➜ to the end of yet another road...

…and another beauty spot, this one with some relatively recent history thrown in. Son William and I set off on another Sunday morning walk/excursion yesterday. Once again, we picked a potentially promising road-end on the OS map, and then drove off to see if it would deliver. This being Orkney, it delivered in full and more (with one caveat, see below).
Our destination was Rerwick Head and the plan was to walk round the headland and take photos of the natural arch at Orwick indicated on the map.

The drive, of course, was easy and we pulled into the car park and fed the parking meter (just joking!). Since we had picked the destination rather casually, and hadn’t googled anything about it first, our great surprise was that this place didn’t just have lovely views, but was covered with the remains, in an excellent state of repair, of a massive coastal battery. And that’s how we got our double dose of interest for the morning. See here for details and more, very good, photographs.

One thing that amazed us was that the concrete looked liked it had been poured yesterday. Given the sort of weather these things have had to put up with for half a century, all I can say is that we made wonderful concrete back then.
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This was the lovely view that greeted us on arrival.
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Super spring day
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Another – older – kind of shelter that we found on the walk
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​Unsurprisingly, gun emplacements command superb views. It's safe to come now, though, as someone has nicked the guns.
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There was a sign warning about going into these places. Naturally, we went in anyway; they don't look like they propose to collapse any time soon.
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The cliffs and sea were lovely too.
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​This rock formation reminded me of an eagle's head looking out to sea.
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But, but, but!!!
Where's the promised natural arch at Orwick? The map and GPS said we were there but we saw nothing.
so
there's a complimentary round to any of our guests who go there, find it, and bring back a pic!
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Location