Orkney

Since my last post, I have been spending some time visiting the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland. I had never been there before and was pleasantly surprised of how lovely it is out there. We stayed in a self-catering house on the island of South Ronaldsay, and this was our view:



Given the northern location of these islands, the sun sets at about 11 pm and it never actually goes dark.

We visited the Island of Hoy on Friday. The most famous landmark is the Old Man of Hoy, but seeing it involves a very long walk, so whilst my friends were doing that, I spent a long time in Rackwick Bay. I came across this bothy (old cottage) on my way to the bay:

And this is Rackwick Bay in al its glory:

We visited the Ring of Brodgar, an amazing ring of standing stones on Mainland Orkney:

And visited the Brough of Birsay in the north of Mainland Orkney. Unfortunately we arrived at the wrong time of day to visit the island you can see in the background. There is a little causeway footpath, but the tide was rising and we had to go back after only a few minutes:

I didn't have a lot of time to stitch, but I worked on Vignette in Stitches and started Sampler aux Bouquets.

We also visited an amazing tapestry gallery at Hoxa, on South Ronaldsay. The artist Leila Thomson makes enormous woven tapestries, some of them include beautiful words. A must see if you ever visit the Orkney Islands.

The islands are home to many great art galleries. One of the ones we visited is Jane Glue's gallery in Finstown on Mainland Orkney. I would love to go back and have some tuition!

Next time I will show you my progress on Vignette in Stitches and Sampler aux Bouquets.