Old and new
St Magnus Cathedral is slowly weathering away. Beautiful new carvings have been inserted to replace some of the most weathered parts. Their …
St Magnus Cathedral is slowly weathering away. Beautiful new carvings have been inserted to replace some of the most weathered parts. Their …
If you’re ever struggling to think of a present for a young child, buy them a bug pot and a magnifying glass. …
Have you ever wondered how Gannets manage to dive into the water at such incredible speeds and yet seem to survive without …
The inside of St Magnus Cathedral is just as fascinating as the outside, especially if you book yourself on one of the …
One of my favourite objects in the Orkney Museum is this neolithic pestle mace head. It makes me wonder just how fabulous …
It’s a beautiful blue sky; so blue we are tempted up to Noup Head along the rutted track and past the farm …
Swallows seem unearthly. Their flight is so elegant, so fast and so controlled they seem as if they inhabit a different world. …
I’ve been looking at too many early and unscientific maps of Orkney because as soon as I see this moss on a …
I love Tankerness House which houses the Orkney Museum. Here are a couple of views of the staircase.
One of the most remarkable features of current archaeology is just how much there is still to discover still lying a few …
A seal at Pierowall is wary of me and watches out of the corner of its eye.
It was great to meet Charles Tait, the author of The Peedie Orkney Guide Book: What to Do and See in Orkney …
The Twa Corbies is a favourite ballad of mine, so I’m delighted to see two Ravens on the cobble and pebble beach …
Washed up on the shore at the Bay of Skaill is this beautiful jellyfish.
The P&O cruise ship Arcadia in the Hatston terminal at Kirkwall in Orkney. The cruise visitors are a mixed blessing for the …
A classic Volkswagen Campervan at Yesnaby.
There’s a fluorescent green ring encircling the Earth tonight made by charged particles from a solar wind. As if the milky way …
What was this sculpture originally do you think?
Einar, or Torf-Einar as he is sometimes known, is celebrated in this wonderful stained glass window at St Magnus Cathedral.
She wishes she could find a starfish here; I go looking for one and find one. She thinks it’s because she wished for it; I think it’s because I looked for it.
Spotted a Green Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis at the Bay of Skaill.
A Hermit Crab emerges from its shell, pincers first; it’s just like me getting out of bed in the morning.
We’re sitting in the waiting room at Westray Airfield. I was tempted to say Airport rather than Airfield, but I’m not sure …
A ragged-tailed Fulmar is alive to every variation in the breeze as the sun sets at Noup Head.
Noup Head lighthouse on Westray reflected in a puddle of rain.
When the plane from Westray takes off I’m just over the wheels and I see us let go of our own shadow, …
The evening is idyllic. Sunshine, hail, rain and a double rainbow in just five minutes. The gusty wind means the Gannets are …
The wedding at St Magnus Cathedral had a beautiful vintage car and these wonderful flowers.