Stromness- A Tumble of Houses

I've finally managed to exhaust his Lordship.
All the cycling and socialising of the last few days has taken its toll, and I was forced to leave him asleep this morning as I and my camera made our escape to wander the roads and lanes of Stromness in peace.

The dullness of the early morning gave way to another warm day of blue skies and sunshine, but because HL decreed this to be a cycle free day, we drove up to Birsay instead of pedalling there as had been the plan, and then continued round the east coast by Evie and Finstown.

We walked along the sands at Evie, watching a lone yacht making its way past the coast of Eynhallow, its white sails making a wonderful contrast to the amazing blue of the sea.

The light today was a perfect northern light so different from that warm light of the Mediterranean, otherwise the scene could have been that of one from the Greek Islands.

Further on we visited the Broch of Gurness, an Iron Age settlement, later inhabited by several of our predecessors including the Picts and the Vikings.
It was discovered in 1929 by accident under a massive grassy mound when the Orcadian poet Robert Rendall was sketching, and the leg of his stool sank through the ground. I expect he got the shock of his life when he discovered it had fallen into the entrance of a staircase.
Lewis Carroll couldn't have made it up.