Skaill Bay - Orkney Islands

[Skaill Bay, Orkney - June 2018]

Nothing can match the beauty of light and colour that Orkney commands on a sunny day.

The Emperor was lucky to have some nice days on his most recent campaign to the Northern isles. The bay of Skaill is the location of the ancient World Heritage Site, Skara Brae - a Stone Age settlement dating to between 3180 BC and 2500BC. (Dates that would make Roman - and even Egyptian -  heritage blush)

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae 

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The historian Tacitus reminds us that Roman power - at least at one time - extended as far as the Orkney Islands:

"But when you go further north [in Britain] you find a huge and shapeless tract of country [Caledonia], jutting out to form what is actually the most distant coastline and finally tapering into a kind of wedge. These remotest shores were now circumnavigated, for the first time, by a Roman fleet, which thus established the fact that Britain was an island. At the same time it discovered and subjugated the Orkney Islands, hitherto unknown."

[Tacitus, Agricola*, I.iv.]

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*Agricola was a military governor of Britain who campaigned extensively in the North of Britain between c.AD 78 - 84. Although the Romans did not ultimately settle Caledonia, there is little doubt that they explored and campaigned deep into the Northern lands, leaving forts and other physical evidence of campaign. 

The Orkney Chair

The long awaited Orkney Chair (2 seater) came this week and it was well worth the wait. 

Individually measured to the shape of the Emperor and Empress and ordered on our travels last year, it was always going to be a long wait for such an anticipated prize. 

However, the wait was more than worth it for an Emperor that has for a lifetime admired the simple beauty of Orkney straw backs.

The Emperor's chair is a modern take on the traditional single seaters, but which utilises all the traditional skill and material of this craft classic. With an added sense of romance the imperial couple hope to mould their respective seats over many years to come.

Made of mahogany with, seagrass seats and the traditional woven straw back, its the simplicity of the lines, methods and materials that make Orkney Chairs an icon of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Kudos indeed to the master craftsman Fraser Anderson of Kirkwall for such a wonderful piece of furniture. It is already well loved here and I hope it will be for many years to come: http://www.orkneyhandcraftedfurniture.co.uk

Getting in a Flap with Nosey Neighbours

[A pair of diligent Orkney geese took up guard outside the Emperor's window - July 2017]

Staying in a cottage on my favoured isle of Orkney in July, the imperial household was subjected each day to some rather flagrant rubber-necking.

No one welcomes a nosey neighbour and on a recent campaign the Emperor was subjected to a couple of right busy bodies! The type who just cant help sticking their beaks in.

However, it can't be said that everyone objects to the diligent and inquisitive nature of the humble goose.  Reminded as I am by the lore of my great forefathers,  I recollect that it was indeed the geese of the Roman Capitol that were hailed as saviours of their nation when they alerted the exhausted defenders of the fortress when in mortal peril from a night Gallic night attack, back in their early history.

The historian Livy tells us it was the clamour of the sacred geese who stirred the defenders and alerted them to the deadly attackers scaling their walls.

"... they [the Gauls] accomplished the climb so quietly that the Romans on guard never heard a sound, and even the dogs - who are normally aroused by the least noise in the night - noticed nothing. It was the geese that saved them - Juno's sacred geese ..."

[Livy, Early History of Rome, V.46]

This was a legendary and revered act of service that saved the nation and secured a special place in Roman folklore for the humble goose.

So it is with reflection on past fidelity, that this Emperor feels privileged indeed to have had such a guard of honour outside his window.

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Postscript: No Gauls breached the walls of my guest cottage that week, though we did meet some random Greeks and Germans in the holiday that followed (but they were friendly). 

Marwick Head

[The Dramatick Marwick Head. Isles of Orkney. Scotland]

See:
http://www.orkneypics.com/webpage/page/page054.html