Blog for Archer: A Journey to Fair Isle

  It is now Monday and we are due to travel home on Wednesday. As there is a weight limit on the plane, we have to pack up some of our stuff; books, easel, paintings and treasures we have found on the beach  because they will make our bags too heavy. We filled boxes in the morning and, after a cup of coffee, set out for the post office. This is the only shop on the island but Robert and Fiona make sure that it has everything you need ....as well as some surprises!   We were a bit sad when we got back to the croft. It was going to be hard to leave this beautiful place and the people that had been so kind to us.  The bird is a Wheatear We made ourselves another cup of coffee, sat in the sun and looked and listened and enjoyed the peace till the sun got low in the sky. This is a view I will never forget.

  There are many stories and legends in the Fair Isles. When you sit looking at the dark swaying sea, the sheer cliffs and hear the seals mournful songs echoing through the rocks and caves, the stories are not hard to believe. This is the story of the trow (troll) Lukki Minnie and a little boy called Willie. The day was fine and Willie was out walking the hills near his mother's croft. He climbed Malcolm's Head and was rolling a Bannock (a sort of scone) that his mother had baked for him down the hill, when all of a sudden it disappeared in a hole. The hole was bigger than a rabbits and he he was relieved to find he was just able to squeeze through it. He didn't want to make his mother mad that he lost his bannock. Suddenly, he realised that something was pulling at his legs, frightened he tried to get out, but could grasp the grass firmly enough to pull himself free. THe next minute he was on the floor of a dark cave. He could just see by the light of a small peat fire, ...

Today was a very quiet day as the weather was not so good. A haar rolled in from the Atlantic and for the most part of the day, we could see nothing. A Haar is a cold wet sea fog. Not only can you watch it creeping in from the sea, but you can feel it as the air temperature falls and the wind drops. It was a misty day!  The mist is incredible here. You can see it coming across the sea and within a short time it has engulfed the land too and you can see nothing!  It reminds me how important lighthouses are to the island. One islander told me 'it's how I get home.' There are two lighthouses on Fair Isle; Skroo (North lighthouse) and Skaddan (South lighthouse).  Skaddan            Skaroo Although there are still people who live in Skaddan lighthouse, like many lighthouses around our coasts they are now automated and the lighthouse keepers and their families are long gone. There are still people on the Island who used to be lighthouse keepers, th...