Beautiful Pierowall
Pierowall is Old Norse for ‘Small Bay’. We seem to have forgotten that in modern times so Pierowall Bay means Small Bay …
45 degrees. No, that’s not the temperature in Fahrenheit. It’s the angle at which people have to walk in this wind just to keep upright in Orkney. If there’s ever a still day, there must be people falling over all over the Islands, with nothing to keep them upright. → 3 July, 2016
Shelter
I’ve spent two entire days of my life crawling up the seashore measuring the height and diameter of limpets. The conclusion? Limpets …
Orkney Ferries
On board.
928 tonnes
The MV Varagen was built in Selby in 1989 and weighs 928 tonnes unladen. I’m currently thanking Archimedes that it floats.
Fragile and immortal
The Italian Chapel on Orkney’s tiny island of Lamb Holm is so fragile. These are not bricks; this is not plaster; those …
The words in his pocket
Oh let men, overcoming individual and national egoisms, recognise themselves as brothers, may they refrain from discord, may they love and help one another…
1944
Orkney’s Italian Chapel was completed in 1944. Stonemason Domenico Buttapasta laid cut and polished stones in Roman numerals to celebrate its completion. …
The Earl’s Palace, Birsay
The Earl’s Palace in Birsay was built between 1569 and 1579 by Robert Stewart, the illegitimate son of King James V of …
These boots were made for walking
A rock arch on Westray, at Backarass.
Beware of Bull
Beware of Bull? That’s strange. I didn’t see any politicians on the way here.
Rock pool
Westray is full of wonderful rock pools. There are over 1,000 species of Sea Anemone on Earth. This looks like Actinia equina. …
The Italian Chapel – book launch in Moena
We are in Moena in northern Italy at the book launch for La Chiesetta Della Pace – Orkney’s Italian Chapel by Philip …
Making a mark
Coriolano ‘Gino’ Caprara and Roberto Pendini were Italian prisoners of war in Orkney. They helped build the Churchill Barriers which created causeways …
900,000 tons of concrete and rock
Roberto Pendini was held prisoner on the Orkney island of Lamb Holm during the Second World War and worked as part of …
The Miracle of Camp 34
I’m spending time with Coriolano ‘Gino’ Caparara. He’s now 96 and as smart and as funny as he ever was. He talks about his experiences as a prisoner of war held by the British in Orkney as if they were yesterday when “I learned English 70 years ago,” he says “And I never get chance use it.”
Bistort
Bistort in flower in the garden at Einar.
Wheeling Steen
It’s a thrill to fly over Westray and see everything from a completely new perspective. I recognise the Wheeling Steen gallery below.
Water and ceilings
I think the rain may have been getting in, don’t you?
Trivia – where three roads meet
The scientific name of the beautiful Groatie Buckie is Trivia arctica. Its name comes from the Latin trivia, the plural of trivium …
Limpets on the edge
These three limpets are living on the edge. Their shells have been buffeted and battered so much by stones carried by the …
Pebbles, Cobbles and Boulders
I’ve always loved the Westray beach with “The really big pebbles.” I recently discovered that a pebble can’t be any bigger than 64 mm. I think this one must count as a cobble.
Majestic Fulmar
Fulmars historically bred on the isolated island of St. Kilda. They spread into northern Scotland in the 19th century, and to the …
Drip drip drip
If you ever feel as if what you do makes no difference, as if you’re up against overwhelming odds or pushing against …
Lord Kitchener wants you
I’m standing at the base of the Kitchener Memorial in Birsay on the mainland of Orkney. It’s a beautiful crenelated stone tower …
Green hair
This limpet has the best hair colour – a green fringe of seaweed. Beautiful.
I can also see a ghostly space among the barnacles where a companion limpet used to be. Limpets live 10 to 20 years. That one has gone to its watery grave.
Jackson Pollock
The sea spray at Grobust has an abstract expressionist moment, frozen at 1/1,600th of a second.