The Orkney Image Library
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Buckle's Too'er really. A Tom Kent picture, date unknown. I'm not sure if the man in the foreground is the eponymous builder Mr Buckle, but my understanding is that the tower was built by a shepherd who added a few stones each day on his rounds. The Old Firth School can be seen in the background at the far side of the Ouse.
You can still Buckle's Tooer as you come along the main Kirkwall Stromness road, most easily by looking along the side of the Hill of Heddle as you come past the the Dounby road end on your way to Finstown.
Picture added on 20 May 2005
I used to be Home Help many years ago to a Kirkpatrick man who's mother had married Mr Buckle when he was a peedie boy. The Buckle man told him that he had built the tower when he, himself, was a Herdy boy to pass the time. It originally had steps to the top but he had nearly fallen off it himself so he decided to knock the steps off so nobody else would come a cropper.
Added by Barbara West on 17 June 2007
My father, the Orkney historian Dr Ray Fereday, climbed up William Buckle's tower to stand on the top in about 1971. He is now 84 but remembers that he had great difficulty getting down again.
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Added by Catherine Fereday Eshete on 21 December 2015
Stronsay
