Interesting Tuck. Kewl place to stay you chose. good on ya! Some of the land near the stones was old Isbister property. I have a Davie/ Isbister relative who's old stone house overlooks that area and indeed it is beautiful near there and must have been for you, a great place to stay. Not too far from the hotel or to town for that matter, but still very natural and rural. I had dinner one night there with a lovely red headed lady from the USA in the stones hotel. Twas funny. The new english owners, were having pain because of a handful of largely drunk young men out doing the warmup for the blackening thing. Boy, the young proprietor's wife was somewhat stressed, yet the wee celebrants were not aggressive or threatening towards anyone. Just drunk. I guessed that they were at the Standing Stones hotel, standing stoned and well, so it all made perfect sense to me. The place I found and loved, belonged to an aging fellow who knew one of my last relatives who lived there. He lived alongside some new wave baronial wannabe from London who made his last years uncomfortable to miserable some days, so rather than sell out to the guy, he simply canvassed the idea of selling to us. My countless cousins here and in the USA were not organized to make the move, and it became clear that the legal control affecting renovations with additions, is something that bathes in bureaucracy like an otter bathes in water. Just to develop a plan and budget requires a lot of time and gabbing with officials. MOre hurdles than a steeplechase event. While the protectionism is to be applauded, there still seems some obvious mysteries involving the new houses there to some extent, and the location of some of them. Frankly, the old stone croft dwellings have a lot of appeal to me, whereas some of the new rectangular box, sheeting and parging look houses without the old slate roof, equates to some of the vinyl and aluminum hasty-house tragedies in this country. After all that "planning" some of the results surly sway far from the integrity of the traditional. We had some stone masons in the family over there, which I thought was interesting or unique, until I figured out that due to the time to build with stone, before the day of the electric socket, power mixers and hydraulics, masonry was a time consuming tedious pursuit which involved the only readily available building material. Stone. I visited a thing called Davie's Brig near Finstown, with a reporter from the paper there. Twas a fine example of what patience and a trowel with a very strong back can achieve. I do not know how old that bridge is, but I suppose it is very elderly for sure. Yet it is sound, like so much of the old stonework. (ie St. Magnus Cathedral) In our case, the Hudson's Bay Company stripped our young men from the Isles there, from three and four successive generations. Thus our name has been stricken from the phone book there. Relatives who have visited there in the fifties through nineties, all sorta say..."nice" and return with a picture and a bottle of scotch or some jewelry. However in the current generation, our own wing of the family is over 150 strong, and there is a keen interest to find a place there to camp. But the approach has changed, which new approach is supported by this global meltdown. So this time around, tis better to line up the partners first, and when the funds are in the bag, then go shopping. I thing that the next decade will give opportunity anew to people wanting to invest in property virtually anywhere in the world. A self styled syndicated little "time share" operation is one way. The other is to buy and fund and staff a b and b for members only, who would own a place which would be available at an amazing rate for owners, but at regular rates for others when the family was absent. It would be good employment for a couple, properly designed. An old and very wise business man once told a friend of mine, that insofar as real estate is concerned, "ownership equals responsibility." We found that even with properties in south Florida, and once in Costa Rica, without a solid management plan, the bloom is soon to fall off the rose, and your practical suggestion Tuck, of renting, falls into play for all the right reasons. At this time, from California to Panama, properties are offered at steadily reducing prices, and to buy without knowing better what the economy in the world will do, is to walk on thin spring ice. When I asked a friend of mine wintering in Mexico if he would buy near Progreso/ Merida where he was enjoying himself this winter, the virtually accomplished old developer said..."why buy, there is no up?" He paid fifty dollars a day for four thousand square feet of luxury on the beach, with two boats, and a house full of hot and cold running wonderful mexican staff to cook, adjust the pool settings, and to take him fishing. A hurricane in the off season will not be his responsibility or concern. A falling...or plunging market is a sad thing indeed. Strips away the positive feelings of younger people, and depresses the older ones. But in the case of Orkney it may well give a few local kids a chance to buy a home there, at prices not affected by the "invasion" of outside money. Where I live here, prices are as sure to drop, as are Bill Clinton's britches. So everyone is just scaling down for the long haul back. Underline long. We now think that maybe buy the land and sit, and think and plan the structure, and then build an old new orkney