Weekend in Evie

As a pre-Birthday treat we stayed in Evie, on Mainland Orkney, for the weekend. We stayed at the Lodge at Eviedale Bakery. I had been drooling over the baked goods on Instagram for some time, and would finally get a taste for myself!

The Lodge is dog-friendly, so we took Mungo with us. He loves looking out of the window on the plane - I always wonder what his wee brain makes of it all!

On the Friday night we had their take-away sourdough pizzas, which had a crust to die for.

The next day we enjoyed freshly made croissants and cruffins. I can’t get over the amazing-ness that is the cruffin, which uses croissant dough in a muffin mould, and is then stuffed with creme patisserie and given a doughnut-like coating of sugar. Oh my! I have been craving more ever since.

We then made our way to the Falconry at Skaill House, where we were treated to a meet and greet with some beautiful birds of prey, including Odin the eagle owl and Skara the Australian babook owl. I had spotted a photo of Skara on social media before Christmas and had fallen in love with this tiny owl, so it was amazing to meet her in real life! The falconry is tun by Andrea & Keith, who were so knowledgable and friendly, and clearly loved their birds. I hope we can go back in the summer so we can see the birds fly.

On our way back we stopped at the Brough of Birsay for a very windswept walk, before stopping at Birsay Bay Tearoom for lunch. We also popped in to Birsay Books, a quaint wee bookshop filled with rare and second hand books.

The following morning we enjoyed a snowy walk down to Evie sands, which I had read so much about in Swimming with Seals before we even knew we would move to Orkney, before flying home.