Stepping into the main buidling at Kirbuster Farm Museum is indeed like stepping into the past. It was inhabited up to the 1960s and opened as a museum in 1986 – the last unrestored ‘firehoose’ in Northen Europe.

We had wondered whether to visit this museum but it turned out to be extremely interesting. The guide was a lovely, chatty woman. We were the only people visiting at the time so she may have been lonely.

Main bedroom:-

Sitting room:-

The harmonium in the sitting room reminded me of the one in my great uncle’s house (he was a piano/music teacher and church organist):-

Wall mounted alarm clock:-

Box-bed in kitchen:-

Cruisie lamp:-

There was another building which contained loads of old farm equipment. Some of their uses were a bit mysterious:-

Part of the central portion of Orkney’s mainland is known by the name of Harray.

On the way up to Kirbuster Farm Museum we passed a local ceramic artist’s workshop and retail premises. The business’s name is obviously playing on a more widely known enterprise.

On the way back to Stromness from Birsay we took a slight detour and passed Kirbuster Farm Museum. It being latish we saved a visit for a day or so later.

It’s one of the few attractions on Orkney’s mainland that isn’t a neolithic ruin. It’s a now disused farm in which two brothers had lived out their lives without modernising the place to 20^th century standards.

The first thing you come across is an old kiln:-

Further on is the farm building:-

To the side is a path to the garden leading through this lovely swan necked arch:-

The garden is sheltered and so can harbour trees; a rare sight on Orkney:-

At the bottom of the garden is a burn going under a bridge whcih carries the main road past the farm:-