her Hoxa studio and gallery the water flashes a brilliant blue in this day of yes, sunshine After graduating from art school in Edinburgh in 1980, Leila came back home and has been designing and weaving ever since. 12 years ago she opened her gallery and now visitors from around the world view her stunning work.

Leila weaves private commissions, working from her own charcoal sketches and full size cartoons. Working full scale from the initial sketch, she feels her woven work comes out more like a drawing. She interprets and chooses all the colors as she weaves blending a variety of fibers. This really gives the tapestries an energy and vitality often lacking in other pictorial textiles. Words and pile texture are also trademarks in her designs. Leila always weaves to music ranging from Metallic to the London Philharmonic, she likes the volume loud. As Leila readily admits “I work in a state of splendid isolation.” After the tourist season ends in September that is. http://www.hoxatapestrygallery.co.uk/

Orkney abounds in artists. One can pick up maps of the Orkney Craft Trail and visit many studios open from after Easter until the early autumn. When I asked one of the Orcadian artists we visited today why the islands are such magnets for creativity, she suggested that it was the influx of artists who came up here from England that got the movement started in the 60’s.

Driving from South Ronaldsay, you cross several of the Churchill Barriers. The British fleet was stationed here in WWII and the barriers were build using labor of POWs to protect the fleet from the Germans U boats. Before the large concrete barriers, salvage ships were lined up end to end and sunk to create the barriers. One German U-boat managed to penetrate those original barriers and sunk a the HMS Royal Oak, with the cost of over 800 lives. Today the area around the seven remaining WWI German sunken ships is one of the top dive sites in the world.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/churchill/index.html

The Italian Chapel stands on the Island of Lamb Holm just over the fourth barrier. Italian prisoners of war who built the barriers and worked in agriculture, were given a Nissen hut to turn into a chapel. Domenico Chichetti designed the chapel and the prisoners worked to decorate and furnish it over a period of 3 years with materials they could scrounge. When the prisoners were released at the end of the war, Chichetti stayed onto finish the work on the chapel. The detailed painting and metal work is a testament to what can be created from nearly nothing when you have dedication and vision. http://www.scotsitalian.com/orkney_chapel.htm

Kirkwall, the largest town in the islands is our home base for exploring the main island. All this fresh air and glorious vistas makes one hungry. We satisfied our hunger at The Reel Cafe. The cafe, music center, and music shop is run by Hazel and Jennifer Wrigley. After being on the road playing concerts since their teens, the sisters now stay close to home and foster the music tradition on the island by teaching lessons and providing a site for weekly sessions for area and visiting musicians alike. At the start of each day on the coach, I play a recording appropriate to the area we are visiting. Today it was Jennifer and Hazel's compositions, The North and the South Ron Reels. http://www.wrigleysisters.com/

You can't be in Orkney without spying old or new Orkney chairs. Locals made these chairs for hundreds of years with materials they had at hand. The chairs combine wood (originally driftwood) for the frame and oat straw coiled and stitched with sisal for the chair backs. We saw the chairs being made first hand at Fraser Anderson's workshop, Orkney Hand-Crafted Furniture, in Kirkwall. Just 23 years old, he is already a master at making Orkney chairs and employees his cousin who fashions the chair backs and several aprrentices who prepare the oatstraw and help in the wood shop. It takes up to 3 weeks to complete each chair. Fraser is honoring the tradition while designing new shapes and styles of chairs, rockers and stools. http://www.orkneyhandcraftedfurniture.co.uk/

Sheila Fleet, is the sister of Leila Thompson, the tapestry weaver we visited this morning. There is no shortage of artistic talent and vision in that family. In 15 years Sheila’s business has grown to 42 employees. Sheila is the chief designer, creating 3 new collections each year. She has done a total of 150 collections so far. She and her son took us on a tour of the workshop while explaining the lost wax method used to produce her jewelry. I found two of the steps extremely interesting. The skill of the master pattern maker who takes each design and hand cuts the metal master has to be exacting. The enamelists also have a painstakingly detailed job, applying the enamel mixture (ground up glass and distilled water) to the jewelry, then curing each piece, one at a time in a tiny kiln on their worktable.

