Meanwhile, getting back to Orkney, we had our Visit Scotland grading visit about 10 days ago. This is always quite nerve wracking, because however much you tell yourself that the place has seen nothing but improvements since the last visit, it’s still someone coming to judge you and your property. And it’s just like when you’re trying to sell your house; you see nothing but faults!

So obviously before the Inspector came we worried, but it was all fine. I was very pleased that the bathroom, which we had refurbished since our last inspection reached the dizzy heights of 4 stars, as, reassuringly did our cleaning. The rest was all safely still three star standard. The one or two suggestions for improvements that the Inspector made were already on our radar, so it seems we’re doing something right. Always good to know!

And talking of the hamper, here is a photograph of it.

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Orkney produces great food and we aim to help our guests sample it straight away. In deference to any dietary preferences we dont’t include meat or fish but we still manage to fill the hamper up. Items vary slightly from time to time but we generally put in two different types of Orkney Beer, locally produced butter cheese and eggs, oatcakes, shortbread, jam and marmalade, fudge, and a bere bannock. Bere is an old variety of barley still grown in Orkney in a small way. I think it’s an acquired taste, but since it’s in the hamper you can give it a go without having to buy it first and if you really like it there are various places here where you can buy bere flour to take home and bake your own!

And continuing the theme of food and drink, now that April’s here lots of seasonal places to eat are opening up again. The Birsay Bay Tearoom, which is just along the road from Poppy’s PLace opened its doors last week and for our family the really good news was that Gerri’s Ice Cream Parlour in Stenness is also now open for the season. Orkney ice cream has never made it to the hamper since it melts! but you really should go to Geri’s and sample it if you’re visiting Orkney

The Workshop - Outside View

There are many wonderful artists and craftspeople in Orkney and quite a few of them welcome visitors to their studios and galleries. You can check out those who do in the Craft Trail booklet available from the Tourist Offices in Stromness and Kirkwall. If you don’t have the time, or the inclination, to visit many of them individually a good place to see the work of a number of them all under one roof is The Workshop in St Margaret’s Hope on South Ronaldsay.

The Hope, as it is known locally is a picturesque little village, well worth a stroll around on a nice day, and The Workshop shouldn’t be missed. The ground floor is packed with the work of many of Orkney’s most famous artists and crafts people, along with a good selection of locally produced knitwear in luxury yarns, which you won’t find anywhere else. Upstairs there is a small gallery which hosts a series of (mainly art) exhibitions throughout the year.

Although often overlooked the ‘linked southern isles’ of Burray and South Ronaldsay, so-called because they are linked to mainland Orkney by the Churchill Barriers, have plenty to interest the visitor, and a few of the highlights will be covered here in the weeks ahead.

Left – part of the original knitwear range available at The Workshop

Right – this sterling silver pendant has a design based on the decoration found on a stone excavated at the famous Ness of Brodgar archaeological dig, and is one of several designs available at The Workshop based on Orcadian archaeological or natural themes.

In the information folder we provide in Poppy’s Place we confidently assert that the best fish and chips in Orkney are to be found at the Pierowall Hotel on the island of Westray, and although it is several years since we sampled them we have no reason to doubt the continuing validity of that remark. We also say that running them a close second is Harbour Fry in Kirkwall. Kirkwall being rather easier of access than Westray, we’ve been thinking of maybe checking out Harbour Fry again for a while and one night last week, when neither of us felt lilke cooking that’s exactly what we did.

I’m happy to say that they were well up to standard. Large portions of delicious and well cooked fish, lots of chips (too many for me) and tartar sauce if you want it. I stick to vinegar myself. Eating in, and with two mugs of tea and a fizzy drink, it came to less tha £20 for three, so excellent value too. And if you don’t eat fish there are plenty of other things on the menu. It’s not the Ritz, but it’s warm and comfortable and not far from Kirkwall Harbour so handy for an evening when you’ve been watching the boats go in and out, or if you’ve just got off one of the inter island ferries after a trip to one of the Outer Isles.

Logins Inn Plaque

Normal service is resumed! Apologies for last week’s lack of a post. Eight days with no-one but four temperamental cats and a stroppy stove for company, and weather related worries about the return of the family from a trip south meant that cheery comments on Orkney’s general wonderfulness weren’t on my agenda. The cats are still temperamental and the stove is still stroppy, but they’re no longer my sole responsibility. So to business…

Stromness is Orkney’s second largest town, after Kirkwall. It’s every bit as interesting and possibly more picturesque than its Cathedral blessed neighbour; and if you come to Orkney by ferry you’re more than likely to enter via Stromness, so that it becomes your first impression of the islands.