place from scratch, not snatching away an existing home from some young Orcadian couple, but building additional tax revenue, and supplying some jobs in the process. The green construction techniques are appealing, right down to the mini windmills, infloor heat, and dc lighting and solar panels. So that is where it ended. Wye or Finstown...but near the water, with enough land for a highland cow or two, and some chickens and maybe an alpaca. In truth, a person would be better to build a day care facility with accommodation and leave something there to be utilized in absence, in a way that benefits the place. Or an indoor pool and spa with a unit or two. But as was suggested by our friend from Lethbridge, we's have to bust out of the life of generalities to do something that astute. Tuck, my memory flashes back to somebody that was indeed an architect on this "chat and spat" expat site. Indeed I see you are a sculptor. Wow. I am visiting a sculptor in Santiago de Cuba the end of next month. Did you see the Haida pole that is installed in Orkney? Take care on this rainy windy spring "stay indoors" day. Stephen (Kol) Davie On Mar 29, 2009, at 12:14 AM, Tuck Langland wrote: > Stephen, Robert, et al, > > My wife and I once spotted a wonderful little stone house with stone > flag roof, right down near Scapa flow in Orphir, and thought it would > make a grand place to own, but on a later trip we went to look at it > and it was gone, torn down and replaced with a huge house being built > by a guy who owns a disco or something in Kirkwall. Sad, but it would > have taken so long and so much money and so much time spent there to > make it habitable it was totally impractical for someone like me, with > a career here, to be away that much and spend that much. But we did > enjoy "planning" it in our heads, where the AGA would go, things like > that. > > However, a house all ready to move into, paid for by about 8 people > would be a different story. But then all 8 would be fighting for prime > time in it, like the St. Magnus festival and so on, and no one would > want it in February, so it would stand idle a lot. > > In the end, simply renting a self catering place is cheaper and > easier, and then you don't feel pressured to go there every trip. We > have rented Odin, the house with the red roof just beside the Stones > of Stenness, three times now, and find it perfect. It overlooks the > Loch, which is just a few feet from the front room, it has a beautiful > front glassed in porch, a great living room with a fire, a wonderful > kitchen complete with all mod cons, including a fan oven, plenty of > cooking gear, nice wine glasses and so on, and sleeps 6, with 5 > bathrooms for the six, so no one need stand dancing in the hall of a > morning. At somewhere around 500 pounds a week you are a whole lot of > money ahead in the long run - and the short one for that matter. > > But if someone comes up with a good bargain and a list of folks who > want in, spread the word and there may just be interest anyway. > > > Tuck, > > Sculptor, > retired professor of Sculpture Indiana University South Bend. > South Bend, Indiana > On Mar 28, 2009, at 8:44 PM, Robert Sutherland wrote: >

Stephen et al, A further word about Odin. This is a quite remarkable house. There is a drive leading to the road, a drive about 50 yards long. It opens onto the road running between the Lochs of Harray and Stenness, the one that runs alongside the Ring of Brogar (or Brodgar). At the end of this drive, on the opposite side of the road, is the Watch Stone, about a 14 foot tall neolithic megalith. It apparently lines up somehow with Maes Howe and the Unstan Tomb across the water. In the back garden of the house is Barnhouse Village, an excavated and restored neolithic settlement. In the next field are the Standing Stones, with Maes Howe not far behind them. And down the road a quarter mile is Brodgar. (or Brogdar - I can't seem to find unanimity on the spelling.) My feeling is that this spot on which the house is built was the spiritual and probably political center of prehistoric Orkney. If the land were empty and someone wanted to build there today there is no way in hell permission wold be given. Further, the house is built from timbers, stairs, cabinets etc. of the old Mauritania. It has two en-suite double bedrooms, plus, upstairs, two single bed rooms, both en-suite, and one further bath downstairs just for fun. And out back, next to the loch, is a bird hide. Arctic terns nest on a tiny point just outside the sitting room windows, swans grace the Loch, and we counted some 25 or so species of birds seen from house windows. And it is walking distance to the Standing Stones Hotel, (you can see it from the front porch) which means a nice meal out with no worries of driving afterwards. Once, years before, we rented Braeside, near Twatt, next to Little Canada, overlooking Boardhouse Loch. This was less convenient since there was only one multi-purpose bath room, and we had about 8 people there, so there was, indeed, dancing in the streets, but it had a Rayburn, plus a regular cooker, and a nice fire in the sitting room. Stephen, you raise a very good point when speaking of we, as outsiders, taking a perfectly good house at bargain prices from perhaps a local couple who could well use it, putting it to better use than an occasional holiday cottage. Better, I feel, is renting, putting money into the Orkney economy, while disturbing it less. And of course the