A kind fellow dog-walker texted me a list of some good beaches for Scout. One was Aikerness at the village of Evie. So we headed out this morning, but I made a wrong turn and after driving quite a ways down a single track, I ended up here at the Broch of Gurness, an Iron Age village.
I’ve been here before with my sister and nephew – I think my sister made friends with an Historic Scotland employee that day (but that’s her story to tell, not mine) – it is a fascinating settlement in breathtaking countryside. It’s over 2,000 years old, and as well as the Iron Age dwellings they uncovered, they have found Roman amphorae, Viking artefacts, Norse jewellery, and Pictish homes. It really is like walking through history, and then when I turned and headed back up the hill, the history continued as I was surrounded by farm houses and stone fences that were at least 100 and possibly 200 years old. (As an aside, that single-lane track that winds around the fields and over the hills has a speed limit of 100 km/h. Just sayin’.)
We did head on to the Sands of Evie to check them out – an absolutely lovely beach on a sunny day. I’m getting better at identifying the local birds – we saw oyster catchers, eider ducks, greylag geese, a grouse, and an extremely camera-shy grey seal. I swear he knew what a camera was and was taunting me by hiding every time I got my phone out, and bobbing up every time it went back in my pocket.
We walked for miles. The car is filthy, the dog is exhausted, and I can feel the sand in my hair – a great day!!!!!
Scout looks like she is living her best life. The Audrey Hepburn of Orkney dogs!
The harder the wind, the happier she seems to be.