Our self catering apartment in Palace, Orkney is the ground floor of our home, The Old Manse. In the 1970's the building was faced with grey harling which typical of that period in Orkney. We have now replaced this with a lime-plaster covering, more typical of 18th century Scottish buildings. An earlier Blog posted in October 2018 shows the building work in progress.
Our Old Manse was built in 1761 as home for ministers of the adjacent St Magnus Church, Birsay. The current church building dates from 1760 and is built on a site that has been in continuous use as a place of worship for over 900 years; a site that was the original burial place of St Magnus, the patron saint of Orkney. The first minister to take up residence in what became known as the Old Manse, was George Low. He is more well known as a natural historian and author of A Tour through the North Isles in 1778.
We look forward to meeting guests in 2019. We will be particulaly interested to hear the views of returning guests on the Annie's Place facelift: the photos below give you a preview of what to expect! For comparison I have also added photos of the work as it was being undertaken.
We aim to give you a warm and helpful welcome to Annie's Place
We will be adding our usual Flower Pots to brighten our welcome once the Spring weather returns!
The Facelift in Progress : from 1970's grey harling to original 1760's yellow sandstone. We were required to cover the sandstone with golden lime-plaster in order to provide full protection to the property; we are directly exposed to the shoreline of Birsay Bay!
