Two's company, three's a crowd

The Isle of Wyre is a small place.  One might even say a tiny place.  The inhabited island tips the scales at 1.2 total square miles.  Not the smallest inhabited island in Scotland, but still. Wyre is small. 

April 15, 2022  The "moat' at Cubbie Roo's

As for how many people currently inhabit the island, it depends.  Census data (normally considered the most accurate even if it somewhat lags) put Wyre's population at 18 in 2001.  Ten years later, the 2011 census reported it as 29.

April 15, 2022  Foot bridges on the "moat"

If true, that means Wyre had a net growth of 38%.  On our walk of the island in 2022, however, no such growth was evident.  We came across no one the entire time we were there.  

Some say the current population of Wyre is more on the order of 8.  Others will hedge bets and say the island's population is "maybe 20 residents".  Still others punt, calling Wyre a "fluctuating population".  In any case, whether it is 8 or 29, Wyre is a small and fairly remote island.

April 15, 2022  Bottom of tower ruins 

This post is about Wyre, specifically the ruins found there.  But first, I should mention some logistics.  To get to Wyre, Orkney Ferries runs a regularly scheduled route between the Orkney Mainland (at the ferry terminal in Tingwall just north of Kirkwall) out to the islands of Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre.  For reference, the whole of the Orkney Islands (population 20,020 per the 2024 census) is comprised of 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.  And of those, only 13 have scheduled ferry service. 

April 15, 2022 Ruins of Cubbie Roo's Castle, Wyre

Ordinarily then, given Wyre's low population, one might not expect regular ferry service.  Even Egilsay is no large place, and that's at double Wyre's size (2 1/2 square miles with a population said to be 17).  Obviously, the economics of operating ferry service to such places are questionable.  But strictly speaking, Orkney Ferries is not a commercial venture.  It is a government-owned entity (by the Orkney Islands Council) to provide lifeline services to inhabited islands like Wyre that otherwise would not have them. 

April 15, 2022  No ground level entrances, Cubbie Roo's Castle

In Orkney in 2022, we set up camp at The Ayre Hotel in Kirkwall.  On day two, we stopped by the Orkney Ferries office in Kirkwall to book a number of intra-island ferries. The fares were nominal.  Roundtrip (passenger) from Tingwall to Egilsay was £3.45, and Egilsay to Wyre (passenger) was only £1.70.  As for taking a vehicle, the round trip from Tingwall to Rousay was only £14.45.  So, one can book cruises on the cheap in Orkney, "blue collar" cruises as it were.

April 15, 2023  Outer defensive wall Cubbie Roo's Castle

Given the small size of both Wyre and Egilsay, we opted to leave our rental vehicle at the terminal in Tingwall for the day and hoof it.  That decision proved a good one.  We're not adverse to using a vehicle to expand our range and decease the travel time.  And as such, we booked the passenger/vehicle fare from Kirkwall out to Eday.  But Eday is a significantly larger island, and we also needed to make sure our day trip could be done in time to make the last ferry off Eday back to Kirkwall.  So in this instance, we took a vehicle to make better use of our time. We're all for the environment; but just not teetotaler weenies.

April 15, 2022 View to Rousay; look close you can see the ferry

Afoot with the Tingwall-Egilsay-Wyre-Tingwall ferry schedule in hand, we split our day trip in half--about 4 1/2 hours on the island of Egilsay and about 3 1/2 hours on Wyre.  We boarded the MV Eynhallow at Tingwall, fortified with packed lunch items--rolls, meat and cheese, fruit, bottled water, beer, stem-ginger shortbread and a pack of Tannock's thrown in from TESCO in Kirkwall.  TESCO (which was only a block or so from The Ayre) was a relatively easy supermarket to access with ample parking.  [For disclosure, I hold a few shares of TESCO in a couple stock accounts.]

April 15, 2022  Taking lunch at St. Mary's Kirk, Wyre

 

Anyhow, we visited Egilsay the first half of our day trip, and Wyre the second half, before retrieving our rental vehicle back at the Tingwall ferry terminal that evening.

