Lying quietly in Scapa Flow is a flat piece of old red sandstone with no soil, but somewhere which continues to be an appealing place for seals. It was called Carlin Skerry until an annual transaction led to a change of name. Residents of Orphir, to the north on Mainland Orkney, paid rent in the form of a barrel of butter in return for the rights to hunt seals there. The name of the islet lengthened to become just that, The Barrel of Butter. The lighthouse was built in 1853 and was once mistaken by the Royal Navy as something more sinister - the conning tower of an enemy submarine. It was shelled ... and survived.
Scottish Islands Explorer - the name of the title is unchanged
Digital Edition: trades under the same banner
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