Keeping company

Almost every day as this new year starts, I am observing the Brough of Birsay. Its form, and the shapes that appear and morph as weather bathes and engulfs it.

I walk, and sit, and lie, and look, and listen, and feel. I draw, and write, and video record, and capture the Brough’s sounds.

When the tides permit, I cross the causeway to this mass of rock and soil and water and wildlife, to a place that was settled by the Norse in the 9th century, and I imagine whether they were able to peacefully join and live along with the Picts. I meander through ruins and remains, rebuilding in my mind and through touch and pacing, Norse houses, their barns and sauna, and the later peedie church and monastery.

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The Brough of Birsay is an uninhabited tidal island off the north-west coast of the mainland of Orkney, Scotland, in the parish of Birsay. It is located around 13 miles north of Stromness and holds the remains of Pictish and Norse settlements as well as the unmanned lighthouse that was built in 1925 by David A Stevenson.