April 15, 2022  Thick walls Cubbie Roo's Castle

As to the ruins on Wyre, to borrow from the spouse, it was the first "proper castle" we visited in Scotland.  "Proper" taking the meaning of having a moat with a bridge over water that more or less surrounds it.  This proper castle belonged to Cubbie Roo (Kolbein Hrúga)--the oldest documented square stone keep castle in Scotland.  Built in 1145 AD, it is an impressive structure even in ruins.  

April 15, 2022  Earthworks at Cubbie Roo's Castle

Half myth, half historical character, the story of Cubbie Roo comes down to us through the Orkneyinga Saga.  Kolbein Hrúga, said to be a large man, was a Norse chieftan who settled in Orkney in 1142 and farmed Wyre.  He married into the Orkney aristocracy.  

Prior to settling in Orkney, Hrúga seemed to be a landowner of means in Norway.  Apparently, he was a tax collector for the Norwegian king, although who that may have been is somewhat uncertain.  Hrúga lived during the Norwegian civil war era, which first broke out in 1130 when Harald Gille (himself an Irish claimant of Norway's throne) seized the crown and ruled for six years until his death in 1136.  Hrúga may have collected taxes for Gille.

April 15, 2022  Flagstone slabs at Cubbie Roo's Castle

The Norwegian civil war era lasted, on again off again, for over 100 years.  It turns out that Kolbein Hrúga played an instrumental part.  At the time Hrúga settled on Wyre, Norway was under a precarious collective joint rule, akin to a regency.  Three sons of King Gille were involved--one said to be legitimate, two not.  As long as their guardians were alive, a tentative peace held.  But guardians do not live forever, especially not in Viking times.

April 15, 2022  St. Mary's Kirk from Cubbie Roo's Castle

Gille's two young sons were: the illegitimate Sigurd II Munn (1136-1155) and the legitimate Inge I Krokrygg (1136-1161).  Yet another young son, Magnus Haraldsson, died c. 1145.  Into this already tenuous mix, a third son Øystein II Haraldsson (1142-1157)--apparently Gaelic and illegitimate but at least an adult--was installed by three prominent men in 1142.  Those three men were Árni Sturla, Þorleifr Brynjólfsson and none other than Kolbein Hrúga.  

Two's company; three's a crowd, as they say.  Civil war, which first ended in 1130 with Gille taking the throne, soon renewed.  In 1155, the three half-brothers met at Bergen, Norway.  Fighting broke out between men of King Sigurd and King Inge, and Sigurd was killed.  King Øystein, whether by design or by happenstance, arrived late at Bergen.  Sigurd was already dead. 

April 15, 2022  The Bu farmstead--on top of Cubbie Roo's farm

So, an uneasy peace now existed between Inge and Øystein  (It is claimed that Sigurd and Øystein planned to kill Inge and divide his holdings between them--but this is a disputed account.)  In any event, peace between Inge and Øystein did not hold for long.  Two years later, on August 21, 1157, both sides gathered forces for a confrontation, meeting at Moster, an island off the west coast of Norway (where King Olave imposed Christianity upon his heathen brethren).  Øystein was forced to flee, was caught and killed by his captors in the Oslofjord area.  This left only Inge.  

April 15, 2022  Cubbie Roo's Castle

Well played, except that followers of Øystein were disinclined  to pledge loyalty to Inge.  So, they propped up Håkon II Sigurdsson (called Broad-shouldered; only 10 years old at the time), and continued the fight against Inge.  On February 3, 1161, they succeeded in killing Inge at the Battle of Oslo.  Now King Håkon assumed the throne, and roughly a year later King Håkon would himself be killed (at the seasoned age of 14 or 15) at the Battle of Sekken on July 7, 1162.   

And so it went for a hundred years.  No less than 46 candidates emerged seeking recognition as king during the Norwegian civil wars era.  24 of these candidates succeeded, but only two held royal authority throughout the realm of Norway.  

April 15, 2022  Fortifications at Cubbie Roo's Castle

Kolbein Hrúga built his castle on Wyre defensively, to protect his family and livestock more from raids by fellow Norsemen than not.  The structure is mentioned in Haakon’s Saga, which describes the castle as "a difficult place to attack".  In 1145, according to the Orkneyinga Saga, "At that time there was a very able man called Kolbein Hrúga farming on Wyre in Orkney. He had a fine stone fort built there, a really solid stronghold."   

