We’ve driven past the Crantit Trail many times on the way to Scapa beach – but we’d never walked there.
As we’re both what the Aussies might refer to as a bit ‘crook’, at the moment we’re looking for short, easy walks, and that looked like it would fit the bill. So, on a fine May day – sunshine and scattered showers with a skittery sort of wind, we went for it.
Parking in the small car park just off what we think of as the Balfour roundabout we crossed the road to the beginning of the path, with a very seasonal sight to our right – Willows in fresh new leaf, Flag-irises shaping to up to flower, and a Fern, unfurling.
Along the path, looking across to our right – a pool with a pair of swans nesting, and a heron on guard.
As I was taking the photo, a woman walking by stopped to tell us that the water from the pool is piped across and up the hill to the Highland Park distillery with its distinctive ‘pagoda’ roof.
Marsh marigolds in the ditches…and lambs in the field
At the end of the trail we turned right, onto the tarmac road to Scapa Beach…to view our second distillery of the day – Scapa – where a new tasting room was opened recently… https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2023/03/scapa-distillery-unveils-tasting-room/
We walked along to the pier
Then back along the beach across an alien landscape – or should that be seascape? Either way – it’s weird
In the loo by the Bay – a warning sign..
Maybe I should turn to ‘Orkneyjar’ for an explanation of ‘blackenings’….
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/weddings/blacken.htm
And maybe I should explain ‘clarted’ – which means smeared. Sometimes I can’t see clearly because my glasses are clarty – smeary. Another good Scots word, like dreich – which describes the situation perfectly.
Back to the Trail, and a sign for the St. Magnus Way…
with St. Magnus Cathedral and the Balfour Hospital in the background – both places of Healing.
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Categories: walking
