gmb website - photogallery Stromness town

The early town was built to no plan, and out of no aesthetic impulse,
but by some stroke of chance what emerged was, and remains, beautiful.
The houses on the upper side were built into the steep granite-studded hill;
on the seaward side they are built on stone piers that jut out into the harbour water. The Old Stromness is a ballad in stone.

from For the Islands I Sing
© Estate of GMB 1997

Mayburn Court where GMB lived on the first floor
from 1968 until his death in April 1996

14.3.85: the whole multitude of Council house tenants in Orkney must have got a shock one morning last week when they got notice of the new rent they will have to pay from April on. The rent for the house I live in is to go up from £12.77 a week to £16.44 !
After the war, the rents began to climb, but slowly, till in the autumn of 1968 it was still under £1 a week, and that was the rent I paid on moving to Mayburn Court. It was ridiculously cheap.

from Rockpools and Daffodils
© GMB 1992

Museum pier and noust, where GMB often sat to write his letters

The yard above the sea lay open to the sun, whenever it shone, from May to August. One could sit and drink wine and write letters among congregations of gulls, while three black cats came and lingered and went, softly.

from Rockpools and Daffodils
© GMB 1992

Stromness closes

My father passed with his penny letters
Through closes opening and shutting like legends

from Hamnavoe
Loaves and Fishes © GMB 1959