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[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you like it :-)

[identity profile] bouncy-elf.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Seal AND cormorant AND otter, oh you spoil me! :P

[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I do my best :-)

[identity profile] the-marquis.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
The otter is good, was that with your ginormous lens? And the gun emplacemnet is interesting, I take it that the view is that getting rid of the things would be too much effort aside from any historical landscape etc considerations. What's the one under the roof?

[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks - but no, it was with the medium-long lens. I would have loved to take the ginormouse lens up, but there's not only the weight of that, but it also needs a tripod with it, which is added weight. And the internal flights in Orkney limit you to 15Kg each.

The gun emplacement is one of two WWII 6" emplacements, just to the south of Lerwick, and commanding one of the southern approaches to the town. There are also look-out posts and the like around there.

I gather that farmers were offered the choice between having them removed, and having a small cash payment. Farmers being what they are, they almost all took the cash payment. Some of the buildings were then turned into proper farm buildings, eg for hens or pigs; others are just used by farmers occasionally, as somewhere out of the worst of the wind and the rain; and still others are just there.

The one under the roof is the Midhowe Cairn - a 23-metre 12-stalled Neolithic cairn. It's on Rousay, which has an incredible number of stone-age tombs.

[identity profile] mrkinch.livejournal.com 2011-05-05 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
That's an elegant cormorant! Do you know the species?

[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
European Shag or Common Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis).

[identity profile] fallingtowers.livejournal.com 2011-05-06 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the ginormous seal chilling on the beach!

[identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
It's great, isn't it :-)