other advantages play as well, such as not having to worry about deterioration, etc., and being money way way ahead in the short and long term. The only thing that makes me want to own a place is pure romance - this is my piece of Orkney. But what with taxes, and the many bureaucratic hoops one must jump through, it seems more and more out of the question. However, if any here are planning a trip and planning to rent a house sleeping several, a little communication might get others to join up, saving money for each, and ensuring a good time for all. Travel wise, we are sailing on the QM2 in late July to England and will spend time there, culminating in our joining a choral workshop to sing at Worcester, Gloucester, and Great Malvern. The following summer, however (2010), might be a time to consider a few weeks in Orkney. Tuck > Interesting Tuck. Kewl place to stay you chose. good on ya! Some of > the land near the stones was old Isbister property. I have a Davie/ > Isbister relative who's old stone house overlooks that area and > indeed it is beautiful near there and must have been for you, a > great place to stay. Not too far from the hotel or to town for that > matter, but still very natural and rural. I had dinner one night > there with a lovely red headed lady from the USA in the stones hotel. > Twas funny. The new english owners, were having pain because of a > handful of largely drunk young men out doing the warmup for the > blackening thing. Boy, the young proprietor's wife was somewhat > stressed, yet the wee celebrants were not aggressive or threatening > towards anyone. Just drunk. I guessed that they were at the Standing > Stones hotel, standing stoned and well, so it all made perfect sense > to me. > > > The place I found and loved, belonged to an aging fellow who knew one > of my last relatives who lived there. He lived alongside some new > wave baronial wannabe from London who made his last years > uncomfortable to miserable some days, so rather than sell out to the > guy, he simply canvassed the idea of selling to us. My countless > cousins here and in the USA were not organized to make the move, and > it became clear that the legal control affecting renovations with > additions, is something that bathes in bureaucracy like an otter > bathes in water. Just to develop a plan and budget requires a lot of > time and gabbing with officials. MOre hurdles than a steeplechase > event. While the protectionism is to be applauded, there still seems > some obvious mysteries involving the new houses there to some extent, > and the location of some of them. Frankly, the old stone croft > dwellings have a lot of appeal to me, whereas some of the new > rectangular box, sheeting and parging look houses without the old > slate roof, equates to some of the vinyl and aluminum hasty-house > tragedies in this country. After all that "planning" some of the > results surly sway far from the integrity of the traditional. > > We had some stone masons in the family over there, which I thought > was interesting or unique, until I figured out that due to the time > to build with stone, before the day of the electric socket, power > mixers and hydraulics, masonry was a time consuming tedious pursuit > which involved the only readily available building material. Stone. I > visited a thing called Davie's Brig near Finstown, with a reporter > from the paper there. Twas a fine example of what patience and a > trowel with a very strong back can achieve. I do not know how old > that bridge is, but I suppose it is very elderly for sure. Yet it is > sound, like so much of the old stonework. (ie St. Magnus Cathedral) > > In our case, the Hudson's Bay Company stripped our young men from the > Isles there, from three and four successive generations. Thus our > name has been stricken from the phone book there. Relatives who have > visited there in the fifties through nineties, all sorta say..."nice" > and return with a picture and a bottle of scotch or some jewelry. > However in the current generation, our own wing of the family is over > 150 strong, and there is a keen interest to find a place there to > camp. But the approach has changed, which new approach is supported > by this global meltdown. > > So this time around, tis better to line up the partners first, and > when the funds are in the bag, then go shopping. I thing that the > next decade will give opportunity anew to people wanting to invest in > property virtually anywhere in the world. A self styled syndicated > little "time share" operation is one way. The other is to buy and > fund and staff a b and b for members only, who would own a place > which would be available at an amazing rate for owners, but at > regular rates for others when the family was absent. It would be good > employment for a couple, properly designed. > > An old and very wise business man once told a friend of mine, that > insofar as real estate is concerned, "ownership equals > responsibility." We found that even with properties in south Florida, > and once in Costa Rica, without a solid management plan, the bloom is > soon to fall off the rose, and your practical suggestion Tuck, of > renting, falls into play for all the right reasons. At this time, > from California to Panama, properties are offered at steadily > reducing prices, and to buy without knowing better what the economy > in the world will do, is to walk on thin spring ice. When I asked a > friend of mine wintering in Mexico if he would buy