Orkney isn’t all about Neolithic and Viking heritage, we visited the Kirbuster Museum which is about far more recent times, it was a farm in the 19th century and was occupied and farmed by two brothers up until the 1960s. It was opened up as a farm museum in 1986 and it’s the last un-restored ‘firehoose’ in Northern Europe, with the fire being in the centre of the room. It certainly smells very peat smoky.
The bedroom in the photo below has a Victorian cot at the foot of the bed, the quilt in it is exactly the same as two that I have!
The living-room, or maybe they called it the parlour below is very typical of a Victorian one, complete with harmonium. I managed to capture a very sinister looking Jack in the mirror above the harmonium, complete with face mask on!
Below is a box-bed in a bed-recess which is in the kitchen. I suppose that the children probably slept in those, or maybe a servant/farmhand. The walls don’t look that different from how the Neolithic dwellings would have looked in their heyday.
You can see a cruisie lamp hanging from the wall.
And there’s a building full of old farm implements, we had fun trying to guess what some of them were for. We swithered about going to visit Kirbuster Museum but it turned out to be a very enjoyable visit, we had the whole place to ourselves, which was a shame really. I hope they get more visitors in the future. The guide was a lovely woman who was chatty and informative. I hope she had something to occupy her time as she was the only person there and it must be a lonely job!
