Rousay's Skaill Farm

On the west side of the Isle of Rousay lies the remains of the Viking Skaill Farm; known as Westness in the Orkney Sagas.  "Skaill" is derived from the term skáli, used to describe a Viking drinking hall.  The search is on, as it were, to find the Viking settlement near Skaill.

April 16, 2022

We visited Rousay on April 16, 2022 as Covid restrictions were being lifted around the world.  When we visited, the site had been buttoned up with rock-weighted heavy black plastic by archeologists in 2019, who expected to continue the dig the following year after they had just discovered the Viking drinking hall.  

April 16, 2022  Covered archeological site at Skaill on Rousay

The site would remain closed for nearly a three year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.  Following our visit, digging again resumed.  Once excavation had continued, archeologists determined that Skaill Farm was a 'high status' site, most likely the residence of Sigurd of Westness.  Sigurd is mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga.  

April 16, 2022  Black plastic covered dig at Skaill

The Orkney Saga, written by an unknown Icelandic writer sometime in the early 1200s, fuses myth, legend and history.  Not exactly gospel.  But with a large measure of salt, as an historical text, it is an accurate account...for those parts that can be verified.  Its English translation was published in 1873. 

In the sagas, Earl Paul Haakson traveled to Westness to feast with Sigurd many times.  They were close.  In 1135 or 1136, Earl Paul was captured by the Viking pirate Sweyn Asliefsson and taken to Scotland, where Earl Paul is said to have died in captivity.  This abduction opened Orkney for the taking by Earl Rognvald II, who then seized Orkney as Earl.

April 16, 2022  Malthouse at Skaill Farm

Skaill Farm ruin, is in the midst of important Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites--the so-called Egypt of the North.  According to archeologists, the farm evidently has an archeological layer below where it has currently been excavated.  Thus, Skaill Farm likely had its beginning long before the arrival of the Vikings.  It certainly continued long after Vikings departed, as a medieval farm followed by a Victorian Age sheep farm.  It witnessed, on Rousay, part of the infamous "highland clearances".  Depopulation at its finest.

Laird George William Traill (1787 - 1871) was the questionable individual who cleared Skaill Farm, replacing people (crofters) with sheep.  Arriving in 1816, Traill began a career as a politician, and began acquiring lands in Orkney.  By 1845, he netted the Skaill estate, and subsequently cleared the land of crofters, many of whom had crofted the land for generations.       

April 16, 2022 Skaill Farm ruins

I don't know which is worse.  Despotism by the sword, or despotism by the pen.  At any rate, for the most part, the present farm buildings at Skaill roughly date to the 18-19^th centuries.  They were followed by the 'Rousay clearances' during the mid-19^th century.  

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Rousay and stoats

 

News from the Orkney Islands in early October (2026) mentioned trapping a single male stoat on the island of Rousay, which prompts some commentary.  This was a big deal.  And unfortunately, the news was too good to believe.  

BBC 'stoat sighting' map, updated October 23, 2026

It was hoped the stoat was a one-off.  Being strong swimmers, it was assumed the stoat may have swum Eynhallow Sound from Orkney Mainland to get to Rousay.  (The Rousay island group is circled in green on the BBC 'stoat sighting map' which is updated as of October 23rd).

While concerning, one stoat was nothing to worry about...until news of another stoat trapped on Rousay two weeks later.  Where there's two, it could be a party.  Three, and it could be an orgy, given stoats rear litters of between six and twelve kits per year.  Unmolested, in a couple years stoats are soon out of control.  A definite immigration problem.  

Currently, there's a concerted effort to rid stoats off Orkney Mainland. Concerted, as in a £15 million project to eradicate them under the auspices of the Orkney Native Wildlife Project (ONWP).  Since 2019 (when the program began), over 9,100 stoats had been eradicated off Orkney.  So, new sightings of stoats on new islands cannot possibly be good news.    

It could be that the stoats are moving to avoid eradication pressure.  But clearly, there's more work to do.  The invasive stoats, native to Mainland Britain and Scotland, are absolutely devastating wildlife, particularly ground nesting birds--Orkney voles, rabbits, curlews, red-throated divers, hen harriers and short-eared owls...)  And if anyone knows anything about Brits, it's that they take 'birding' seriously.

Another mobilization may be in the works.  Whether stoats establish themselves on yet another Orkney island or not remains to be seen.

