Dingieshowe

The surf we avoided on the south and east side was still crashing in epic proportions at Dingieshowe on Sunday.

Dingieshowe is a huge dune on a narrow sandy isthmus which reaches across from the East Mainland to Deerness ('almost an island'). The dunes spearate the two contrasting sides. Tranquil St Peter's Pool,a wide shallow muddy bay, and on the other the open ocean. In the dunes there are the remains of a broch. The name is derived from the old Norse for 'Parliament Mound'.

There is a traditional tale which describes what once may have happened at this place, perhaps inspired by the occasional uncovering of the evidence of a building beneath, by storms over the centuries.

The Fiddler and the Trow is an old Orkney folktale about a fiddler who ventures inside the mound at Dingieshowe to play for the trows. He comes out after a night's celebration to discover that many years have passed....

Copinsay on the horizon.

The ocean crashes in through the winter depositing more than a few unlucky seals and a great deal of ocean trash. After the winter storms plastic debris of varying grades, sizes and colours is incorporated into the dunes for future archaeolgists to wonder at.