Sheila enthusiasticly answered all our questions and shared her philosophy. “ A measure of success is how you feel about what you are doing. I’m still enjoying myself. You have to look at keeping the balance. Find something you really like doing and you’ll never work again.” If you can't come to Orkney to meet Sheila, she now also has own gallery/store in Edinburgh. Many of the group left Sheila's wearing a peice of jewelry to remind them of the pristine landscape that inspires Sheila's fabulous desigsn. http://www.sheila-fleet.co.uk/

A local friend, Mina Flett, is a wonderful advertisement for the jewelry. Her husband, Arnie has purchased many a gift from the shop. 11 years ago I met the Fletts as I walked off the ferry with a large pack on my back. Arnie drove me around to visit artist studios in exchange for me helping him warp a loom he was given. A retired pipe major, Arnie still teaches piping to dedicated students, and he and Mina entertained us with tunes and poems after dinner tonight. Sitting just a few feet from Arnie as he played tunes he has composed on his chanter, I discovered that he has the unique ability to circular breath as he is playing, a rare gift for a piper.Arnie shared copies of his notated music with one of our group who plays small pipes. Blue skies, incredible art, generous artists, history at our feet, good food and conversation and sharing of music, was this not the perfect day?

Day 7 From Insch to St Margaret's Hope

Each day the sun shines the majority of the time , I or the group comes up with a song about sun to sing. I have already used up "You Are My Sunshine", the Sesame Street theme, "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "Good Day Sunshine", "Here Comes the Sun", "Zippety Do Dah". What sun songs can you think of? I know there was a plethora of songs penned between the late 1800's and early 1900's by the Tin Pan Alley composers. I think the next one I'll learn is Irving Berlin's "Some Sunny Day".

This, our biggest travel days so far, took us through 5 regions of Scotland. Aberdeenshire, Invernesshire, Rosshire, Southerland and Orkney. We started in Insch in the shadow of Bennachie, the tallest hill in Aberdeenshire, drove through the Speyside region to Dingwall. On the way, thanks to the urgent need for a bathroom break, we stopped at the new Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre. This famous battles lasted just 45 minutes and was the end of the Jacobite uprising. The visitor center overlooks a flat field where on April 16, 1746, the Duke of Cumberland sent Bonnie Prince Charlie fleeing. Not only were the Jacobite forces massacred that day, after the battle, Cumberland, know as "The Butcher" ordered all Jacobite supporters in the Highlands hunted down and slaughtered. http://www.nts.org.uk/Culloden/Home/

For a poetic take on this site, see "Culloden Moor" by Alice Macdonnell found on http://www.rampantscotland.com/literature.htm#Poetry and listen to the McKassons "Culloden" on their recording "Tripping Maggie" http://www.themckassons.com/recordings.htm

Just several miles down the road from Culloden, lies Clava Cairns. This Bronze age burial site sits among pastures and fields. In the UK, the Bronze Age was the period from 2700 to 700 BC. The site is comprised of three stone mounds and some standing stones, trees, and a few interpretive signs. As the group strolled through the site, which isn't much larger than a football field, I think the atmosphere seeped into our beings and most talking ceased. How can we ponder something so old when we live in a time when a car is old after 3 years, a dress is out of fashion after one year, and buildings that are 80 years old are torn down to make way for modern structures? http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/majorsites/clava_cairns.html

As we headed to lunch, we drove along the Moray Firth. You are more likley to see dolphins in these waters, more than any other place in Europe. We lunched at The Storehouse at Foulis Ferry on Cromarty Firth. The storehouse is a "girnal" meaning "grain store." Girnals are unusual in the Highlands. They were built as close as possible to water transport in the 18th and 19th centuries, before there were railways in the area.

A tour of the Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain lead us through the entire process of distilling single malt whiskey from the fermentation of the grain, to the storehouse where the magic happens in the aging process. Glenmorangie single malt has a very slight peaty taste and it quite light in colour. That comes from the water and the malting process of roasting the barley with peat. Glenmorangie owns the land surrounding the spring where the water comes from . The distillery uses up to 290 tones of barley a week to make 22 mashings. The mash goes through 3 soakings. The distilling of the sugars into alcohol is a two step process. They age the whisky a minimum of 10 years in both American oak barrels that previously held bourbon, and also in French sherry barrels. Nothing like a dram of whisky to settle the stomach after lunch! We tasted their Quinta Ruban. http://www.glenmorangie.com/

From there the A9 winds north along the North Sea. Numerous oil rigs are visible off shore. Along the way, just a few miles off the main road along the River Brora is the studio of Joan Baxter, tapestry artist. Joan trained in Edinburgh and Poland and has been weaving tapestry commissions for over 30 years. Joan is inspired by the land and landscape. She and her husband live on a seven acre nature preserve. One can see the influence on the land in her traditional and mixed technique tapestries. Joan loves mixing colors, "Why use one colour when two will do?" She often works from a concept and loose sketches, preferring not to use a detailed cartoon, so the work can develop as she weaves. Joan also teaches tapestry to serious students. Joan's husband is a bladesmith and musician. So between caring for the land and creating things with their hands, there is rarely a wasted moment at Ford House. http://www.joanbaxter.com/

Our final destination on the mainland was the Pentland Ferry at Gills Bay. http://www.pentlandferries.co.uk/ Just a short hop from John O Groats, this is the shortest ferry crossing to Orkney at this time of year. Prepared with motion sickness drugs, patches, shock watches, and pressure point bracelets, the travelers boarded the ferry for the 1 hour 15 minute crossing which proved not so rough. Some of the group found the best way to sail to St. Margaret’s Hope is with the wind in your face on the open deck.

