Hollingworth Lake

Jean M Mills, Isle of Scalpay

It wasn’t made for us to play or people on their holiday,
For boatmen gliding, winged with sails or rowers leaving rippling trails.
‘Twas not designed for steamboat rides and dancing at the waterside,
Eating, drinking, picnicking and every sort of thing that people do at ‘t lake.

Its purpose was more practical, more businesslike and technical,
To gather water from the hills, not for drinking or for ’t mills
But just to keep our lives afloat supplying water for the boats
That carried precious goods away when ‘t canal became a great highway
and brought the vital goods to all.

But such a gradely sheet of wet was bound to bring and beget
The flights and sails of watery sport, thus to create the Weighver’s Port,
And so along the bonny shore was music, picnics, ducks galore
And entertainment like the sea –side
‘twas like the sea without the tide and fun for all.

Down through the busy changeful years we’ve come and recreated here,
We’ve walked the paths and roamed the lanes,
we’ve come on foot, on buses and trains.
We’re noisy, crowding, having fun, in spite of that when all is done
We love the other quieter features
We share with other creatures and keep their home peace.