Fair Isle Caravan

On our way to the Tomb of the Eagles we stopped in St Margaret's Hope for lunch at the Murray Arms Hotel and a wander round. This beautifully hand-decorated caravan, in what I take to be a Fair Isle style, stays next on the car park which overlooks the bay (do look in large for detail).

The nearby stony beach had the most sea-glass I have ever seen, in fact the sheer quantity of bottle necks suggests it is the place to party, however apart from a couple of pieces of blue it was all pretty average stuff.

Despite the steady rain we paid our visit to the 5,000 year-old chambered cairn, accessing the narrow entrance lying prostrate or supine on a trolley. The tomb was discovered only in 1958, along with significant artefacts; it contained 30 human skulls separate from the rest of their mixed skeletons, besides talons and bones from several White-tailed Eagles (aka Sea Eagles), hence the name. Later excavation revealed over 100 skulls and bones, the largest collection of Neolithic bones to have been found in the British Isles.

Along our route I was pleased to see flocks of Lapwings, which are becoming less common elsewhere, they're one of my favourite birds.