ON PENTLAND FIRTH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 64, 13 February 1936, Page 11

ON PENTLAND FIRTH.

JOHN O’ GROAT’S IN WINTER. WHERE THE GRAND FLEET ANCHORED. A correspondent of the London Times writes: Few who know the name John o’ Groat’s can be familiar with its origin. John o’ Groat’s house stood on the shore of the Pentland Firth, looking northward across the firth to Orkney. Of the house not a trace now remains. The traditional story of the country is that Malcolm, Gavin and John de Groat arrived here from Holland in the reign of James IV of Scotland. They purchased the Lands of Duncansbay—the bold promontory of Duncansbny Head is believed to be the Virvedrum of Ptolemy—and commemorated their arrival by an annual festive meeting. The property in time was apparently divided among eight families .of the same name, and that there should be no quarrels 'about precedence John built an octagonal bouse with eight doors. That house has long gone: the name remains.

It was from Huna—a mile west of John o’ Groat’s —that the mail-boat with the Orkney bags crossed the firth thrice weekly a- century ago, and a passenger in the mail-boat paid only Is for the crossing of 12 miles. Orkney now receives her mails daily from Inverness bv aeroplane. At John o’ Groat’s in winter the grasses on the wide flat areas of peaty ground have turned to gold and the flowers of the heather are dried and colourless. The west wind each day sweeps across land and sea, and after a night of storm the long waves of the Atlantic move in with ponderous might through the waters of the firth. BIRDS OF PASSAGE. Tlie streams of the tide turn, wave and current contend mightilv, and the surface of the firth is white with foam. Yellow spume is tossed on the wind as high 'as the highest Stack of Duncansbay, the haunt of innumerable seafowl and formerly the eagle’s home.

The fulmar petrel nests here, and each day—indeed each hour —gannets pass through the firth on passage from their fishing grounds to their ocean rocks. In December birds of passage cross the Pentland Firth on their migration south and settle mi its shores to recover their strength. AVlutewinged snow buntings flit low over the land. They have travelled far — from North Greenland perhaps—and move southward along the coast in easy stages, travelling east by Aberdeen, Fife and Edinburgh to the Nortbumberl'and. coast._ They may pass Edinburgh oil a night when the castle is flood-lit and make for this strange warm glow on the horizon and alight on the grassy .terraces of the castle, where scores of birds of various species rest in tlie light and warmth of the ■electric lamps. Other bird visitors cross the Pentland. Firth. AVoodcoek from Scandinavia, Jack snipe from Lapland,-turn-stones, godwi.ts.and purple sandpipers, barnacle greyleg and pink-footed geese, all fly south, at varying heights and speeds, to escape the Arctic winter. On a day of storm and* darkness the little stormy petrel skims the waves of the firth, a fragile-looking bird no larger than a swallow and with a swallow’s buoyant and careless flight. Alanv ships pass through the Pentland Firth, and in fog the strong tidal streams are formidable enemies to ships. A trawler on her maiden voyage was recently wrecked here, and last summer a Swedish cargo steamei on passage from an Atlantic port was also lost. But during the AVar these tidal currents were our friends, for in then sheltev the Grand Fleet anchored secure in Scapa Flow.