If you want to take a walk in Stromness a variety of leaflets are available to guide you around, although basically it’s one long street with a variety of closes leading off it. Many of these small streets have names of historic interest; the one called Khyber Pass always makes me smile! Anyway you don’t really need a leaflet because many of the places of interest are marked with blue plaques, commemorating famous, or infamous, Orcadians, organisations or historical events.

One of the most interesting, and easiest to find being almost in the harbour, is the one on the site of Login’s Inn, pictured above. When you think of Orkney and Empire it’s Canada that springs to mind, because of the close connection with the Hudson Bay Company, but this little plaque tells of a connection with another part of the world entirely – India. Sir John Login never went there, he was made Duleep Singh’s guardian when the boy was brought to the UK after ‘abdicating’ in favour of British rule in the Punjab. His is a sad story, worth a bit of quick research on the Internet. Very much an Empire narrative.

There is another Login plaque, although much older than the new blue one for Sir John. This marks the site of Login’s Well, and I’m sure there’ll be a blog post about that one of these days…

I always think that one of the nicest moments when you go away somewhere is checking out the goodies in the hotel bathroom. Obviously it’s not the sort of thing that makes or breaks a holiday, but I do like the anticipation, although occasionally it is a let down. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of small overly ornate plastic bottles with lavender scented and lavender coloured goo in them, but that’s just because I associate lavender with old age rather than aromatherapy.

Not every self catering property provides soap etc for the bathroom but we decided that we would, and rather than buy sachets of shower gel and shampoo in bulk we opted to provide and showcase the products of Orkney Soap. We do this partly because we feel we should support the local economy and publicise things that are locally made and partly because we just like them. It’s certainly what we use at home. So if you come to Poppy’s Place for a holiday you’ll find both shower gel and soap in the bathroom waiting to be used. (They won’t always be the fragrances illustrated above; the company produces a wide range and we like to ring the changes now and again)

Orkney Soap was set up under the auspices of COPE Ltd, (Community Opportunites for Participation in Enterprise) and provides support and training placements for local adults with disabilities. It was originally set up as Shetland Soap in 2002 and the Orkney offshoot came into being in 2005. The products can be purchased in various outlets throughout Orkney,as well as on Northlink Ferries, but obviously the widest range can be found in their own shop in Albert Street in Kirkwall. It’s a beautiful shop to go into , well laid out and with helpful and welcoming staff. If you want a small reminder of Orkney, or gifts for those at home, it’s well worth a visit.

Stenness loch and Hoy hills from Brodgar

While the rest of the country seems to have been suffering extremely cold and wintry conditions this last weeek, Orkney has been very mild and almost windfree. So it was a good opportunity for a stroll at Brodgar. As well as the usual winter bird species, including a mass of swans on Loch Harray, both a male hen harrier and a short eared owl were to be seen flying low, doubtless looking for food.

Honest .. it is an otter !

There’s lots more information about the RSPB work at Brodgar and other parts of Orkney on the RSPB website and leaflets describing walks at Brodgar and other reserves are available from the Tourist Office in Kirkwall

The Atlantic hurls itself at Orkney

It’s a common misconception that Orkney is flat. It certainly doesn’t have the mountainous grandeur of the Highlands, which visitors will have driven through or flown over on their way to the islands. But the Vikings, who tended to the literal, weren’t being ironic when they christened Hoy (the High Island). Most of mainland Orkney is what you might call undulating, there are ups and downs which generally balance one another out and make for pleasant walks and cycling. But in places round the edges there are some tall cliffs.

Yesnaby looking north

This new and completely redesigned  site is aimed to be both more user freidnly and a bit more informative that our previous one. That’s the main reason for adding the blog, so that we can keep you informed about what’s going on, not only with Poppy’s Place but throughout Orkney more generally.

The intention is to update every Sunday afternoon so please keep coming back to see what we have for you. It might be newly released details of one of Orkney’s many festivals, pictures from a walk we’ve taken that, who knows? you may be doing yourself one day soon, reviews of places to eat and drink, short pieces about Orkney’s major (and minor) places of interest.

Feel free to leave a comment, or even a suggestion or two, if there’s something youre dying to hear about!