Solid indeed.  It's walls were over 6 feet thick. Thought to have been built on an Iron Age broch, the castle is a rare instance of Norsemen building in stone.  It rests on the highest ground on Wyre island, and consists of a tower (presumably three stories high) that gave it a commanding view over Gairsay Sound and the sea approaches.  The tower was set within an oval enclosure that was surrounded by two ditches, a wall, and ramparts.  It had no ground floor entrance.  So, presumably, internal ladders were used to access the top floors.  

April 15, 2022  Rock cut well at Cubbie Roo's

During his lifetime, Kolbein Hrúga never had to defend the castle, though historians believe that in 1231, Kolbein Hrúga's great grandson did successfully survive a siege at the site about 100 years after Kolbein Hrúga died.  In the early 1500s, the castle was finally abandoned.  So lived the alleged giant, Kolbein Hrúga--Cubbie Roo--the man, the myth, the legend.

The Obelisk

Among several monuments at Dryburgh Abbey, I give a special mention to one that visitors to Dryburgh's ruins should not overlook.  South of the abbey near the gatehouse and somewhat away from other monuments and gravestones is an obelisk which was also erected by David Steuart Ersking, 11th Earl of Buchan in 1794.  

April 5, 2023  King James Obelisk (Moreville relief)

Buchan's obelisk commemorates United Kingdom's Stewart kings James I, James II of Scotland, and it commemorates Hugh de Moreville (or Morville, founder of Dryburgh Abbey) ostensibly on November 10, 1150 AD.  The  obelisk features carvings which depict these distinguished luminaries.  

While it has been called a "somewhat eccentric" landmark, to be honest, we did not find the monument to be so.  "Eccentric" is often a band wagon convenience; boarded by far too many.  

The slender monument itself is a tall, almost needle-like stone obelisk.  Two sides have inset figurative carvings of James I and James II.  The third side is a relief of Hugh de Moreville.  

April 5, 2023  King James Obelisk (James I inset)

And the fourth side is inscribed, reading:  "Erected by the right Hon David Steuart Erskine the Earl of Buchan to the honour of his ancestors 1794.  The figures were cut by George Burnet in Newstead and the lettering by D Forson in Drybugh by order of Sir David Erskine."

The obelisk is listed (supposedly protected) as part of the wider historic Dryburgh site. 

A note on Hugh de Moreville:  Moreville was a Norman knight who had the fortune of being associated with David I of Scotland, through whom "he obtained land and lordships which placed him in the very first rank of the Anglo-Norman nobility in Scotland."  He became Lord High Constable of Scotland, second only to the King.  

Moreville died at Dryburgh in 1162.  An ancient memorial to him is said to exist in the south wall, and it is said to mark his burial-place.  We did not see it, either because we overlooked it or because the abbey (and practically all other Scottish historical sites we visited) was shut to visitors by chain anchor fence. 

April 5, 2023  Chain anchor fence closing off access

 

The Muses

April 5, 2023  Dryburgh; Haig and Scott burial site 

Dryburgh Abbey in the Borders is said to have been founded by St. Modan ~600 AD.  However, no evidence is known to exist to support that claim.  

Therefore, dating can only be done by the existing ruins at Dryburgh and the history it tells.  It was established in 1150 AD by Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale, hereditary constable of Scotland.

As previously mentioned, Dryburgh Abbey is a special place.  With the fresh aroma of damp forests evident when we visited, it is almost contemplative, or meditative in the zen sense, with the River Tweed's quiet rush slipping by.  Tranquil.  Or perhaps spiritual.  It is easy to see why White Abbot monks (Premonstratensian) chose this spot on a remote bend in the River Tweed. 

April 5, 2023 Dryburgh Abbey

Further posts regarding  Dryburgh Abbey are reserved for another day.  This particular post regards a nearby point of interest, specifically the Temple of the Muses which can (and definitely should) be added to any itinerary taking in the serene Dryburgh Abbey.

April 5, 2023 Dryburgh; ancient yew

Getting to the Temple of the Muses is an easy walk, only about 4/10ths of a mile from Dryburgh Abbey's car park.  The walk was actually enjoyable along the banks of River Tweed.  Being level with asphalted single track roads, it was an easy walk.  A word to the wise, though.  Water repellent gear is advised for springtime sojourners.  Being Scotland, spring weather can shift quickly.  When we walked the track, for example, it was misting an "almost rain"--which definitely added to a damp chill.  Eventually, the weather lifted, but still. 

