Halla Glas - The Green Hall.
 |
| Halla Glas - before refurbishment |
The Halla Glas might look like a land-based version of the Mary Celeste as it haughtily stands overlooking the south harbour; a shell of a being with it eyes poked out; a sad looking creature crying out from its unseeing eyes for its missing children; a veritable wreck of a building with its gas lighting still in place, some bench seats scattered about as if in a storm, holes in the hugely rusty, corrugated metal clad roof, mice scrabbling about for whatever morsels have been left by the mysteriously missing crew.
 |
| Mary Celeste at the time of her discovery - sails removed |
 |
| Halla Glas - roofing panels removed |
 |
| 1861 painting of the Amazon later renamed the Mary Celeste |
The Halla Glas, a faintly green coloured building, known as the Green Hall to those without the Irish, has history. It was originally a farmhouse with a thatched roof and appears on maps dating back hundreds of years. In recent times it was used by the island community as a library, a school, a judo hall, a dance hall and God alone only knows what else.
It is also used every year by the swallows returning from South Africa. A small flock of them spend the season from April to September flying in and out of the holes which pass for windows. We look forward to seeing them each year and welcome them as they reduce the level of flying insects which prey on us poor gardeners. We always take time to sit and marvel at their flight and at their conversations when they twitter to each other high up on the power lines - what will they do next year when the newly installed windows bar their way to their usual home?
