Blame the old map and the milestones.
Today it is blowing a gale out of the west, the windchill mid morning put the temperature at a chilly minus six degrees Celsius. Barrelling along with this wind are frequent showers of snow and hail. Happy flippin' April.
Undaunted (well, quite a bit daunted actually, but there's a tiny, wee spark of journalistic fervour trying to glow here), this afternoon I put on most of my wardrobe and headed out to find the milestone I mentioned recently. As I left the sanctuary of Tense Towers, I thought I would take a few seconds to pay tribute to something that features in many of my photos from the lounge window, and which is often commented on by visitors to our home. The comments range from "Aw, it's a shame about that sign post." to "Have you got a big hacksaw?"
I don't, in fact, have a big hacksaw, although I do happen to have a cordless angle grinder. However, the sign is safe from me, if only because if it wasn't there, due to the speed at which some vehicles whistle by Tense Towers, they would likely end up in the sea.
Carrying on with my short walk, I followed the main road around to the right until just before the manse (actually, one of three manses, but that's a story for another day). The old map indicated that there was a milestone here, one mile from Holm and seven and an eighth miles from Kirkwall.
Sure enough, there it was atop a dry stone wall, less worn than the example down by the old kirk, as I could just about make out the carved characters.
Corenvirons-20 data
Target: Milepost
Location: NGR HY498018
Distance from Tense Towers (as the dragon flies): 360m
Hazards: Road traffic, horizontal hail
Mission accomplished? Yes
Comments: Back home in time for a 3 o'clock cuppa
3 comments:
Glad your target was reached despite the temperatures. I had to put on another layer just reading your post brrrrrr. Shame about the signpost lol! B
Lockdown time very well spent Mr T! In fact breaking fresh historicall ground it would appear. Really absorbing. I'm just managing to keep going at the moment - if there's a sudden increase in blogs from my direction then you will know things have changed🤐
Thanks, folks! The only down side to beginning a series on very local history during a lockdown is the fact that the Kirkwall Library and Archive is closed, so any factual content on here will be limited to books we already have, the vagaries of the internet and my flaky intuition (in descending order of accuracy). Hopefully, any flights of fancy on my part will be obvious!
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