GEORGE  MACKAY  BROWN

Photo Gallery ~ Stromness Waterfront

Stromness – called by the Vikings Hamnavoe which means 
'haven inside the bay' – has a fine natural harbour, sheltered from the west 
by a steep hill called Brinkie's Brae and from the east by two little tidal islands, 
the Holms.

from  For the Islands I Sing
 © Estate of GMB 1997


GMB lived in Stromness all his life, with very few excursions outside Orkney.


Stromness with the St Ola at her mooring, the holms in the background

 


Hamnavoe's morning broke

On the salt and tar steps.  Herring boats,
Puffing red sails, the tillers
Of cold horizons, leaned
Down the gull-gaunt tide
from  Hamnavoe
Loaves and Fishes © GMB 1959

 


The kirk, in a gale of psalms, went heaving through
A tumult of roofs, freighted for heaven.

from  Hamnavoe
Loaves and Fishes © GMB 1959

 


He came back late
With a score of lobsters, sillocks like stars, a skate
As wide and bright as the moon

from  The Coward
Fishermen with Ploughs © GMB 1971

 


Stromness with Brinkie's Brae

What is Stromness but a tumbling stone wave, a network of closes,  a marvel of steps from the seaweed up to the granite of Brinkie's Brae . . . 

1.4.71
from Letters from Hamnavoe
© GMB 1975

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photographs © Sue Tordoff 2001

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