NH noob with fancy tartan weaving ambition

[Jock Scot]

Um, just out of the box, you're WAY ahead of most of us, including probably some who've never left a home village in the Orkney Islands!!!!!!!!

Steady on there! I think, you hugely mis-judge the Orkney Islands and their inhabitants and they will not thank you for your snide comment. Go there, its easy to do so, and you will certainly see ancient history at numerous sites, but you will see some of the best farmers, particularly stock farmers, in action on some of the best managed grassland that can be found anywhere in the world. You should go, its not all ruined crofts and tumble-down buildings apart from the abandoned military installations that are scattered about, far from it in fact and you will find that many Orcadians are well travelled and are very well informed.