My Orkney Saga

I left Poughkeepsie, NY on May 18, 2007. After a bit of tedious travel, I arrived at the airport in Aberdeen, Scotland at 12:15 on May 20.

I took a bus into the city and then back out to my first BB.Aberdeen is quite beautiful. Although I didn’t make it out to the Queen’s Balmoral Castle, I did enjoy the sites of downtown Aberdeen.

My Friday evening ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney left around 5pm and arrived at midnight. As it docked further out from midtown than I expected, I was fortunate that a lady offered me a ride to Eastbank House. After surprizing the landlord next morning I introduced myself to the beautiful St. Magnus Cathedral. The afternoon ferry to Sanday brought me to the North Sea island my Greatgrandfather had left about 160 years ago. By happenstance, I stayed at one (of only two) pubs on Sanday which had rooms.. BellesAire. On 4/22 I began exploring the Island with a 14 mile bike ride out to Russness where I thought Mungo was born. A big mistake, 1, he was born in Burness and 2, overweight at age 64 is no time to start biking such a distance anew… The kind landlord, John Sinclair, let me use his car for a ride out to Burness. The Cemetary was close to Ortie where Mungo lived. I took so many photos that day that I ran out of flash memory when I got to the most important site: the New Ortie ruins. I was surprized to find one cottage fixed up and occupied. Ortie is mentioned often on the internet as the ruins of an old fishing village, although my family were all farmers. Ortie is located just yards from the bay of Otters Wick. As Tuesday, is the day that the banker flys over from Mainland (actually the largest Orkney Island), I had to get some Travelers checks cashed as the Inn took no credit cards. The police fly in also when needed for an emergency… for normal police activity they come over on the ferry. That day I called Tommy Garrioch, who came to the pub after dinner with his brother. I had his monuments booklet by then.. he told me right where my GGGrandfather was buried alongside my GGGrandmother. I also visited the other two cemetaries on Sanday; Buckaskail near Kettletoft where I was staying; then Cross cemetary on the Low road. There were Muirs buryed everywhere! I had met an Ian Muir, the owner of the general store at Kettletoft. He introduced me to David Muir, harbor master– very possibly a relative. In general, people don’t know much beyond their grandfather.. As I left Sanday on the 5pm ferry, I took pictures of D. Muir helping with the ropes. As I boarded, he handed me a note for contact. Back in Kirkwall, Mainland, I returned to Eastbank house. The next few mornings were spent in the library which had great geneaological resources. The proprieter then showed me around to various sites in the afternoon. The Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar are earlier than the better known Stonehenge. We went on to the famous Skar Brae, a village occupied before the Pyramids! It turns out that the Orkneys are more famous for thier archeology than for Muir genealogy… One such tour included a friends farm.. complete with Highland cattle; as well as Yesabee. With just GREAT views of the cliffs. and onto a Stromness pub for lunch. On my last day in Orkney, Malcom drove on the Churchill Barriers (built to keep submarines out of the Scape Flow). First stop was the Italian Chapel: Made by Italian POWs during WWII. Looks very real but done with paint using a quonset hut supplied by the British. We also walked around the old fishing village of Margaret’s Hope. The ferry back to Aberdeen left at 2300 for an overnight trip– 7am arrival. I slept quite comfortably on the cinema floor, as did 4 or 5 others. I missed the 7:35 bus to Edinburgh, but took the 8:35 and into another B&B on Gilmore in Toolcross by noon. I spent the P.M. at Edinburgh Castle. What a climb!! A beautiful St. Margaret’s chapel. The Castle entrance was in the midst of the 3 month construction of bleachers for the annual Tatoo. I spent the next day at the Scottish National Art Museum: Rembrandts, Titan, and on and on … and including a huge work by Church of Niagra Fall; and it was from the American Side!! As Western New York is my birthplace, I was doubly pleased. That evening I paid my 1 pound corkage fee at the Backstage Bistro in Toolcross. Nice salmon dinner– a splurge. I took pictures; thus entertaining the owner and 4 dineing women. Almost scratched Glasgow (for Newcastle instead) — but took the train (#10) at the last minute. Finally found inexpensive “Merchants Lodge” off Argyle for 2 nights at 30#/. I took the bus over the river and out to Rutherglen, the last area Mungo Muir resided in 1851 before emigrating to the US in 1854. This very old town predates Glasgow. Although the street survives, the residential address of 1851 is long gone. I had a “Happy Dinner” for #2.95 at the local McDonalds that night. And made reservation for Sat. night in Sheffield; lack of internet made the find difficult; but took it at #70/night. It turned out to be a corporate hotel .. but at least right next to bus station. Then arranged 2 nites at Alara for #25/nite… just a tram ride outside Sheffield.

Wife:10/?

The other day I bumped into a fellow retired IBMer… we used to work on W.Oakley (old Naval Reserve Building) in the city of Poughkeepsie. We had a grand time talking about dragging around punched cards in 18″ metal boxes… submitting the deck for assembly and then working with the binary cards.. Great fun. He ran for higher office than I… US Congress! enough past… today I entered the future… Finally hooked up our Itouch to the radio. Especially nice in the Adirondacks where you can’t find a business station… And now I can listen to advert-free music … with no headphones!!

While up here, I’ve spent too much time on the internet and reading…. but I’ve enjoyed it.. And kept the Franklin full to help out our geothermal funrnace; which has a hard time during these cold snaps: Rarely above 10; one day it didn’t make it above 0! Supposed to be warming up since yesterday (for Chris’ family Gore skitrip this w.e.). It is now 24 at 10:26am.

Some internet time spent on figuring out Context Free programming… always thought there must be something out there that intersects my interest in art, math & programming: Interesting. Also spent time on R ;more later on that and other items mentioned in this post.

Meantime, must mention my Reading: Finished David McCullough’s 1776. SO Many gave so much to found this country…. I think they’d be disappointed in the State of this Union today…. And an interesting novel by a Spanish author (Zanfor?) who splits his residence between Barcelona and L.A. Title to come.. . I brought home Leon Uris’s Trinity (copyright 1976) to brush up on my Irish history… Found out I had a pocketbook copy sitting over the Franklin; returned the library’s copy. Now on page 109. I recall reading Uris’s Exodus decades ago…

Trying to get back to blogging… as you can see. Will blog on my recent interest in Symmetry, and not just the book by Du Sautoy. I’ll probably have to introduce a new Category: Esoterica ….. The interesting free application that deals with the mathematics of symmetry is GAP (Groups, Algorithims, & Programming). This is a good place to mention Carolyn’s Christmas gift which she let me pick out: The Math Book by Clifford Pickover. I’m enjoying the one page descriptions of the most important discoverys in Math…

I went nuts taking pictures of expansion in the fall; from Start to Middle of the 3 month construction…

This summer we haven’t done much… besides enjoy the Lake and our new Kitchen…

[When I figure out the proper way to host the short video, I fix it.....]

I’ve been working on Muir genealogy lately, see New paragraph on the Genealogy Index. I got so interested in the Orkney Island of Sanday (from whence they came in the 1800s) , that I decided some UK travel was in order… See my schedule.