Whether the Brough was joined on 1,000 y ago it was clearly an important placethen. Most likely a large part of the settlement has gone but the slipways suggest that maybe not that much. Also it probable monastic status would fit well with isolation. The path was much shorter and narrower until recently. Obviously access by boats is a possibility but I think Thorfinns place and kirk were at The Palace. Pronounciation of place names is important with OIC officials being particularly remiss eg Crowness is really Crowenis Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Charles Tait wrote: > Obviously access by boats is a possibility but I think Thorfinns place and kirk > were at The Palace. > > Pronounciation of place names is important... What would you say is the current pronunciation of The Palace, Charles? Hugh Marwick in "The Place-Names of Birsay" refers to it several times as "The Place". Is that how it's pronounced nowadays? I think I've only heard it pronounced as The Palace, and I seem to remember that's how the Comloquoys at the Palace Farm pronounced it when we stayed there years ago. Maybe that was just because they were talking to visitors and being extra polite or posh, though. Norman Tulloch

Norman Tulloch wrote: > Charles Tait wrote: > > >> Obviously access by boats is a possibility but I think Thorfinns place and kirk >> were at The Palace. >> >> Pronounciation of place names is important... >> > > What would you say is the current pronunciation of The Palace, Charles? > > Hugh Marwick in "The Place-Names of Birsay" refers to it several times > as "The Place". Is that how it's pronounced nowadays? I think I've only > heard it pronounced as The Palace, and I seem to remember that's how the > Comloquoys at the Palace Farm pronounced it when we stayed there years > ago. Maybe that was just because they were talking to visitors and being > extra polite or posh, though. As a peedie boy in Stromness we spent our holidays at Chocolate Cottage in Birsay, where the bird carver man is now. The village near the beach was always known as The Place but the ruins were always the Palace. Sweets were still rationed in those days. My brother Ken and I used to walk to the village to get our ration. The man behind the counter (Spence?) had very poor eyesight and used to hold our ration books very close to his face to help him see to cut out the correct coupons. He would ask us our names, although he knew us and our parents perfectly well. We would tell him. His reply never varied - "Good God Almighty! What names to go to bed with!" :-) As I grew up and became a member of the Stromness Boys' Brigade, our summer camp would often be on the Links at Birsay. I caught my first trout in the Boardhouse Burn just above the bridge there, in among the seggies (yellow irises). Alongside me here on my desk is a scallop shell overflowing with "grottie buckie" (cowrie) shells collected over the years from the beach at the Point of Buckquoy at the landward end of the causeway that crosses to the Brough. Incidentally, the bacon rolls and tea sold from the van in the car park there are worth trying - excellent value. Happy memories of Birsay. -- Mike Clouston