Whew! No wonder I'm tired!

My goodness, no wonder I'm tired, we had yet another whirlwind day, and I wouldn't omit anything. On the go all day every day so tomorrow I may rest part of the day as we wait for Bill to arrive from London. There are such incredible sights here that choosing one means deleting another, tough decisions, but we've done well.

It was a gray--oops, grey--morning, eminently suited for visiting the Grey Cairns of Camster, only a few miles from our B&B. Five thousand years old again, a number that is incomprehensible to me, but those five thousand years ago the cairns were build presumably to hold bones of ancestors and to be a place for  spiritual ceremonies. 

Here you see the larger: doesn't it have a lovely organic shape suited to the gentle slope? Sheep all around add to the atmosphere as does the grey (!) sky. Mary and I crawled into the cairn because there was a skylight and we could see within. Five erect stones: one slab easily three times the width of the other two, and two flanking the doorway behind us--impressive. We felt the quiet in that place.  The second cairn was pretty round and had no skylight so we walked around the outside instead. The air was fresh and sweet with a breeze, an impressive setting.

Years ago, when we subscribed to National Geographic, Chuck and I read about the mysteries of the Hill O' Many Stanes, so when we made it to this neck of the woods, we found it--ta dah!

 

 As with other neolithic sites, the precise purpose of these rough and wobbly rows of stones is unknown, but they think it too as something to do with ancestors. Some stones have been taken and others may be concealed beneath the peat, but there are over 200 small stones arranged in twenty-two rows.

Moving on...On a visit to the north in 1952, the Queen Mother bought a castle and gardens, the only property she personally owned. Beloved by the locals, who still volunteer to maintain the gardens, she made several visits every year. The castle was comfortable and not huge, quite a human scale, comfortably furnished. The garden, with fifteen-foot walls to protect from the wind, was pleasant but not yet at the peak of the season.

After returning to the B&B to take a nap but finding the landlady not at home to let us in, we decided to visit Castle Sinclair/Girnigoe on a promontory named Noss Head. They are both in shambles, but delightfully gloomy and romantic. 

Although I enjoyed paintings of the Queen Mum with her corgis and the challenge of recognizing rows at the Hill O'Many Stanes, I most appreciated the Grey Cairns of Camster. The setting was still and calm with more gentle hills, the rock work was amazing--most of it original, and the shape of the large one, its curves echoing the landscape--Ahhhh!