The OH has decided that we should spend quality time together as family by scheduling in a family walk every Sunday. As a child growing up in Norway he was dragged out, reluctantly (he says), every Sunday and he thinks it’ll do the children good to have the same experience.
I’m not complaining – I’ve been at him for years to join us on our outdoor adventures and now he’s come up with it as if it was his own idea, so we got there eventually. I’m delighted! 🙂
This is our third walk together this year and we chose Grobsness, on the west mainland of Shetland. If there was anywhere you would expect to see a “Here There Be Dragons” sign it’s Grobsness. With its stony, hilly terrain it is easy to imagine that one of the hills is really a sleeping dragon which might open it’s stony eye one day to espy you. Then again, I have a very active imagination!
Grobsness Haa, pictured above in ruins, was built in 1800 and it’s a lovely place to explore. Birds have built nests in the old fireplaces on the 1st and 2nd floors; there’s a sheep skeleton in one corner and the floor is covered in shattered roof tiles. It overlooks a large rocky beach filled with perfectly flat skimming stones, sea glass and assorted treasures (and bruck) like sea urchins tossed up by the gales to explore through. Today the small stream leading to the sea was frozen over and it was big enough for the children to go ice skating on – they’ve never seen ice big enough to skate on before and they were thrilled to bits.
We even had a few curious native visitors!
We stopped for a small snack of double chocolate chilli brownies (but not before I photographed them first!). They were superbly warming for a beach walk on a cold winters’ day.
We stumbled across a corrugated metal, wood and old fishing net makeshift planticrub sheltering some Shetland kale. These planticrubs are traditionally made out of stone and were used to keep the cold, brutal North wind off the growing vegetables inside. I need to improvise something like this for my own garden because we live in a very exposed location and everything I try to grow gets so far and then the wind burns and rips it to shreds!
Rabbit city?
The OH took a few photos of me posing in my best swashbuckling sea-faring adventurer pose. Does it work?
Then back home again for a pot of warming, homemade soup and rye bread. A perfect Sunday adventure.
Alas, we didn’t find any dragons…. this time.
Vegan Banana Bread
Off to Grobsness today to relive your walk. Sadly without the brownies! The derelict Croft house there, Donnarunnie, was the home of my Grandpa Tom Balfour and many Balfour’s before and after him. It’s a pilgrimage I’ve made every time I’ve come to Shetland over the last 25yrs. Lovely to read of someone else’s impressions of this special place. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Aww, wow! It’s a magical place, isn’t it. I think it’s time I revisited it as well!
My sisters Greta and Margaret and I are Canadian descendants of Kitty Balfour, born in 1894 at Donnarunnie, Grobsness. Margaret and I visited its ruins in 2019 and we both experienced something spiritual that day. We could feel our Shetland roots there. We’d love to go back!
Aw, thanks for sharing Elizabeth. You even captured such a cute seal. Irresistible 😉
Thank you, we are quite fortunate to have this on our doorstep!
What a wonderful place to live, lovely photos.
Will you be giving us a recipe for those brownies my mouth is watering just looking at them 🙂
It certainly does have its benefits, this island life 🙂 Yes, the brownie recipe is a blog post in progress. Should be up sometime in the next few days, fingers crossed.
Oh my goodness, what an amazing place to go walking. Beats the park any day! Great photos. x
Thank you, yes, we’re quite fortunate we have this on our doorstep. 🙂
It works!
Haha! Thanks Julia 🙂 With those boots and that jacket I really feel I ought to be brandishing a cutlass or some such sword!
How beautiful it looks, bet it was cold though if the stream to the sea was frozen! Our families have to be very long suffering with our priority being photographing the food before eating it!!! The photo just above your swashbuckling pose is my favourite, it should be framed, stunning.
It was pretty cold, yes, but the wind had stopped so it was a very pleasant outing indeed. I like that picture too – I have a few more edited for the brownie recipe blog post, but I really liked that one with my family in the background (it was unintentional – they happened to be walking by looking for skimming stones!). Thanks for the compliment 🙂
Oops! Wrong photo – you were referring to rabbit city! 🙂