April 5, 2023  The Four Seasons 

The temple currently contains four bronze statues which depict the "Four Seasons".  Sitting atop a cairn-like rise above River Tweed (known as Bass Hill), the temple has a domed roof supported by nine columns.  These nine columns represent the Muses of classical Greece, although their number and their names differed widely depending on the specific ancient classical region.

April 5, 2023 Temple of the Muses 

According to Hesiod (c. 700 BC), the Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.  Generally speaking, they were the personifications (or deities) of knowledge and the arts, especially poetry, literature, dance and music.  Their names and their patronages were as follows:  

• Calliope (epic poetry)
• Clio (history)
• Polyhymnia (hymn and mime)
• Euterpe (song)
• Terpsichore (chorus and dance)
• Erato (lyric poetry)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (astronomy and astrology) 

April 5, 2023  Dryburgh Abbey

I mentioned "currently contains" four bronze statues.  That is because the current bronzes are replacements of a sort.  Commissioned to artist Siobhan O'Hehir and installed in 2002, they are hardly historic.  O'Hehir (b. 1966), a fairly well-known semi-abstract landscape artist, resides in the Borders village of Ancrum (through which we toured in 2023).  O'Hehir's Muses depicted the Four Seasons and are somewhat unusual given O'Hehir is known more for works in oil on canvas.  

O'Hehir's Four Seasons is a celebration of nature and the landscaping established at Dryburgh Abbey by David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (June 1, 1742 - April 19, 1829), who bought the abbey estate in 1786 after it had passed through several hands in the intervening hundreds of years following the Reformation. The Earl of Buchan was considered somewhat eccentric in his day.  By modern standards though, he was visionary.  And the grounds at Dryburgh attest to this.  

April 5, 2023 Temple of the Muses

In 1817, the Earl of Buchan is said to have completed the construction of his temple, which originally housed a bronze statue of Apollo with the nine Muses.  A small discrepancy on dates exists.  

In the original temple, on the capital of each Doric column, was the name of one of the nine muses, inscribed in metallic characters that was the work of John Ruthven of Edinburgh.  He likely was also the sculptor of the original Apollo bronze.  

No architect is mentioned in connection with the ‘fanciful erection’ of the temple, but apparently it was the work of Buchan himself, working with his favored mason John Smith of Darnick.  (Smith also worked for Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and also created the large statue commemorating William Wallace nearby.)  

As to discrepancies, it is recorded in August 1812 that "a grand fete took place at Dryburgh" wherein the new temple was the centerpiece of the revelry.  This was five years before most say the temple was completed.  The 1812 record mentions the columns as bearing the names of the nine Muses, although it does not directly mention the Apollo bronze.  Perhaps the Apollo bronze was commissioned and finally placed in 1817 completing the structure.

Regardless, by the second half of the century, Buchan's temple was dismissed as ‘a very commonplace building’.  Its Georgian appeal was lost to the Victorian age.  The temple's Apollo bronze, as well as the lettering at the top of the columns, went missing at some point in the latter half of the 1800s.  The temple itself survived only because it became engulfed in foliage and largely forgotten. 

April 5, 2023 Gauging station at Dryburgh on the Tweed

The Earl of Buchan, incidentally, was a correspondent with US President George Washington, and gifted Washington in 1791 a now missing snuff box, crafted by the Goldsmith's Company of Edinburgh.  The box, according to Buchan, is constructed of silver and the oak which was supposed to have sheltered Sir William Wallace after he was betrayed to the English and forced to fight at the Battle of Falkirk on 22 July 1298.  Braveheart and all that.  

Upon his death, Washington's final will recommited the box to Buchan, who insisted on bequeathing it back to Washington's University of Columbia in August 1800.  In the midst of these transfers, the box was stolen at some unknown point in the 1800s.  A reward was offered--to no avail.  It has been claimed that in 1958 the snuffbox was in the possession of an Ian Keith Mackintosh of Wadhurst, Sussex County, England (Country Life, 123 [9 Jan. 1958], 74).  But it's location remains unknown.

