Going Coastal - The Great Puffin Hunt

Today was day one of The Great Puffin Hunt. Gitama has her heart set on shooting the wee birdies and so we began the quest to search them out in earnest this morning. According to the books the Bough of Birsay was a good place to find them on the mainland. When we got up though, the grey day that left us yesterday remained and so instead we decided to head south which looked a little brighter to another of the mainland spotting sites, Markwick Head. As we climbed the rocky cliffs were awash with gulls and guillemots plus the occasional pigeon of all things but not a puffin in sight. All of a sudden this wee head poked itself above the grass and lo and behold our first puffin of the day came into view. Alas, it was to be the closest we got to one today and the timid wee thing flew off as soon as we tried to get a little closer but it was a wonderful sight. My shot today is of one of the marker posts that line the trail up the hill. These little standing stones were fabulous, each with as much character as their big brothers over at Stenness.

At the top of the hill, we wandered over to the Kitchener Memorial built to commemorate the loss of HMS Hampshire and all but 12 hands on 5th June 1916. The crenelated tower is being spruced up for the centennial gathering and so access was restricted but I've included a shot from across the headland in my extras. We also encountered a magnificent group of horses, each of whom I could swear had their manes done by Vidal Sassoon!

As we climbed back down to the car park and the rather picturesque wall in my extras, we ran into a couple who had just come from Yesnaby and who told us they had seen a few puffins coming and going there so off we went further down the coast. We had briefly stopped off here a couple of days ago but we didn't wander down the coast from the car park. It was busy that day but the dull weather today had obviously deterred too many visitors.

I'm so glad we returned. What a treat we had wandering in an out the cliff tops, looking down on the waters crash against the beautiful coastal rocks (and, of course for puffins). Such wonderful shapes and colours in those sedimentary stones that look as though they could shear from the face at any time. I haven't had a chance to go through them so for now I've included a shot of Yesnaby Castle, a sea stack to the south of the Brough of Bigging. My final extra is a derelict farmhouse on the road leading from the car park.

We did encounter some more puffins but try as we might, they were just too far away. Gitama had been chatting to a girl when we were at Marwick Head and she had suggested we might be better going to Castle o'Burrian on Westray (their website does say its one of the best and easiest places to see puffins close up) so we'll check out the ferry times for there and head across later in the week. Tomorrow we'll get across to the Brough of Birsy for a wander in the morning... just on the off chance.

We had booked in to visit Maeshowe yesterday and so we arrived at the appointed time and set off into the burial cairn. I'd been before but once again I was rapt with the aural history of the place and the very visible written history. The famous Maeshowe Lion was pointed out to all and sundry and it was lovely to see the delicately carved form once more. The light, dim as it was still penetrated the chamber and shone against the massive stones that line the entry passage. I wish that photography was allowed in the cairn but alas it's just more memories that have to be stored away the old fashioned way.

Gitama's view on the first day of Puffin Hunt can be found here.

A final word goes to the centennial commemoration of the Battle of Jutland where some 8,648 sailors on both sides died in the sea battle that was like so many campaigns of the Great War, supposed to be the decisive battle to end to the war but never did. May they all rest in peace.

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!