St. Margaret's Hope

May 01, 2014



The first day of our Orkney exploration we took the bus from Kirkwall, where we stayed, to St. Margaret's Hope, a village on South Ronaldsay, one of the Orcadian isles. I've heard or read about it once and for some reason, I wanted to go there. Its not a very famous place from the guidebooks, well, it has a certain popularity for its annual ploughing match, where the boys are ploughing in the sands and the girls dress as horses (horses?) ...  but it is a really picturesque place with a very own, almost harsh charm. 

Sometimes this gut feeling is right and you explore places you wouldn't have find without it, if you know what I mean.








Again, we didn't meet many people, but I love these free, (apparently) unobserved explorations.










We could go to South Ronaldsay by bus, because some of the Orkney islands are connected by causeways, the so-called Churchill barriers. In World War II they were built as naval defences, today they are useful road links. Some old ships were sunk to guard the barriers against the flood, before they could be secured properly with stones. 
Their masts still poking out of the water, lest we forget.


7 comments:

  1. Very beautiful atmosphere … as always :)

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  2. That truly looks like a dream-village! I do now know why the guides are not talking about it... I'd love to visit a place like that myself!

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  3. I fell in love with the pink boat on the first picture! : )

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  4. Superschöne Fotos und Landschaft. Es wirkt alles sehr, sehr ruhig und entspannend.

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  5. These are wonderful! loving that pink boat

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  6. Exactly as the Vikings did with the Skuldelev ships off the coast of Denmark! Sorry but I've been researching Viking sagas and colonisation for the past four months. Speaking of which, did you bump into any Viking remains on the Orkney islands?
    I love how in your photos the colours of the houses blend with those of the sky!

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  7. Wow, So much history for a little place! I absolutely LOVE that anchor on the door! When I move by the sea I am definitely doing that!

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