Today I stumbled across a real gem of a museum, the Kirbuster Farm Museum in the middle of nowhere on Orkney. I'd driven past the sign in the morning so on the return leg headed there. It was about to close for an hour for the custodian to have her lunch but she said I could look around then by all means enjoy the gardens and she'd be back at 2pm. What a fascinating place. The above picture is of a 16th Century farmstread that was still lived in in the 1960's. Two remarkable things about this, firstly it is the last remaining 'firehoose' left intact and un-modernised in Orkney and contains the only known house in Northern Europe still to have its central fire and neuk bed in their original state. The central fire is in essence a stone wall in the middle of the room, peat is burnt and the smoke escapes via holes in the ceiling, no chimney. Given today was a sunny day it was an artists dream as strong sunlight illuminated the peat-fire smoke. Also in this room is the Neuk Bed - huge slabs of stone creating a chamber to lie in. What I find remarkable with this is that go to any pre history house on Orkney, such as the 5,000 year old Scara Brae and you will see a nuke bed of sorts next to a central fire. Handing down the skills from generation to generation on the island and in doing so this can make history seem real on this remarkable island. On top of that where else in Britain would the custodian of a museum allow me to cook some Heinz ravioli for my lunch while leaving me to run amok. They're all slightly mad Orcadian people, but mad in a way I love and which actually makes them quite sane. They have quality of life just right.
No comments:
Post a Comment