April 5, 2023  Dryburgh grounds

Buchan admired Scotland’s most revered poet, Robert Burns.  But he was particularly enthralled by James Thomson (1700 - 1748), ‘the Bard of Ednam’.  (Ednam is a nearby village where the poet was born.)  Thus, Buchan dedicated his Temple of the Muses at Dryburgh to Thomson, and even sought to have Thomson further commemorated by monuments in Scotland and London.  As said, he was somewhat eccentric.

April 5, 2023  Dryburgh Suspension Bridge

The poet Thomson's most famous work, The Four Seasons, is a series of four poems.  The first published was Winter in 1726, followed by Summer in 1727, Spring in 1728, and Autumn in 1730, when the completed series was published.  Thomson also wrote the famous Rule Britannia! in 1740, an anthem now revered by the Royal Navy. 

April 5, 2023  Dryburgh foot bridge

 

As an added bonus to the walk to the Temple of the Muses there is, at the bottom of the temple mound, the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge over River Tweed.  We walked across it, just to say we did.  This suspension footbridge was erected in 1872 to connect villagers to worship at the churches in St. Boswell.  The bridge was a replacement of the cable-stayed bridge which the Earl of Buchan commissioned and opened August 1, 1817.  Less than six months later, Buchan's bridge collapsed in hurricane force winds in January 1818.

 

 

Taxed out of existence

Unquestionably, the closure of international travel (2020-2022) in response to the COVID pandemic had a devastating affect on tourism worldwide.  Repercussions still reverberate several years after the fact.  Nothing better exemplifies the economic aftershocks than the hospitality industry.

April 7, 2023, Black Bull Brew Pub, Etal, UK

Ever and always intrusive, politics compound the problem(s).  For example, in response to the imposition of tariffs in 2025 by the current Administration, Canadian tourism to the US has declined a cool 22% to 30%, resulting in a net $4.5 to $5.7 billion dollars of lost revenue.  The tourist boycott is acute in border states like Montana, New England, and of course the snowbird haven of Florida.  It continues unabated--with closures of hotels, restaurants, retail and even breweries as the net result.  

In the UK, hospitality measures are just as dire.  Perhaps more so.  The quintessential feature of British society--patronizing the local pub--is being hollowed out.  The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA UK) found 1,086 pubs closed in 2025 nation wide, with 137 fewer breweries at the start of 2026 compared to January 2025 (dropping from 1,715 to 1,578).  Closures are accelerating, and it looks like 2026 will be a make or break year.  The survival of British independent brewing is at stake.   

2025 saw the highest annual closure rate of breweries since 1974, with Britain losing nearly three independent breweries each week.  Rising raw materials (malt and hops) along with increasing energy costs and reduced consumer spending are squeezing margins.  Worse, corporate consolidations are ongoing of successful independent brewers. They are being gobbled up by large multi-national beverage firms, further reducing competition.  A last man standing approach.

Meanwhile, having a pint is getting more difficult.  Increased employment pressures and rising taxes weigh upon those independents that remain.  Hospitality businesses in the UK are being taxed out of existence.  Point in case, according to UKHospitality, the average hotel expects its business rates to increase £28,900 next year, with an increase to £205,200 over the next three years.  That reflects a 115% increase in business rates.  

Who can sustain that kind of governmental brigandry?  As for the average pub, it is projected to face only a 15% increase in business rates next year, an extra £1,400.  But it will also sustain a 76% increase up to £12,900 over the next three years.  Who?  The answer is: no one.

Labor-wise, 2025 has been challenging with an historic severe labor shortage of about 170,000 vacancies.  Over all, hospitality accounts for roughly 7% of all UK jobs (~2.6 million).  But operational costs are rising.  Curiously, employment dipped in December 2025 by 20,000 positions, when it typically would be rising in time for the holidays.  Likely, it reflects the ongoing business closure rates...a vicious Catch-22.  

March 31, 2023 Berwick, Northumberland

Pressure is mounting as increased living wages and Employer National Insurance contributions take yet another bite out of business margins.  UKHospitality cautions that 2,076 venues are at risk of closure without tax relief in 2026.  Without intervention, an average of six hospitality venues could close each day in 2026.  The inflection point has been reached.  Trying to wring blood from a turnip is no longer useful.  Neither is beating a dead horse.  If it is to have a pint at all at the end of the day, Britain must have relief.