This work is framed in a lime-waxed light wood frame.

'Reached by Vallay Strand (a vast expanse of sand) at low tide: very small old graveyard and some evidence of early settlement... Vallay is still redolent of Edwardian laird’s life. Island house: built by Erskine Beveridge linen mill owner from Kirkcaldy – with its farm buildings, farm manager’s house, farm workers’ houses still remaining in ruined state, but steady unrelenting decay. I see clear evidence of this since my last visit. Vallay must have been a wonderful place to live on as a child – a self-contained island idyll for any laird or worker’s young child. For me, born and brought up in Kirkcaldy, not far from the ‘Beveridge’ (public) park – this was a interesting and intriguing piece of historical and local connection that I only became aware of when I went to live in North Uist as the art teacher there.'
Journal entry, Vallay, 1998