Hi, hope all good. I was absolutely delighted to realise a lifetime's ambition by visiting Mousa broch during a recent trip to the Shetland Isles.
Mousa Broch is the best preserved Iron Age tower in existence. Visitors can still climb the staircase to marvel at the commanding view and workmanship of this 2000 year-old building.
Music is an arrangement of the classic pipe tune or piobaireachd 'An Daorach Bheag' (The Wee Spree) arranged and performed by myself (including vocals) from my album 'The Last King Of Pictland', which is available to stream and download at all online music sites.
Standing over 13.3 metres (44 ft) high on the now uninhabited isle of Mousa, the broch is still over 95 per cent complete - unlike all other brochs in Scotland where most of the original stonework has been removed over the years for reuse in other buildings and drystane dikes. Mousa broch features in a couple of the old Norse Sagas as a place of captivity and hiding, and in comparatively more recent times as the secret store for smugglers.
The island of Mousa is now an RSPB Nature Reserve and home to many breeding wildlife colonies of seals and birds. Through spring and summer, Mousa hums with populations, such as Black Guillemots and Arctic Terns, Harbour Seals, Great Skuas, Snipe, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Dunlin.
The RSPB have been studying Storm Petrels, Arctic Terns and Arctic and Great Skuas on Mousa since the early 1980s. Today, they also monitor Red-throated Divers, waders, Shags and Harbour and Grey Seals. Sheep and Shetland ponies also live on the island.
Big shout out to everyone at Mousa Boat Tours which sail from historic Sandsayre pier with trips operates daily (except Saturday) from late April to September. Sailings are all dependent on weather, so please check their website in advance. (https://www.mousa.co.uk/)
I hope you enjoy the music and video. Slainte Mhor!
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