The Drongs

We have driven to the Northmavine today for three days at the St Magnus Bay Hotel.  En route we stopped for a walk out to the Chambered Cairn at Mavis Grind.  At this point in the Island the isthmus is so narrow between the North Sea and the Atlantic that it is said it is possible to throw a stone between one and the other.  My ball throwing skills are certainly not up to it.  Apparently, boats used to be dragged across from one to the other to save the dangerous journey around the northern end of Shetland.  There was a story on the information board by the son of parents who had dragged their boat across the gap at a time when he was just three months old and his sister just three.  That was some feat.

We must have walked right by the cairn on our outward journey but a passing dogwalker put us right and we found it at the water's edge.  I could understand why someone would choose to be interred at such  a beautiful, wild place.

From here we continued our journey north and arrived at midday at Hillswick where we packed pom bears and kit kats and set off for a longer walk, a circuit of the Ness of Hillswick which the guide book said afforded spectacular cliff views.  The ever present wind was high today and the cloud low so no blue skies and waters sadly but the views of stacks and needle pointed rocks did not disappoint.  My blip is of the Drongs, a group of sea stacks.  The name comes from the Norse drangr which means free standing pillar of rock.  Our hotel manager told us that the stacks look different from all angles and that there were a number of founderings when sailors saw them as sails from boats and thought it was a safe passage.

Our hotel is also a building of interest.  It was made in Norway and brought over for an exhibition where it was rebuilt at Kelvingrove, then later transported here by the  North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Co.  It overlooks Ura Firth and we are fortunate to have one of the newly refurbished rooms which is very comfortable.  Let's hope we have some sunshine to fully enjoy these vast landscapes over the next few days.