Monday 25 July

A nice day with high cloud and some reasonable temperatures; we managed 16C / 60F this afternoon. It is enormously busy with visitors at the moment, as shown by the multitude of languages overheard in the supermarket. There were quite a few boats coming in and out of the port, with a large cruiseliner passing on the horizon. It is high summer, in spite of the moderate temperatures. Last night's excitement with the ferry ended when our poor boat chugged into port at 5 am this morning. Only to go out just two hours later. I'm just finishing processing the pictures of previously unnoticed war-related gravestones that I found in Sandwick Cemetery yesterday. I went down twice, as I discovered from old notes that I had overlooked 5 gravestones. Only one I was unable to find, as I had apparently recorded its position incorrectly. I also found a walled enclosure belonging to a family called Ryrie. It had a gate, but the gate had rusted shut. Tomorrow, I'll look into their history and post it on the Pentland Road blog.