Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has long had his home on the island of Hoy. It has been a source of inspiration to him as a composer, and he in turn has made a huge contribution to the musical life of Orkney and Scotland. He is Composer-laureate to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. This lyric is from his cycle of Songs of Hoy, written for performance by the island children.

From Songs ofHoy

The sunsets at the Kame are the brightest you'll see,
The light of the dawn is a joy —
But you hardly ever notice when your home is there.

 

The breakers are the wildest of any rough sea,
And stern is the cliff-face of Hoy —

But for these things we have very little time to spare.

You don't so often get to climb up the Ward Hill,
Or pick mussels where the burn joins the bay,
But it's good to think that, when you want,
you know you can —

That these hills and the burn will belong to us still,
And our children also, one day,

Like the islanders whose home was here since time began.

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Award-winning Whisky Writer