near Progreso/ > Merida where he was enjoying himself this winter, the virtually > accomplished old developer said..."why buy, there is no up?" He paid > fifty dollars a day for four thousand square feet of luxury on the > beach, with two boats, and a house full of hot and cold running > wonderful mexican staff to cook, adjust the pool settings, and to > take him fishing. A hurricane in the off season will not be his > responsibility or concern. > > A falling...or plunging market is a sad thing indeed. Strips away the > positive feelings of younger people, and depresses the older ones. > But in the case of Orkney it may well give a few local kids a chance > to buy a home there, at prices not affected by the "invasion" of > outside money. Where I live here, prices are as sure to drop, as are > Bill Clinton's britches. So everyone is just scaling down for the > long haul back. Underline long. > > We now think that maybe buy the land and sit, and think and plan the > structure, and then build an old new orkney place from scratch, not > snatching away an existing home from some young Orcadian couple, but > building additional tax revenue, and supplying some jobs in the > process. The green construction techniques are appealing, right down > to the mini windmills, infloor heat, and dc lighting and solar > panels. So that is where it ended. Wye or Finstown...but near the > water, with enough land for a highland cow or two, and some chickens > and maybe an alpaca. In truth, a person would be better to build a > day care facility with accommodation and leave something there to be > utilized in absence, in a way that benefits the place. Or an indoor > pool and spa with a unit or two. But as was suggested by our friend > from Lethbridge, we's have to bust out of the life of generalities to > do something that astute. > > Tuck, my memory flashes back to somebody that was indeed an architect > on this "chat and spat" expat site. Indeed I see you are a sculptor. > Wow. I am visiting a sculptor in Santiago de Cuba the end of next > month. Did you see the Haida pole that is installed in Orkney? > > Take care on this rainy windy spring "stay indoors" day. > > Stephen (Kol) Davie > On Mar 29, 2009, at 12:14 AM, Tuck Langland wrote: > >> Stephen, Robert, et al, >> >> My wife and I once spotted a wonderful little stone house with stone >> flag roof, right down near Scapa flow in Orphir, and thought it would >> make a grand place to own, but on a later trip we went to look at it >> and it was gone, torn down and replaced with a huge house being built >> by a guy who owns a disco or something in Kirkwall. Sad, but it would >> have taken so long and so much money and so much time spent there to >> make it habitable it was totally impractical for someone like me, >> with >> a career here, to be away that much and spend that much. But we did >> enjoy "planning" it in our heads, where the AGA would go, things like >> that. >> >> However, a house all ready to move into, paid for by about 8 people >> would be a different story. But then all 8 would be fighting for >> prime >> time in it, like the St. Magnus festival and so on, and no one would >> want it in February, so it would stand idle a lot. >> >> In the end, simply renting a self catering place is cheaper and >> easier, and then you don't feel pressured to go there every trip. We >> have rented Odin, the house with the red roof just beside the Stones >> of Stenness, three times now, and find it perfect. It overlooks the >> Loch, which is just a few feet from the front room, it has a >> beautiful >> front glassed in porch, a great living room with a fire, a wonderful >> kitchen complete with all mod cons, including a fan oven, plenty of >> cooking gear, nice wine glasses and so on, and sleeps 6, with 5 >> bathrooms for the six, so no one need stand dancing in the hall of a >> morning. At somewhere around 500 pounds a week you are a whole lot of >> money ahead in the long run - and the short one for that matter. >> >> But if someone comes up with a good bargain and a list of folks who >> want in, spread the word and there may just be interest anyway. >> >> >> Tuck, >> >> Sculptor, >> retired professor of Sculpture Indiana University South Bend. >> South Bend, Indiana >> On Mar 28, 2009, at 8:44 PM, Robert Sutherland wrote: >> > _______________________________________ > Orcadia Group Photo Album > http://tinyurl.com/28bx9x > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ORCADIA-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message

Odin features as the June picture on Jane Glue's 2009 calendar: http://www.shorelinesgallery.com/Catalogue%20Page%202.pdf It's a pity that the illustration on that page is so small; it looks a great deal better on the actual calendar. The Odin website is here: http://www.odinorkney.com/ I couldn't see much point in a group North Americans buying a house in Orkney. There's no shortage of self-catering holiday accommodation, and it seems to me that transatlantic property management could be tricky. Who would arrange for the property to be cleaned, for council tax payments to be made and utility bills to be paid? Who would deal with an influx of rats or mice in a property that would apparently be empty for most of the year? Who would see that storm damage or burst water pipes were repaired? Some Orkney Mainland self-catering properties listed here: http://www.visitorkney.com/accommodation/accommodation_info.asp?type=Self&loc=Mainland Norman T.