St. Margaret’s Hope is on the island of South Ronaldsay. A quiet, sleepy little town, it is a great place to spend the first night on Orkney. Many visitors to Scotland don’t travel to Orkney, and even many mainlanders have never been here. I discovered the barren, enchanting pull of these islands on my first trip to Scotland. Orkney and the Shetland Islands lie between mainland Scotland and Norway. The islands once belonged to Denmark, and the Nordic influence in the place names (St. Ola, Stenness, Brodgar) is especially strong. Orcadians pride themselves in their heritage and not being mainlanders. Of 65 islands in Orkney, 17 are inhabited with a total of 20,000 residents. However, more and more folks are discovering this magical place. This summer over 60 cruise ships will dock in Kirkwall. One more reason I like to tour off-peak.

Day 6 Oyne

We had another day of sunshine for our workshop at the rural setting of the studio at Touched By Scotland in Oyne. Not only does Robin and Jan have studio space for classes, but a wonderful newly enlarged gallery full of metal, jewelry, paper, fiber, painting, glass, ceramics,wood, and straw artwork all made from UK artists. In addition to the large gallery space, a restaurant on location will open this summer. http://www.thelandofmacbeth.com/tbs/

Elaine Lindsey is a local artist who has worked for the past 25 years reviving the Scottish forms of straw work. Today we soaked in the history and learned some technique of Scottish straw work from Elaine. http://www.somethingcorny.co.uk/ " I make a wide range of natural decorations and gifts, suitable for all occasions, including weddings, housewarings, and Christmas. I never know where it will lead me next, from making a traditional Skeklar costume for an exhibition in Los Angelese to producing straw accessories for Hugo Boss. I love reproducing traditional designs but I also enjoy designing more contemporary items too. I am a member of the Guild of Straw Craftsmen and the National Association of Wheat Weavers. " http://www.nawwstrawart.org/

A gifted teacher, Elaine is so enthusisastic and knowledgeable about many kinds of straw work from around the world. She is always learning new things herself and this shows in the vast of array of traditional and contemporary work she produces. Elaine uses wheat for most of her work, although traditionally, straw was used in Scotland for the traditional "corn dollie" work. Elaine's wheat, the "Maris Widgeon variety, is grown in the midlands in England.

Corn Dollie doesn't necessary mean a doll made out of straw. A corn dollie just means that it is straw work that still has the "ears" or heads of the grain incorporated in the piece. "Dollie" comes from the word "idol". There are many different stories about the significance of the last sheaf of corn (corn is the word used for grain in the UK) harvested from the field. In Scotland the last sheaf, the "cliach", hung in the farm kitchen. The seeds of this were the first planted the next year. It was good luck to have a dollie in the house.

You don't need fancy tools to work with straw, just your hands, scissors, straw and cotton string. In the photos, you can see how proud we were of our creations at the end of the workshop!

Nearly everywhere you travel in Scotland, stone ruins are found. Near our lodging in Insch, stands Dunnideer Fort. The remnants of the fortifications at the site date back to the Iron Age. A number of us took a pre-dinner hike to the top.

Sunday night G&T came back to treat us once again to a house concert of folks songs of Scotland. Trish Norman and Gaye Anthony travel around the UK and Europe performing at festivals. Their voices blend in sweet harmonies while trading off the lead. Trish’s high, clear, lilting soprano is grounded by Gaye’s rich, round alto voice. They accompany themselves with guitar. They sing songs about the sea, fishing, and even taught us the chorus to their famous haggis song! Their stories and banter interspersed between songs kept us all smiling and laughing and singing along. They learned a song new to them, just for us, "The Spinning Wheel" and I got to join in. Gaye and Trish have made 3 recordings. You can hear their joyous sounds at www.mypsace.com/gtgayeandtrish

Three members of the Grampian Weavers Guild were our guests for the evening. Jean Thain, Margaret Wallace, and Zahara Mcmillan brought things they had made and the travelers who were wearing things they had made, and there was a sharing of co-creativity.