An update on "Taxed Out of Existence"

Well, well, well.  The media has finally caught up with the reality.  We posted commentary previously on losing British pubs.  https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2026/02/taxed-out-of-existence.html  

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has just put the job loses as of the third quarter at 5,000, and the BBC is now reporting it.  Pub operators squarely put the high tax burden and regulatory costs as the reason for closing.  And this despite recent enactment of a 15% discount on business taxes to pubs.   

As of the third quarter, Great Britain--which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland--has reportedly lost one pub a day.  295 pubs have shuttered their doors permanently in the first nine months of 2026.  The grim tally:  64 have closed in Scotland, 226 have closed in England, 5 have closed in Wales.  And closures keep rolling in.

According to BBPA, "When a local closes, the damage is felt far and wide."  "It's not just workers," says BBPA.  It's "communities, our heritage."  At a minimum, freezing the beer duty is an absolute must.  Locals need relief.

 

 

We endorse Sarah Zabel, Independent, for Idaho US District 1

It is out of the ordinary for this blog to engage in political affairs.  On occasion, we will venture a few words, but not often.  These are trying times.  And so, we take the liberty to endorse Sarah Zabel for Idaho US District 1 in the upcoming midterms.  

We encourage our readers to vote according to their interests.  Sarah, down-to-earth with a strong platform of reform planned for Congress, is certainly qualified.  She's spent 31 years in the Air Force, has been awarded the Bronze Star and retired at the rank of Major General.  She has managed military accounts totaling billions of dollars of taxpayer funds.  Those responsibilities are earned. 

America needs independent voices like Sarah Zabel to matter again, to make a difference, to bring about change that is so desperately needed in this nation.  

On November 3rd make your voice heard.  Vote.  It is doubtful you will find anyone better qualified for Idaho's US Representative District 1.  Therefore, we endorse.  

Third time's a charm

As mentioned in a previous post (see https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-muses.html), a suspension bridge for foot traffic over the River Tweed is just beyond the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey and just below Bass Hill which is crowned by the Temple to the Muses (or, officially, the Four Seasons).

Here, a few words regarding the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge over the River Tweed may be appropriate, having been prompted by a recent report by the BBC.  Foremost, for all its subsequent issues, the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge exemplifies generous civic mindedness, the demonstration of which is often mischaracterized as something to be scorned or derided in society's general discourse today.  But it was not always so.  

For centuries beyond history's ken, a "ribbon of settlements" along both sides of River Tweed crossed the river at the ancient fords of Dryburgh.  In 1150 AD, Hugh de Morville established an abbey, and in consequence, the fords grew in importance, connecting villages, farmsteads, trade paths and ultimately the Premonstratensian monks at the abbey with the community at-large.  

Norbertines (Premonstratensian "White Canons" named after the color of their habits) were ordained to serve in the community.  They were active pastoralists, which was somewhat atypical, given the Church's age of excess.  Norbertines took the Rule of Saint Augustine seriously, emphasizing communal life, poverty, chastity and obedience.  At some point during the Medieval Age, a ferry was put in place.  And so things remained for 500 or 600 years until August 1, 1817, when David Stewart Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan, gave the community a suspension bridge to make the Dryburgh congregation's treks to church in Newton St. Boswell easier.   

The generosity had an ignominious debut, however.  Five months after being christened, the bridge was swept away in a "perfect hurricane" according to Thomas Smith, its designer.  Bridge plans were redrawn and a replacement bridge went into service in 1832, about 14 years later.  But this bridge too was blown down by a gale in 1838 only some six years after it was commissioned.  Then in 1872, long after the Earl of Buchan had passed, the bridge (a single span two tower construction) was put into place.  And this is the bridge which currently stands today.

Recently, the BBC reported that a 150 year old painting, a water color of the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge, was discovered on the back of an old ordnance map.  This has prompted a few more comments concerning the bridge.  The painting is attributed to Benjamin Peach, the renowned geologist with the British Geological Survey (BGS).  The painting dates to approximately 1873.  In other words, the year after the current suspension bridge finally stuck to the site.

 

Peach (September 6, 1842 - 29 January 1926), after a notable career in the BGS, was awarded the Wollaston Medal in 1921 for his lifetime achievements in geology and paleontology.   The Wollaston Medal, considered to be the most prestigious in geology,  has been awarded to such luminaries as Charles Darwin (1859).  So, there's that.

At any rate, third time's a charm they say.