The last five days have changed my life.
I was offered four days work in Orkney and stayed an extra day at my own expense to see some of the main island (known as the Mainland). On the first day I despised the place: ugly, featureless, windswept, barren and treeless I felt it had nothing to [...]
Working in Orkney for a week, the conversation turns to whisky. My colleague tells me I should visit the Highland Park distillery. She say’s it’s well worth a trip. Another colleague tells me Highland Park is good, but Scapa’s better, causing a debate to rage where for some reason everyone seems to agree: Highland Park [...]
I’m in Orkney working for a week.
“Did you walk past the PDC?”
My questioner is earnest. She is really interested in my answer. She wants to know which way I walked to work this morning. “Did you walk past the PDC?” What’s the PDC I wonder.
PDC? “Sorry”, I say.
“The PDC, did you walk past the PDC?” [...]
Red MacGregor. It’s a name to conjure with. An elusive beer, rumoured to exist in the keg. Tonight I aimed to find a pint.
It’s the evening of a major European night of football. At least it is if you’re in England. I’m not. I’m in Orkney. I’ve an evening to spend and rather than nursing a [...]
There are no pubs in Kirkwall, only hotels with restaurants and bars.
It is the morning, and I’m getting ready for my first day’s work in Orkney, the first of four days. I pop my head into the bar of my hotel and ask the young barman whether they have any real ales. He says they [...]
