Dunnett Related Places to Visit in Europe

Malta and Gozo

First set of photographs kindly supplied by Monica Murray, who also chose the quotations from The Disorderly Knights before each of the following galleries.

 

'On the left tongue was Birgu, the fishing village the knights had made convent and home of the Order, with fort St Angelo at its tip.'

'…tall, elegant houses, face to face in a network of alleys… between the splendour of grille-work and portico shrine and balcony…'

'Then the Auberges, Inns of the Eight Langues…'

 

'Then he left, and walked down through the sloping town square to…the steps…leading to the Order’s Church of St Lawrence.'

 

'M’dina, isolated on three sides by a sheer drop and on the fourth by a ditch…' '…in the thick-walled little city, with its five hundred square yards of quiet passages, of high walls and crested gateways….'

'All day, ortas of robed Janissaries, akinjis, azabs, had been taking position….'

In all that crazy, sun-beaten journey they had met no one…Scrambling over the great stony ridges and down the valleys hatched with terracing…Then he was here at Marfa, on the grey grass and the tired grey sand above the northernmost beach, where the pitted yellow-grey sandstone ran out under the water…

 

'High on its acropolis above the capital Rabat, the Gran’Castello, her lover’s citadel, guarded the centre of gozo, a three-mile span of sharp hills and patchwork plains..'

'From the battlements of the citadel, her back to the square and the church, Oonagh O’Dwyer stood and watched Rabat become Turkish.'

'She who had been the swiftest rider in Ireland…ran from door to door, from lane to lane, from hide to hide until, with screaming thick in her ears, she came to the well, the archway, the quick turn which lead to the narrow steps to the battlements.'

'From the Governor’s castle…this balcony, overlooking the cathedral and square, was empty '

 

I've been to Malta myself but it was at Christmas and the weather turned stormy after two days, so I didn't get around as much as I'd have liked and the light wasn't great for photography most of the time, but here are a few general views to give some flavour of the place. I really must try to get back at a better time of year.