A tourist at home

Seeing the sights of Hoy

We had visitors.

Which is always exciting and VERY rare, probably because it’s such an arse-ache to get here.

As I said in last week’s update E’s family came to visit. Mum & Dad are retired which allows them more time and flexibility so they stayed on Hoy for the week and have since departed to stay on Mainland for around 10 days.

I took Monday and Tuesday off to spend some time with them, which was lovely. I have managed to take on an associate for the business who was able to cover the session I would normally have to attend on a Tuesday morning, which felt like an utter luxury.

On Monday we did the number 1 touristy thing to do, headed over to Rackwick and up to the Old Man of Hoy. The Old Man is one of the largest sea stacks in the UK standing at a staggering 449ft. A play thing for serious climbers and something to admire for the the less active like me.

Like the rest of the country, we're not getting the best weather; it's very windy for June and a bit chillier than I would expect. Nonetheless, we braved it with our little pack lunch and trekked our way to the magnificent view.

Most of the walk is inland away from the cliffs, but as soon as you reach the Old Man we could see and hear the fulmars nesting on every available surface. I was mesmorised, the Old Man is great, but let me lay on the grass, head poking over the edge to watch fulmars hovering in the wind and I could be lost for hours.

Old Man of Hoy & the cliffs

After a full day of the freshest air and a good night’s sleep we took it a little slower on Tuesday. Well I did anyway!

E’s parents love to bike, they are Dutch after all, but between us and their rental, the bikes aren’t really suitable, so we went on a mission to find some electric bikes. As it turns out we have 2 island community e-bikes which were available to borrow for a donation. The bikes are part of a project to encourage islanders to give them a whirl and perhaps invest in their own reducing the amount car travel on the island.

It’s a great idea, but it’s not had much take up yet. One of the problems we have is that an island car is cheaper than an e-bike and you don’t have to worry about pesky MOTs here either. Hoy is two ferry journeys to mainland Scotland and so classed as an outer isle. As long as your car isn’t taken off Hoy, you don’t need to MOT it, although apparently you do still need tax and insurance. Given I’ve only seen the police here twice in almost 2 years I’m not sure anyone is checking.

The guy who looks after the bikes invited us in for a cuppa. He’s a top bloke and what I call a volunteer behemoth. He’s one of the volunteer RNLI crew, so when he offered to take us on a tour of the lifeboat we couldn’t resist.

Helen Comrie, the RNLI Lifeboat at Longhope is a Tamar-class all-weather boat, which basically means it is SOLID. It has an enclosed wheelhouse and is self-righting, in theory, no matter the size of the wave, it will always bob back up.

The wheelhouse has 7 seats, lots of screens and looks like something you might see on a spaceship, think Star Wars. It was very impressive and now I am thinking, just thinking mind you, what it might be like to become volunteer crew. The crew train twice every 3 weeks and it takes about a year before you can become one of the 7 on a call out, so it requires some dedication and I am not sure I have it in me at the moment.

It would be pretty cool though right?

The lifeboat wheel houses!

Next stop was the Longhope Lifeboat Museum which houses the Thomas McCunn on the most amazing slipway. What I wouldn’t give to launch off that! One of the most important stories of the lifeboat history here at Longhope is the also the 1969 disaster when the lifeboat T.G.B ON962 and its 8 crew were sadly lost. It has left a lasting mark.

The museum is a wonderful resource and has recently received National Lottery funding to further develop and ensure it remains a lasting tribute to the lifeboats and, more importantly, the volunteer crews of the past and present.

After leaving the museum we decided to take a walk along Brims to the Ayre, a very short walk that took about 30 minutes on account of the 3 heads with piercing eyes and flaring nostrils that kept bobbing above the water watching us. I don’t know who was more curious, us or the seals. It was brilliant!

We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out on Tuesday, finally paying a visit to the very well reputed Emily's on Hoy, a cafe come restaurant which has a small but perfect set menu with the addition of weekly specials. Very delicious, very welcoming. So good in fact that we went back on the Friday!

Come Wednesday it was a bit of back to normal as E’s brother headed home and I headed to Mainland to pick up the dog after a successful stay at the kennels. It was a bit of a mad dash after picking her up to make it to town for our Vets appointment. We’ve got her some dog valium to help keep her calm during the journey for our upcoming trip to Skye to visit an Instagram friend and get a behind the scenes tour of The 1970 Gallery. She hates the car but she’ll love the holiday. We’ve booked stops along the way and way back, one being in a remote cabin in the woods with deer. Sensory overload.

Mum and Dad stayed on Hoy until the end of the week and on Saturday we visited a place I’d never even heard of…The Gloup, a collapsed sea cave, dropping down about 80ft. Not quite tempting enough to dive right into but I would love to swim through the bridge into the Gloup. The name Gloup comes from the old Norse word for chasm ‘gluppa’.

More cliffs and a Gloup

I’m finishing this up almost a week later than anticipated, sitting in a thriving Doug buzzing with bees and hoverflies with the sound of lambs, gulls, the wind turbine and distant people going about their business. A moment to savour and acknowledge this is the life I dreamt of.

Take care

Han 🌱

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