My Happy Place
Walking down the grassy path, from the car park, I could see the sea and hear the wind.
Two Shetland horses came up to the low fence, to greet me. I nuzzled them for a few seconds, before following the footpath and a high stone wall, on my right. Walking under a stone arch, I caught my first glimpse of the Jarlshof.
I stopped……. And looked.
Above the small ‘admissions building’, I could easily make out the shape of the Earls House….. or at least the ruin of it. A solitary gull sat atop the buildings tower. It watched me as I gazed over the rest of the site.
I heard a splash to my left…. Turning my head, I saw a grey seal breach the oceans surface before submerging under the surf and the seaweed.
I stood for a few moments, waiting for it to resurface.
‘Good morning, Sir’, said a young woman, who spoke with a soft Shetland accent. I turned my head away from the water and responded with a smile and a nod.
‘Do I pay you for admission?’, I asked.
She nodded and indicated that I follow her into the stone building.
Buying my ticket, I walked into the site known as the Jarlshof.
The ground around me was an immaculately preserved archaeological site, and the ground looked a little like ‘no man’s land’, between the trenches of WW1. Many holes that were the outlines of ancient structures, lay around me. Continual habitation, from 2500BC up until the 17thC was strewn around the green landscape.
It was a beautiful site…….
These are my notes from a research trip that I took, whereupon I explored Orkney and Shetland, some years ago.
It’s still one of my ‘happy places’.