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Walking Group One 25th April 2024
Five hardy souls collected today at Happy Valley for the first Hill Walk of the year .The temperature was cool with a North Easterly wind blowing and a hint of rain on arrival.
Off we set heading towards Russadale Quarry, spotting a Buzzard on the way.Turning into the footpath we remained sheltered from the wind all the way to the top of the hill.
The sun was out at the Quarry and a Greenshank was feeding at the edge of the Lochan. Then it was up the Peat road to the summit with spectacular views across Stenness and Harray Lochs, plus a view of the Closed Road beyond the Watch Stone. On the other side we looked over the Flow and down towards the Oil Platform and South Ronaldsay
Then it was back down after a stop for a snack and finally a walk around Happy Valley itself. The Daffodils planted by James and others were looking lovely and the Bluebells are days away from opening. Then it was on to a well deserved lunch at the Pier Cafe, having walked 4 miles and gone up 800 feet (and down again )
The next walk will be on Friday 24th May and hopefully more hills and views.
Keep moving.
u3a Walking Group 2 - August 2023
by Ellie - 16:20 on 19 August 2023
On another lovely bright warm sunny day eight of us meet on Monday 14th August at the New Cemetery at Birsay for a 3½ mile linear walk. Leaving a couple of cars at the cemetery we piled into two cars and drove to the Borough of Northside and parked at the Langaleby Geo, a long narrow geo formed by collapsing sea caves, for the start of our walk along the footpath. We were joined later by two more members of the group.
We made our way around the coast, stopping to take in the great views of Westray and Rousay and spotting the odd bird or two including a young black back gull. Unfortunately, no Orcas were around and the whalebone was still missing from its usual spot. It wasn’t quite low tide when we reached the causeway and consequently it was fairly quiet. On reaching the Palace a quick visit to Ann and Robin’s Garden, a credit to them, it was quite stunning. The final part of our walk was the along the beach at the Bay of Birsay where we had great views of Marwick Head. A short section on the road took us back to the cemetery and retrieval of the cars parked at the Geo.
Our next walk will be on the Monday the 18th September.
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